Tags
Alfred Dobbins, Dobbins, Edith Dobbins, estate, Moses Dobbins, slavery, Stewart County, Stewart County Georgia, will
For a while I’ve been trying to track down a record of the Dobbins family owning my great-great-great-grandparents Alfred and Rachel Dobbins. I’ve zeroed in on Moses W. Dobbins Jr. and also his father, Moses Dobbins Sr., who was an early rector of the University of Georgia.
I recently found a will of Edith Dobbins, the wife of Moses Sr., and thought it may hold some answers. It was dated Nov. 6, 1848, long before my great-great-grandmother Laura Dobbins was born (in 1861), so I was hoping to happen upon one or both of her parents, Alfred and Rachel, my third-great-grandparents, who were both born around 1825-1830.
Edith Dobbins’ list of goods and chattel listed seven slaves, so naturally my eyes were drawn there first. I found the following: one negro man Mallachi, one negro man Waler (?), one negro boy Frank, one negro woman Lucy and child, one negro woman Martha, one negro woman America, and one negro woman Lila (or Sila?)
So, no Alfred or Rachel, but eight other people. Who were they? What was their relation, if any, to my relatives? Then I had another thought– maybe Alfred and Rachel belonged to other members of Moses Dobbins’ family. Hmm…
