Smith Newsletter April 2019

These are the progenitors of the several lines of Smith, who match each other in some way.

George [Washington] Smith & Mary  Ann Tyner

There were at least two George Smiths living in Roane County, Tennessee between 1805 and 1830.

George Smith married Mary Tyner in Kingston, Roane in 1809. There was no Washington in his name.

That same George, in 1850, was granted land in Cherokee County, Alabama, where they were already living in 1840 and where George received a land grant for his service during the War of 1812. https://glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=0766-009&docClass=MW&sid=t4cui1zh.bp0#patentDetailsTabIndex=1  [NW NW S11 T12 R11] George W. Smith is listed in the 1860 Agricultural Schedule for Cherokee County, at a time when George was presumed deceased. While living in Cherokee County, twenty years later, George’s widow applied for a pension based on the same service but was denied due to lack of proof of marriage. In the pension application, Mary of Cherokee County, Alabama is confirmed to be the widow of George who died near Cave Springs, Georgia in 1859.

George and Mary are presumably near Cave Spring, Floyd County, Georgia, in 1847, when their daughter Rhoda marries Obadiah Edge there.

George and Mary Smith living in Paulding County, George in 1850. In that same year, George purchased Lot 298 for $40. In the Deed, George is stated as being of Walton County, even though they had not been there for at least 10 years. On the same page (DB K: 569-570), but 6 years later, George sells the land. Newton County, a focus of research, was created, in part, from Walton County. George was not found in either Deeds or Tax Lists for 1819, 1821, 1824, 1834) for Walton County. There were, however, two Entries for David Smiths, one in under age in 1819 and the other seems to still be there when, I believe, David [R.] Smith is in Newton County.

All in all, it seems confusing and contradictory that George and Mary were in three places at the same time, Cherokee County, Paulding County and Walton County. Yet, all seem to be true.

Perhaps, Mary moved to Cherokee County after George’s death in 1859, which might explain the 1860 Agricultural Census as well as her death there in 1871.

The daughters, except for Emily and Elizabeth, were probably born to the family in Roane, Tennessee. See the interview with descendants of the surviving sisters in Tyner Newsletter. http://littlecalamity.tripod.com/Genealogy/Tyner3D.html. Mary, the widow of George, states in her pension application that they had three children before George went off to fight in the War of 1812. The census is of little help here; the 1810 censuses of Tennessee and Georgia are lost; the 1820 census of Eastern Tennessee is lost. These are the years which would confirm whether there were any children in the household born before about 1813. A George Smith appears in the 1830 Census of Hamilton County, Tennessee but with only one daughter born during or prior to the War years. Another George Smith is in Roane County but he has no children in the household born during that time. Of the two, the George in Hamilton County seems more probable because John Burgess, husband of daughter Rachel was also there.

 

It is said in the Tyner papers that Rhoda married Obadiah Edge in Floyd County in 1847 though the only record, so far, is that of Obadiah in 1842 to Nancy P. Edge

 

Tester William Eddie Smith, a descendant of George and Mary by way of David I, is a 49 cM match to one of the female descendants of George Smith and Mary Tyner. He is also a smaller match to other descendants. In fact, one would normally consider such small matches inconsequential except for the one which is much larger. Unfortunately, none of the matches are shared with each other. It seems, then, that, barring any other as yet unknown possibility, that David was, in fact, a brother to the known Smith sisters. Why David was in Newton County as early as 1830 while George and Mary were possibly in Hamilton County, Tennessee remains a mystery.

The sons of George and Mary (or other to be proven parents) were:

 Jesse Edward (not Kirby or Curby) and David (probably not Rauther) Smith.

Since David Smith was purportedly born in Newton County, a search of Newton County records was pursued. David may first appear in Newton County in 1821 when a David Smith (of Madison) sells land, DB A: 109. A search of the 1820 Georgia Land Lottery Winners shows that this David was living in Lincoln County, Georgia when he won the land in Walton County.

Although there appears to be no marriage record, to Sarah Austin or anyone else, David appears in the 1830 Newton County Census as a family of two. They appear again in the 1840 Census with four females under the age of 10. In 1842, David bought and sold property in quick succession (DB F: 381-2). In 1850, there is no David Smith but there is a Sarah and her children.

Where is David? There is a belief that the David Smith who died in Paulding County in 1849 was this David and also the son of George and Mary who lived there in 1850.

Wells Smith never appears in the Census in Paulding but he did win land there in the 1832 Land Lottery.

There were possibly three Jesse Smiths in Newton County, one who was born 1771-1780 and appears also in Elbert County, Georgia when is appointed Trustee of a gift to the wife and children of Wells Smith and when he sells his land on Coldwater Creek, appointing Benjamin Smith as Power of Attorney. He cannot be the son on John Smith, to be covered later, due to the closeness of their ages. He may be a brother. Another Jesse was born 1781-1790, possibly the same as the Jesse Smith Sr referred to in Newton County Deed Book F: 576 & 875, when he sells land to Benjamin and Jesse E. Smith, the 3^rd Jesse. He is also, perhaps, the son of the older Jesse Smith, Sr.

