Friend of Friends Friday - William Hargrove Papers Part 2

So how about an explanation of how I came upon the slave inventories that I found for William. Before I go into that, I want to advise that William is not a direct ancestor of my slaveowner James, but I believe they are closely related. I gathered this information for my benefit while I was in the meantime attempting to determine the relationship between William and James Sr. I believe they may be first cousins. Until them, I sincerely hope this documentation can be of value to Somebody. Please note that William lived in Granville (now Vance) County North Carolina and eventually moved to Alabama. I am attempting to resolve conflicts between information found in this microfilm and info on this website. I expect I will come to closer understanding when I am able to obtain a copy of The Hargrove Family Study by Dorothy P. Beebe and Johnny L. Hargrove. Something else I also really need is William's will. Some of these transcribed documents state that William's will is contained on these films, but I didn't see it.

The 3rd edition of The Source was published June 2006 and Tony Burroughs wrote the African American Research Chapter 14. (Have you been to Tony's site lately?) My local Family History Center got a copy of The Source right away and I was able to take advantage of the wealth of information in it. Reading it carefully, I found that there was a reference book that needed to be accessed in hopes of finding many more records. In The Source, Chapter 14, Tony Burroughs identified the book titled A Genealogical Index to the Guides of the Microfilm Edition of Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution Through the Civil War by Jean L. Cooper. At that time I had not heard of this index book. If you want to follow along, get The Source 3rd edition. btw, The Source is one of the free books available for viewing at Ancestry.com. Start at page 664, The Transition from Slavery to Freedom. I found through Worldcat, at that time the nearest library with a copy of Cooper's book was the ACPL. I was able to ILL the book from some library (name not available) through the Dayton Library system. I was able to view the book but it had to remain in the library facility. I realized at that time I should have had the ILL sent to my nearest branch instead of downtown. It was my first ILL; we live and learn. The spring of 2007, the Cincinnati Public Library system obtained 2 copies of Cooper's book. I also identified that the Cincinnati Library Genealogy & History department has the entire 1500 microfilm set.

Do you use Worldcat? If you do and you have been following the dialogue here, you can see that searching Worlcat for Stampp, Kenneth and you will find the nearest library to you that has the 1500 films. When I went to the Cincy library Spring 2007, I was unable to find the Cooper book on the shelf. I inquired at the reference desk and she rechecked the stacks with me and couldn't find it either. Then she looked thoughtful and told me to wait a few moments, she knew where to look next. She found it on her colleague's desk. Her colleague was Mr Daly (sp) and he had a copy on his desk preparing for a presentation that I didn't know of at that time. The reference librarian loaned me the book to browse but I had to return it directly to her so she would know where to return it to Mr Daly's desk. In the meantime, I found out what presentation Mr Daly was preparing for. It was for the Federation of Genealogy Society's 2007 Conference in Fort Wayne, IN. I should add a tidbit that the brand new Allen County Public Library had just completed construction in December 2006 and the library move was over the next couple of weeks after that. (Another tidbit here, [correct spelling of Mr Daly's name and the title of his presentation] cannot be confirmed at this time because my FGS syllabus for 2007 is in storage).

Cut to the chase, I went to Mr Daly's presentation and it was excellent! He described in pretty good detail how to use the Cooper book. Other long story short is that I requested and the Dayton Public Library was able to purchase a copy of their own. I am pointing you to LibraryThing to see the cover because neither Worldcat nor Amazon have the cover on their page.

I should also explain, just in case some of you have seen them, that there are other indices to Stampp's collection. Martin Schipper also created indices University Publications of America, 1993. I don't want you to be confused if you go to your local library and find the Schipper books but not the Cooper book. Schipper's books have the same content as the cooper books and then some. I don't want to suggest that as a problem of the Schipper books because both Schipper's and Cooper's books are both valuable in their own right. Cooper's book is more concise and Schipper books are more thorough. To expand, they are both indices but to take a rough guess, there may be 35-40 volumes of the Schipper books that covers all of the information contained in the Cooper books and then some. The one volume of Schipper where I found William HARGROVE covered Stampp's Series J, part 13. There are 40 microfilm reels contained in PART 13. Granted, you know that you don't want to scroll through 1500 microfilm looking for one slave family. You also probably rather not scan through 40 volumes of Schipper to find which film you want. In an ideal situation, you would have access to both the Cooper book and then the Schipper indices. But if you do not have access to Cooper, Schipper is still better than scrolling 1500 microfilm.

