When family lines cross property lines

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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…

 

 

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Getting to know the Nances

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Davidson County Tennessee, genealogy, Henry Nance, Josiah Crenshaw Nance, Nance, Nashville, slavery, Tennessee, William Howe Nance

I’ve been getting to know the white Nances by reading The Nance Memorial. It’s a meaty read, and virtually itemizes the Nance family, a sprawling clan whose roots in the United States begin in Virginia and spread to Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Texas.

With my great-great-grandfather Henry Nance (c. 1835– 1926) being a Nashville native, of course, I was most interested in the Nances of Nashville, Tenn. According to my family’s oral history, he took the name of his owner; a while ago I had identified some possible slave owners using Tennessee tax records, which included a Josiah Nance of Davidson County, Tenn.

Reading The Nance Memorial, I scanned the text for anything that might lead to more information about Henry: Davidson County, negro, slave and Nashville. (Shout out to the find function in Google Books). I quickly zeroed in on a passage about William Howe Nance (1779-1837). He and his wife had 13 children, including a son named Josiah. This particular line jumped out at me:

“. . . when Josiah married in December 1829, he gave him 50 acres on the southeast corner of his land on which he settled and raised his family of 12 children and 15 negroes.”

I had two immediate thoughts:

1. William Howe Nance must have been a man of means to have had 50 acres to give to his son.*
2. This Josiah must be the same one I came across in the tax records, and these 15 negroes could have included one or both of my great-great-great-grandparents, William and Lula Nance. Or neither. The only way to confirm is with some sort of document– like an inventory, a receipt, a bill of sale, or a will, like the one I found listing my great-great-great grandmother Sallie Whitehurst. (NOTE: in 1829, my great-great-grandfather Henry Nance hadn’t been born yet).

This bit of context could be the clue I’ve needed to begin to piece together Henry Nance’s life in Tennessee.

 

*I was right. More on that later

 

Regarding Henry (Nance)

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Freedmen's Bureau, genealogy, Henry Nance, Reconstruction, slavery, Tennessee

Of the approximately 90 years my great-great-grandfather Henry Nance (born c. 1837 – 1926) spent on this Earth, I can only find remnants of the last third, the part he spent in Coffee County, Ala., as property owner– not owned property.  I’ve been spending time with records from the Freedmen’s Bureau to see if I can piece together Henry Nance’s life between 1865 and 1880– his own Reconstruction, so to speak.

The Freedmen’s Bureau was established as the Emancipation Proclamation was handed down, which flung millions of formerly those enslaved into this thing called freedom. The idea was that the Bureau would equip freedmen and freedwomen with the skills necessary to survive and thrive. The Bureau kept meticulous records– from labor contracts to medical information to criminal activity. For a person trying to learn more about a formerly enslaved ancestor– such as myself– the Freedmen’s Bureau records can potentially  reveal details of the lives of those slavery tried to erase.

I happened upon a record that may fill in some blanks. A Henry Nance of Tennessee is attached to a complaint of disorderly conduct dated Oct. 16, 1865. It’s not clear if this Henry Nance is the subject of the complaint or the complainant himself. It’s not even clear who this Henry Nance is exactly; there is no other identifying information on the record.

Entry 670 of this document from  the Freedmen’s Bureau shows a complaint connected to Henry Nance, a Tennessee resident. It’s not clear whether this Henry Nance was the subject of the complaint or the complainant.

Like other documents I’ve found, this raises more questions than it aenswers, and this one in particular has prompted a theory: What if this disorderly conduct charge was the reason Henry Nance fled Tennessee?

Who is he and what is he to you?

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Alfred Dobbins, Civil War, confederate veteran, Georgia, Moses Dobbins, slavery, Stewart County, Stewart County Georgia

Last week, I made a fascinating, but somber find. I happened upon the picture of this man, Moses W. Dobbins Jr., a Confederate veteran from Georgia.

Pause. But who is he, and what is he to you?

Evidence strongly suggests Moses. W. Dobbins Jr. owned my great-great-great-grandfather, Alfred Dobbins (born circa 1823).

This was a man who was a teacher at the University of Georgia before he moved to Stewart County, Ga. His father and namesake was an early rector of the school. Dobbins enlisted as a private in the 64th Regiment of the Georgia Infantry. After the Civil War, he returned to Stewart County, destitute. Ironically, he ended up living in the same houses of those he enslaved, including my great-great-great-grandfather.

Dobbins and his family later moved to a farm in Fulton County, Ga., where he spent the rest of this life.

Alfred Dobbins, however, remained in Stewart County. And that is where his progeny remained from the next 150 years.