Jesse E. Smith married Emily E.A. Veasy in 1845. Jesse E. Smith also married Ada Fulmer in Alabama, where he had moved. This 2^nd wife was considerably younger than Jesse, who was about 43, while she was about 18. It seems to me not impossible that Jesse married twice, first as a young man and then as a middle-aged man.

Jesse’s movement: (1) born in Newton County, (2) Indian Wars in Tennessee, (3) 1835 Land Deal with Jesse Smith Sr. (4) Marriage in Newton County? (5) Possible purchase of Land in Coosa County in 1847 & 1852 (6) Not in Coosa, Alabama Census but Absolem who is the possible son of Jesse Smith Sr. is (7)1860 Marriage in Coosa County, (8) Bibb County, Alabama, (7) 1880 death in Bibb county, Alabama.

The tester for this line yielded results that are 1 repeat different from the other George Smith descendants on DYS CDY (a rapidly mutating marker) and two repeats off compared to John Smith’s descendants, also on DYS CDY.

There are no discovered interactions between Jesse E. Smith and David Smith, although they both appear about the same time. Circumstantial evidence in the deed books suggests that Jesse Smith, Sr may have been the father of Jesse E. Smith, Absalom Smith and Benjamin Smith. If that is the case, however, Jesse Sr did his sons or other relatives no favors. Most of the time when one sees relatives in transactions, the value of the transaction is “love and affection.” Here the other Smiths are charged at the least the same, sometimes many times more.

John Smith, Elbert County, 1760/70-1841

The sons of John Smith, who died in Elbert County, Georgia are proven by his will of 1841. The sons were Fielding, Wells/Wesley, Willis, Jesse, Larkin, John, Nathaniel, Singleton and Eppy. Wells, Jesse and Nathaniel may have all gone West. The others remained in Eastern Georgia.

Wells is in Newton County by 1829, despite being in the 1830 Henry County Census, as shown by a deed of gift to his wife and children. The trustee for the gift is Jesse Smith who, with his wife, Lucy, has sold their land on Cold Water Creek in Elbert County in 1829. This Jesse is estimated to have been born 1771-1780 and is too old to be one of John’s children. He is, however, possibly of an age to be John’s brother. Jesse only appears in the 1830 census. For that reason, he is not likely to be the Jesse Smith who received land from Absolem Smith (b. 1801-1810) in 1840.

There is one other Smith in Newton County who seems to be associated with Wells Smith. This is John B.C. Smith who married Emily Parker there in 1848 and later, in Sumter County, appears court records and quit claim deeds with Wells Smith in Sumter County in 1856.

Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith is another person whose DNA Tree closely matches that of David Smith and John Smith. Joseph was living in Elbert County, Georgia in 1809 when he married Nancy Morrow (usually called Nancy Mussey in other Trees but no source is ever given). He and his wife are in the Elbert County, Georgia 1820 Census. In 1824, Joseph gives Power of Attorney to Benjamin Smith (Benjamin also had Power of Attorney for Jesse and Lucy Smith) for their land on Beaverdam Creek, where the family of John Smith lived. This family moved first to Tippah, Mississippi then to Fayette, Alabama. The close proximity of Joseph to John suggests a possible close relationship between the two men. Their ages are probably too close for them to be father and son. Since Joseph is not mentioned in John’s will, it seems more likely that they are brothers or cousins. The Y-DNA of Joseph’s descendants is a perfect match to that of David’s descendants, not John’s, though only one repeat different on DYS CDY, except for Ross & Bobby, who are outliers on chromosome DYS444, by one repeat. All other male descendants of David are a genetic distance or one repeat different from John’s descendants.

William Washington Smith

William first appears in the records when he marries Nancy Jane Taylor in Washington County, Florida. About the same time, he applies for Homestead land, which he unaccountably sells. He continues as a farmer/renter until his purported death in 1929. His date of death is scratched on a slab in a cemetery near his original homestead in Chipley but there is no Death Certificate. William claimed to have been born in Mississippi in 1863.

Without a known place, it is difficult to zero in on one place in particular. There were some Smiths living in Lauderdale County, where some descendants of John Smith moved, and who claim to be the ancestor of William Washington Smith. There are autosomal matches to this Smith-Norwood line on AncestryDNA. There is a Y-DNA test in the pipeline for this Smith group.

Another person believes that William Washington Smith was really Avram Smith, based on common names found in the family of Avram Smith’s wife Laura Cooley Best Smith. Maybe a Y-DNA test will give us an answer.

This Smith-Norwood Group also matches the John Smith Group.

In addition, one of William Washington Smith’s male descendants has had a Y-DNA kit for almost two months now.

Known descendants of William Washington are autosomal matches to both Jennifer Hoffman and to Levi W. Smith, a descendant of John Smith of Elbert County. A male descendant of William has had the Y-DNA test for 6 weeks now.

One person has contacted one of William’s descendants and suggested that the reason is so difficult to find is because he changed his name from Abram to William. Perhaps, if our tester gets his results in, we will discover which branch he is closer to. Autosomally, this group appears closer to John’s line.