Here is the pages from Schipper describing the William HARGROVE papers. It maybe that the entire content of this blog has been discussed on previous blogs but it may have been years ago, like when the Source 3rd edition came out . An additional note is that Cooper has updated her book using a different publisher and the title is Index to Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations: Locations, Plantations, Surnames and Collections, 2d ed.


Series Description from Schipper
{P1010870}
Account book belonging to William Hargrove of Granville (now Vance) County, N.C. This volume which has loose sheets of paper and other sets of bound pages inserted into it, contains birth records for William Hargrove's slaves; stud records for his horses and cattle; lists of household and plantation expenses; blacksmith and store accounts; tax records; planting and harvest notes; and some genealogical information on the Hargrove family.

While I am preparing this post Part 2, I went to the FamilySearch Wiki (LOVE the Wiki!) and found the reference to Ante-Bellum... and was going to link to it. What else do I see? Lexis-Nexis (L-N) has their links on the Wiki, Research Wiki — African American Slavery and Bondage. I had seen the L-N links from some other university site years before, but they were dead. I can suppose the linker hadn't paid the rent. Anyway, the links on the Wiki to L-N are in *.pdf format. If you hit one of them, you will find what are the actual Schipper indices. So yeah, you are closer to doing a lot more research online, but there are 55 *.pdf files. The Schipper book I was using is Series J, Part 13. 128 pdf pages on L-N. Some are not searchable. IMHO, the Cooper book (after The Source) is still the best place to start after you have determined your slaveowner surnames. Even if you narrow down which L-N pdf file you want, you still don't have the Hargrove papers themselves, only a description of what's on the film. It Is a valuable resource to know which ones of the 1500 films you want to order if you have to go that route. In addition to the L-N *.pdf files, the Wiki page with the links also has links to the library catalog of the 1500 microfilms.

Referencing back again to the Cooper book and The Source, if you know the slaveowners' surnames AND you have a good understanding of what I have explained in this post, go ahead to Cooper. If you don't know the slaveowner surnames OR this post has turned your brain to mush, Go to The Source, Black Roots or where ever else you need to go to get that information.

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Friend of Friends Friday - William Hargrove Papers Part 1

This post was originally drafted in May 2010. I was reading Mavis Jones blog post recently about The 1870 Brick Wall. I felt compelled to finally finish and publish this post for Friend of Friends Friday.

I am sure it is not unheard of, but I would guess is certainly uncommon is to have slaves names listed with their dates of birth. Not just the year, but with the date. OK, that was a teaser. We also have, for most of the slaves I am posting here, their Mother's Names!!! From the analyst' perspective, I wonder what happened in 1840. That's when the mothers' name began being recorded. I kept looking at the documents that I had saved and see that it appears some backtracking was done and the mother's names were added to other documents. That's why there are color coded. The documents with duplicate information were not duplicate documents but the same info and some with variations. That's why I colored them. This coloring has nothing to do with the color coding I do for my folks. It's just to alert you there was duplicated and sometimes slightly conflicting info on different pages. I'm wanting to get this published right away. But come back to visit, especially if anything pertains to you and yours. I will be adding the P#s. These are simply my document #, nothing more. Also note that any and all typos were copied verbatim. Square brackets [] are copied as is and my notes are in curly brackets{}.

As we research our African-American ancestors, those who do that research also know that the slaveholders' families need to be researched as well. It is through that research of the slave holder families that we eventually come to find the info we need to come up with our own family lines, sometimes intermingled with the slaveowners and sometimes not. In either case, it would be through researching those slaveholders, their wills, deeds, family bibles and in this case, their estate business records and inventories that we find our own families. These records of William HARGROVE were kept for tax purposes as well as profit and loss statement purposes.

For the HARGROVE family, there is also available The Hargrove Family Study. 755 page book written by Dorothy P. Beebe and Johnny L. Hargrove. Details of The Hargrove Family Study will not be covered in this 2 part post. And Now, The List!

