When and how did the Traylors get to Georgia?

52 Ancestors, Week 6  Surprise -  Genealogy is detective work.

Yes, a surprise is certainly what I found. After going through the siblings of my great times 4 grandmother, I found none of her relatives moved to Georgia at the time that Sarah Jones Traylor probably did.  There's a record of her marrying Champion Travis Traylor in 1797 in Wilkes County (now Olgethorp) GA.

So I was looking for someone else in her family that she might have moved with before the marriage when she was probably 17 years of age.  

I gave up on her family, and started looking at her husband's, since he was 10 years older than she was. And my conclusion is that they married as they moved to GA, and probably just didn't have any preacher available, or more likely in settling into new land, nobody was keeping good records at that time, they were busier getting crops in and shelters built.  Records might have had to wait years before they were written, with the dates as remembered.

The Trailor family moved to Wilkes County Georgia. But when?

Champion's father William Michael Traylor, Sr. (1733-1792) lived most of his life in Virginia.  
There's some interesting information (which isn't substantiated by documents I have seen) of the next to last of their 11 children was a daughter born in Mississippi in 1778. The last daughter (Mildred) born to William Michael and his wife Priscilla (Nanny) Perkinson Traylor (1740-1782) was born in Halifax County, Virginia on March 30 1782.  Every other child was born in VA.

Nanny Priscilla has no specific date of her death in 1782, but of note is that the record says she didn't die in Virginia, but Wilkes County, GA. However, again this is just an entry into a family tree, without any substantiating documents.  If she gave birth in March in Virginia, would she have moved to GA and then died at age 42, or perhaps 49 if alternate birthdates are to be believed.  

So let's look backwards at this family.  If we start in Wilkes County (now Oglethorpe) Georgia, Champion Travis Traylor's father, William Michael Trayler has probate in 1791 in Wilkes County GA following his death.

There is a probate document which verifies this date.  However several possible death dates are given by various Ancestry members...either In May or August 1791.

William had been in census reports in Virginia in 1782 (Halifax County) and 1783 (Chesterfield County.)  It's questionable for me to see his household in Virginia in 1782 when his wife apparently gave birth there in March, but somehow was in Georgia when she died within that year.  But it's a long year, and maybe traveling from VA to GA was contributory to her death. I think there's a mistake somewhere here, or records recorded in Georgia just reflected her date of death, but not the place.

So both of Champion's parents had died before he married in 1797 in Georgia. His father's executor of his will was Uncle Thomas Traylor, in 1791. Thomas Traylor lived from1742-1817.  So both Wiliam and Thomas were both in Wilkes County, GA.

The reason my records says (now Orgathorpe) is that it was formed out of Wilkes County.  

Wilkes County was one of the original counties created from Indian lands in 1773. The legislature designated the county in 1777 and thereafter divided it many times to form other counties. Its name pays homage to John Wilkes who had championed colonists' issues in the British House of Commons prior to the Revolutionary War. Historians believe that Washington, the county seat, is the first town in America to have been named for the first president.

Oglethorpe County was originally part of a large tract of land surrendered by Creek and Cherokee Native Americans to the Colony of Georgia in the treaty of 1773. The county itself was founded on December 19, 1793, and is named for Georgia's founder, General James Oglethorpe. SOURCE: Wikipedia

And another fun surprise.  There are times Ancestry will show me some information, but then when I try to save it to my own tree from someone else's, it just won't do it.  Uncle Thomas was listed as having 3 children by his first marriage (very late in his life) and one was (in error) our own ancestor, Champion Travis Traylor (1770-1832).  At least Champion wasn't given this second family after all, but that means someone else on Ancestry believes his father was Thomas not William. In my tree, I'm still going with William as Champion's father.

The other fun stuff I didn't expect to run into was names of the Traylor wives.

First WIlliam and Thomas's mother has been listed in most of my trees (other Ancestry members, I mean) as being Elizabeth Neal Traylor (1706-1782) but now I'm given another name in a record of William's birth and christening, that of Mary Traylor. This is the only record I've found with that name, but it's supposedly a primary source being transcribed.

And yet another name comes up on another tree, that of Elizabeth Perkinson Traylor (1698-1775). Which woman was Mrs. Edward Traylor? Elizabeth has either the birth date of 1698 or 1706 so   she would have had trouble giving birth to George Traylor at age 7 but it's more possible at 15

So I'm just leaving notes on Elizabeth Traylor's listing to check on her dates and whether she was a Perkinson or a Neal.

Did any of this tell me when the Traylors emigrated to Georgia?  Not exactly.   Champion's father, William, is on a list of a "Reconstructed Census of Georgia, Wilkes County, 1790-95." It lists just the name "Wm. Trailer."  But the only other name close to that is an Edmund Taylor, who doesn't sound related.

Champion's father died in 1791 in Georgia, with his brother Thomas as executor of the probate.  So I'm assuming it's possible other Traylors were already in Georgia at that time as well.  If I find any more information, you know I'll be talking about it here!

I'm sharing this at Generations Cafe' on Facebook, where many genealogist are following the theme for the week of 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks. I don't know if you have to be a member of the group to see postings there or not. Since I am one, I can't tell!