“…one negro woman named Sarah…”

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Alabama, Barbour County, genealogy, slavery, slaves, Whitehurst family, wills

My cousin Renetta always told me I’d find enslaved ancestors in wills, “right there with the cows and the furniture.” She was right.

If you’re like me, and your ancestors were enslaved, then wills are often a treasured source of information. Remember, slavery meant people were property, so when a slaveowner died, his or her will included an inventory of property and detailed instructions of who got who what. It’s also life after death, if you will. (No pun intended… OK, it kind of was). Wills and estate papers often contain identifying information about slaves not found anywhere else such as names, ages and sometimes even family relationships.

Ancestry.com recently updated its database with wills and estate papers from several states, including Alabama, where my family roots run deep.I decided to look up the names of folks I thought might have owned my ancestors. I started with Whitehurst— since it’s such a distinct name — and happened upon the will of Levi Whitehurst of Barbour County, Ala., who died in 1853.

My grandma told me that she was born in Barbour County and that’s where her family was from. Census records supported that. My earliest known Whitehurst ancestor is my great-great-great-grandmother Sarah (Sallie) Whitehurst, who was born sometime around 1827. I knew from past research that she had lived in Barbour County for a while.

I scoured through pages and pages of Levi Whitehurst’s final wishes, deciphering the loops and swirls of his handwritten will to find any mention of a Sarah.

This page from Levi Whitehurst’s will, written in 1853, includes “one negro woman named Sarah.” I believe this Sarah is my great-great-great-grandmother, Sarah Whitehurst.

And there it was: ” …I give and bequeath unto my beloved daughter Mary Ann Whitehurst the following property: one negro woman named Sarah, Nancy a girl, one boy {illegible} and boy named Henry and one bed and one boy named Joe and one girl named Sarah Jane and furniture . . ”

A strong clue, yes, but not enough to confirm her identity. In my next post, I’ll explain how to do this.

Brother from another mother? (Part I)

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Chattahoochee County Georgia, Georgia, Hamilton, Ike Pinkard, Pinkard, slavery

I was reviewing the research I had done on the Pinkard side of my family when I noticed someone I hadn’t previously: John Hamilton. His relationship to the head of household is listed as brother.

Huh?

In 1900, John Hamilton was a 22-year-old widower living with Ike and Narsis Pinkard and their three children. Interestingly enough, there was a Henry Hamilton living next door.

I suspect what I happened upon was one of slavery’s ugliest scars. The American slave trade left families fractured and disfigured. I searched for both men in the 1880 U.S. Census and the 1910 U.S. Census and came up with nothing. But a search of Georgia tax lists shows a Henry Hamilton, a freedman who was born in Virginia and came to Georgia in 1850 when he was around 9 years old.

Stay tuned!

Two sides to every story

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Dobbins, Georgia, slavery, slaves, Stewart County

I can’t tell the story of my family without peeking at the pages of other families stories. I’m researching other families, literally looking through the footnotes of others hoping to find the missing chapters of my ancestors’ lives. I’ve uncovered quite a few records from the Dobbins line on the maternal side of my family. To recap, I strongly believe that  this branch of my family was once owned by Moses W. Dobbins Jr. His father,  Moses W. Dobbins Sr., was an early rector at the University of Georgia. Junior moved to Stewart County, Ga., sometime between 1850 and 1860. He went on to enlist as a private in the Confederate Army and is said to have personally attended to Robert E. Lee.

Dobbins returned to Stewart County, and in 1864 was doing relatively well, according to the tax list below. He owned seven slaves and there were 14 slaves among his three sons. Their combined worth: $21,000. In 1868, a tax list shows Dobbins owns about 270 acres. The value is illegible.

This 1864 tax list from Stewart County, Ga. , shows Moses Dobbins Jr.’s wealth. The far right column shows how many slaves he owned. I strongly believe my great-great-great grandfather, Alfred Dobbins, was among them.

But by 1870, things weren’t looking so great. After corresponding with another Dobbins researcher, I learned that Moses Dobbins Jr. was ‘destitute.” A cousin gave him a farm in Fulton County, Ga., and he and his family moved there, where he would spend the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, Alfred and Laura Dobbins, my third great-grandparents, remained in Stewart County, most likely on the same land they had worked as slaves. Alfred Dobbins was a sharecropper, and had at least two employers between 1865 and his death, which was sometime after 1880 but before 1900. Alfred Dobbins appears as a laborer on tax lists for Lucius Humber and T.P. Kimble. (Kimble was a neighbor to Moses Dobbins at one point).

This 1867 tax list shows my great-great-grandfather, Alfred Dobbins (spelled Daubins here), was employed by T.P Kimble.

These records provide an excellent resource for tracing the lives of my ancestors. They also help illustrate the constrained “freedom” ex-slaves had following the Civil War.