The Negroe and Ages

{P1010855 P1010932}
Jacb was Born March the --- 10 ------ 1785
Darease was Born December --- 5 ------ 1791
Abram was Born August ------ 12 ------ 1791
Sittey was Born July ------- 15 ------ 1794
Willis was Born July ------- 8 ------ 1796
Jim was Born September --- 24 ------ 1798 Phill the same age of Jim
Loson was born November 3 Day 1800
Ansel was born November the 14 Day 1803 dyed in Sep 1806
Bob was Born January ------- 16 ------ 1804
Sary was Born November ----- 27 ------ 1805
Cyrus was Born July -------- 19 ------ 1806
Christeaner was Born April - 19 ------ 1808 Hannah child Born
Tiney was Born January ----- 8 ------ 1809 Suck child
Amey was Born August ------- 17 ------ 1809 Hannah
Lucy was born {dead this word is typed inserted text above the typed line} January 22 Day 1809 Eady Born
Clin was born July the 11 Day 1809 Dareas first child

{P1010856}
Fuzzy
Copy over again

{P1010823}
Damon & Eady was Born March --- 16 ---- 1811 Eady twins
Eliza was born May the 7 day 1811 Dareas child
Jim Mason was Born February 25 ------ 1812
Hennry was born june 26th day 1813 Dareas
Liddy was Born January --- 27 ------ 1814
Eveliner was Born June --- 30 ------ 1814
Joe Straten was Born March --- 24 ------ 1814
Anabella was Born February ---- 2 ------ 1819 Dareas
Davie was Born June --- 30 ------ 1821 Dareas
MatildY was Born October --- 17 ------ 1821

Adney was Born August --- 23 ------ 1821
Cadmy was born August 23 Day 1822 Hannah believe Adney and Cadmy to be the same child
Edmond was Born June ---- 8 ------ 1823 Dareas child
[illegible] was born September 25 1823 Sarey child
Silvey was Born January --- 26 ------ 1824 Sue child
Lucindy Lusindy was Born April ---- 1 ------ 1824 Christeener child
Ansel was Born June --- 14 ------ 1825 Sarry child
Jack Jackson was Born March 2 – 1826 Sue child
Charlot was Born June --- 10 ------ 1826 Christeener child
Fanny Fanney was Born July --- 13 ------ 1826 Tempy child
Cheary was Born October --- 13 ------ 1826 Tiney childe
Andy Anda was Born October --- 13 ------ 1827 Amay childe
Marcus was born March 10th 1828 Liddy childe
Levinia was Born March --- 20 ------ 1828 Sue child
Penelope was Born March --- 24 ------ 1828 Christeener child
Lue Lucas was Born March --- 31 ------ 1828 Tiney child
Tom was Born April --- 20 ------ 1829 Sue child
Letty Letey was Born April --- 25 ------ 1829 Dareas child
Alee Alice was Born May --- 6 8 ------ 1829 Sarry child {the 8th is correct, I went back to check the original transcription and realize it is fuzzy}
Absolam was Born January --- 18 ------ 1830 Eady childe
X was Born June 11 1830 Christeener childe
Hanner Dyed Hannah was Born August --- 17 ------ 1830 Sue childe
Mistake it dyed L. Jacob was Born September 10 1830 Dyed Tiney childe


{P1010858}
Rosetta was Born June 19 - 1831 Dead Amy childe
Lueyan was Born February 8 – 1832 Dareas childe
Lillyan Lilleyan was Born March 10 ------ 1832 Sue childe
Ben Thomas was Born June 2? ------ 1832 Sary childe
Elizabeth was July 20 – 1832 Tiney childe
Dyed Julyan was Born April 28 1833 Dyed Christeener childe
Melvina was Born September 9 – 1833 Milly childe
Billey was Born February 25 - 1834 Dead Amy childs
Cosson was Born February 26 – 1834 Sue childe
Billy Socrates Socerites was Born July 30 – 1834 Tiney childe
Jinny Inny was Born August 12 – 1834 Sary childe
Keesor was Born October 19 1934 Daroase childe
Henry was Born March 12 – 1835 Christeener childe
Jerry was Born December 9 – 1835 Amys childe
Frances was Born August 19 – 1836 Milly childe
Luisa was Born August 31 – 1836 Sue childe
Isabella was Born April 31 – 1837 Christeener childe {NOTE: there is no such date as April 31}
Motgomery was Born May 21 – 1837 Sary childe
Wesley was Born February 10 – 1838 Amy childe
Agney was Born May 11 – 1838 Milley childe
Narcissa was Born October 12 – 1838 Sue childe
Amay was Born February 25 – 1839 Christeener childe
Kphran Ephram was Born September 9 – 1839 Amy childe
Althea was Born September 18 1839 – 1839 Milley childe
Richard was Born November 6 1 - 1840 Sue child
Baldy Boldy was Born April 14 - 1841 Milly child
Hissey was Born May 21 - 1841 Amy childe
John was Born June 13 - 1841 Christuner childe
?ady {blank} was Born February 12 - 1843 Sue childe


