Monday, July 13, 2015

Monday Is for Mothers: Elizabeth Harrison (About 1775 - ?)

The only record we've found that mentions this paternal fourth great grandmother is from her marriage to Jacoby Watts in Greene County, Georgia, on February 24, 1804.

I've enlarged the relevant entry to allow you to examine it more closely. The person in the column on the far right "vouched" for them (and is almost certainly a man). But who was he? Was he a relative, perhaps her father? Is the first initial "I" or "J" or something else? We just don't know and haven't been able to find records for this Harrison.

[Ancetrty.com. Georgia, Marriage Records From Select Counties, 1828-1978 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: County Marriage Records, 1828–1978. The Georgia Archives, Morrow, Georgia.]

Jacoby (often spelled Jacobus) Watts served as Justice of the Peace and was elected as State Representative for Greene County in 1810 but there's no sign of a U.S. Census record for him and his family that year.

In 1820 there's a listing for Jacobus Watts in Madison in Morgan County, Georgia,* and I think that Elizabeth is probably the sole woman** in the ninth column "Free White Persons - Females - 45 and upwards." The household included a total of 27 people including 18 slaves.
[Ancestry.com. 1820 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourth Census of the United States, 1820. (NARA microfilm publication M33, 142 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Jacobus Watts died in 1825 near Standing Peachtree in what was then DeKalb County*** and there are no surviving probate records for his estate. We have no idea what happened to his Elizabeth, whether she survived him or not or where either of them are buried.

Their daughter Timney P. Watts married Jesse Warren Jr. in 1824. They are my three-times great grandparents.

*Jacobus definitely owned property in Madison because there's a Notice of Sheriff's Sale in October of 1821 in which his land is to auctioned to satisfy two judgments against him. There is another notice the following year which stated that he was living there at the time.
**Assuming that she has not died before this date. If this is indeed Elizabeth, this is the last record we have for her.
***Now Fulton County.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

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