?ary (Mary?) was Born October 10 - 1843 Christuner childe
Otway was Born August 20 - 1844 Amay childe
Betsy was Born January 6 - 1845 Lets childe
Ded was Born February 7 - 1845 Fanny childe
[Page torn] Child it February died 1845
Ded was Born March 24 - 1845 Charlot childe
Lusinday [Page torn] was Born May 11 - 1845 Penelop childe Penlope child
[Page torn] July 27th 1845 Viny’s child J
Suckey was Born January 13 - 1846 Christuner childe
[Page torn] January 15th 1946 Hanah child
________ was Born August 11 - 1846 Charlot childe
Henry was Born September 12 - 1846 Amay childe
________ was Born October 13 - 1846 Milley childe
Ded was Born December 1 - 1846 Lets childe
________ [Page torn] was Born December Decr 5 - 1846 Sue Sues childe
________ was Born April 8 - 1847 Penelop childe
________ was Born November 13 - 1847 Christuner childe
________ was Born January 5 - 1848 Fany childe
[Page torn] June 4 1847 Suckys child
Mary February 11th 1848 Caroline child
Coleman April 10 1848 Hanah child
________ was Born June 5 - 1848 Amay childe
Billy August 15 1848 Andys child
Charlotte January 19 1849 Sue’s child
Caroline May 15 1849 Christina’s child
Rosetta March 27 1850
Edward April 6 1852
William June 24 1853
Abraham May 13 1854 Narcessas child
Fany May 23d 1856 Caroline’s child
Athis Sep 25 1854 Suckys child
Amy Apl 19 1857 Hanah’s child
Sam Dec 25 1857 Louisa’s child
Robert Sept 30 1857 Aryes child
Gibson May 31 1858 Caroline’s child
Rachel Sept 26 1858 Narcessa child
Dead Feb 25 1858 Hannah’s child
Betsy June 15th Eady’s child
Olivia Sept 15 1862 Louisa
June 20th 1863 Little Sucky’s
July 19th 1863 Minta

As I look at this list, previewing before I hit the publish button, I think to myself, why don't you go through and catalog all the mothers with all of their children? That would be a medium challenge. Is Fany and Fanny the same person? Probably. What about Amy, Amey and Amay? Maybe not. I see at least two different Amays. If I do this, here is an example of what you would get. I'm going to single out Darease for this example because she appears to be the star producer.

Darease born 5 December 1791. Her children are:
Clin 11 Jul 1809
Eliza 7 May 1811
Henry 26 Jun 1813
Anabella 2 Feb 1819
Davie 30 Jun 1821
Edmond 8 Jun 1823
Letty 25 Apr 1829
Lueyan 8 Feb 1832
Keesor 19 Oct 1834 Darease' name is spelled Daroase, but I'm sure that is her.

It's not specified but I would surmise that Daroase lost at least one child from 1814 to 1818 and another from 1823 to 1828.

Information contained here is copyright by Southern Historical Collection, Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Stay tuned for Part 2, which includes the citation and discovery process.

1675 words

James HARGROVE's Slaves' & Family Members' Names

Back in January, I posted one page of three pages that comprise the will of James HARGROVE. Not specified there is that this is James HARGROVE Jr. James Sr was born 1757/8 and died 1817.

For reasons to not violate copyright, I am not publishing the entire content of the will transcription, but I am publishing the names listed in that will in it's entirety. I am also providing the title of the book, maybe you would be able to access via ILL or could order the microfilm from the Family History Library for 75 cents (5 microfiche at .15 per sheet).

Transcribed will of James HARGROVE
FHL book 975.8145 P28 and microfiche 6038344, fiche 3/5
Scanned microfiche and saved by Darlene on 15 May 2009.
Transcribed from scanned copy on 16 May 2009.

Jackson County Georgia
Will Abstracts, Books A & B 1803 - 1888
Transcribed by Faye Stone Poss

Will Book A 1803 - 1860
Faye Stone Poss
Pages 179-181

Will of James HARGROVE dated 14 February 1857 and probated 2 March 1857

SLAVES' names

negro man HARRY
negro man LEWIS
negro man AMIS
negro woman ANNY
negro woman WATTON
a boy JACKSON
a girl NANCY
one negro girl CLEMENTINE
one negro girl AMANDA
one negro girl ARMINDA
(I believe AMANDA & ARMINDA are twins)
a negro girl ADALINE
one negro boy by the name of McNEESE
one man ALEXANDER
a man SIMON (My SIMON!)
a girl ISABELLAR


Family members' names of James HARGROVE

JAMES HARGROVE Jr.
ELISABETH HARGROVE my wife
POLLY PRICKETT
WILLIAM F. HARGROVE my Son
HESTER ANN BUTLER my Dau.
JOHN W. HARGROVE my son
SEABORN Y. HARGROVE my son
HENRY S. HARGROVE my Son
MARTHA R. HUDSON my step Dau.

Executors: Sons, Asbury Hargrove, John W. Hargrove & Seaborn Y. Hargrove.

Witnesses: WBJ Hardman, John N. Prickett & Seaborn M. Shankle

Stay on the lookout. I have another surprise for you. This one is a teaser. Just wait until you see the next one.

I sincerely hope that this and the next post will be of use to someone; geneablogger or not, African American or not.

Oh My Darling, Clementine

I had three ultimate geneamoments last year. I Think 2009 has been my best genealogy year ever. Finally responding to Randy Seavers' SNGF from January 2.

1. Going to the IBGS. Again, it was a great conference!

2. Finding my Simon (P. HARGROVE) as a slave in his owner's will. A couple of years ago, I ordered the Georgia will index FHLC film 1036842. Last April, I was fortunate to chose the Jackson County, Georgia, Will Abstracts FHLC 6038344 among the many will abstracts to chose from. James HARGROVE's will is listed there on pages 179-181. Seeing as how this is an abstract, I may want to send for the original. I figure I can wait until I am fortunate to go to Georgia which should be in September.

Sidenote: Here's a trick I learned a few years ago. One of the senior volunteers at the FHC told me that if you have a choice between ordering a microfilm or microfiche, order the fiche. They are less expensive and would stay in the FHC permanently without additional cost. Microfiche #s always start with 6.

3. I didn't conclude until November that Smith's mother may also be in that will even though Smith is not in it. Listed also in James' will was Clementine. I am actually still investigating if Clementine is my great great grandmother. But even if she is not Smith's mother, she surely is Simon's daughter. I previously showed you the 1870 with Smith and Simon in the same household. I found Clementine in the 1870 census in Hall county, next county northwest of Jackson County. I call Simon, My Simon because I have not been able to specifically put a relationship of him to me, so to keep from calling him "the old man who I think is my great great great grandfather", I call him My Simon.

So in November I had a great epiphany! I don't specifically remember what started it, but I was able to put 2 and 2 together and find Clementine in 1870 HALL county, found her again next door to Simon in 1880 and find Clementine's marriage record to Alexander ORR. I also noted that there is an Alexander in that will. James' slave holdings in Jackson county 1850 slave census does not show any that are close enough to be Alexander and Clementine but he does have four slaves in Talbot County that could be Clementine (14 years) and Alexander (30 years). btw, look also at the 1880 census down the street from Clementine and Simon is McNeese CHRISTLER. Note that in 1880 Simon is living with Jonas CHRISTLER. My thought is that Jonas is Simon's son, probably via another mother.

All that said, I have also already started on my great geneamoments for 2010. Two weeks ago when I found Alexander and Clementine's marriage record, guess who performed the ceremony? You won't guess in a million years, so I'll tell you. John W. HARGROVE. That would be James' son John, who is a Methodist minister. So I can add a county to my Georgia state map. I can add another surname ORR, to my list of surnames. Anyway, like I said, I'm still investigating. I have a death certificate for Albert (Clementine's son), marriage license for Cynthia GROBER (James daughter that Clementine was willed to) and marriage records for Mary and Martha (Clementine's daughters).