Sarah Jones Traylor, 4gg 1780-1847

This week I'm focused on the Rogers family tree (repost of an earlier blog)

Sarah Jones Traylor, 1780–1847

BIRTH 01 FEBRUARY 1780 • Sussex, Sussex, Virginia, United States
DEATH 4 APR 1847 • Union Parish, Louisiana, USA

4th great-grandmother on my father's George Rogers' family tree. Sarah came from the original colonial families of Virginia.

She married Champion Traylor when she was 17 and he was 27, on 15 Aug 1797, and they had perhaps 14 children. Her Jones family had moved from Virginia after her father's death in 1781. And Champion Traylor had also moved to Georgia from Virginia. They lived in Oglethorpe County, which is now Wilkes County Georgia. Their daughter Nancy Jones Traylor Powell became my 3rd great grandmother.

Her husband Champion Traylor served in the War of 1812, though he had been 42 at the start of that conflict. He had been a private in the 3rd REG'T (WIMBERLY'S), of the GEORGIA Militia.  Then the family moved to Perry AL in 1820. Sarah's last 3 chidren were born there.

Her husband died in 1837, when she was 52. Her youngest child was just 10 at that time.

She lived with her son Samuel Traylor in Union Parish LA, until her death April 4, 1847 at the age of 67.

Cotton was king...this is the Belle d'Arbonne, Union Parish Louisiana

Her grave isn't known. But this is a cemetery in Union Parish LA.

 Ada & George Rogers Sr. and granddaughters Mary Elizabeth and Barbara Booth Rogers 1948 Houston TX. I'm adding this photo to posts in the George Rogers Family Tree.

Sarah Jones Traylor and Champion Travis Traylor

The fun of genealogy is not only finding out that an ancestor is related to other people, or where they lived, or even what they might have done in their lifetimes...it's finding the materials and figuring out if they are accurate or not.  Of course detective work is always interesting to me, and most genealogists.

I think that I must make mistakes, and am always willing to change things I've shared which are incorrect.  But once things are in print, it is often assumed that the researcher knows whereof he speaks.

Yesterday I shared a description of the move of the families of Sarah Jones and Champion Traylor form Virginia to Georgia.  There's a booklet published by a descendant, which says that trip happened in 1700.  I hope it's just a typo.  She was born in 1780, and he was born in 1770.

Here're the book pages that were shared about them...

 Genealogy (in part) of William Hill Senior and Anne Hill his wife prepared by William Traylor Hill

This is the place that a date was given for the emmigration in the year 1700.  That is not accurate.

Author William Traylor Hill is the oldest of the 11 children listed here.

And with the help of Ancestry which gives Sarah Jone's dates and places (minimal, but helpful) I find that her father Frederick Jones died in 1791 when she was 11, in Brunswick VA.  Her oldest brother, Frederick Augistine Jones died in 1793 in an unknown place.  Her next oldest brother died in 1833 still in Surry VA. So it's not possible that either of these brothers would have traveled to GA by the time Sarah was 17 when she married Champion there. Next in line were 2 sisters before Sarah herself.

I'm looking at the lives of these siblings, with whom might an unmarried teen might have traveled with from Virginia to Georgia.  I know she married at 17 in Georgia.  So how did she get there?  Her mother was still alive, but unlikely to have taken this trip, as she lived until 1810, dying in Dinwiddie, Virginia.

Now I'll look at the families of her married sisters.
Sister Mary Herbert Jones married John Wright Withers in Dinwiddie VA in 1795, and had their first children there...then emigrated to Huntsville AL in 1808.

Sister Elizabeth (Betsy) Jones married (probably) a William or a George Mason.  She doesn't have clear birth dates known, nor place, nor place of a wedding or even a death date or place.  There's even another possible husband, Thomas C. MacLin.  Her marriage to Mr. Mason was probably on Dec. 26 1814. And that's all we know about her.  If she influenced her sister Sarah to move to Georgia, we don't have any documentation of her life.

Sarah's last brother Augustine Claiborne Jones has no birth or death data, but he did marry in Brunswick VA in 1807

In looking at her uncles (and aunts) on her mother's side, all are indicated to have lived their lives in VA.

Now I'm checking all the aunts and uncles on her father's side of the family.  Still doesn't look promising, though Uncle Cadwaller Jones moved to Hillsborough, Orange County, NC.

So now I'm going to see how an older man, Champion Travis Traylor, emmigrated to Georgia (Wilkes County) now Olgethorpe so he could marry Sarah Jones.  Where did he come from?

Sarah Jones, great times 3 grandmother

Happy birthday to Sarah Jones Traylor Feb 1, 1780

mother of Nancy Traylor Jones Powell, who was grandmother of Bettie Bass, who was mother of my grandfather, George Rogers

Blogs about the Jones, Bass, Rogers line are here (Stiths to Jones in 4 generations) 
HERE (Jones to Rogers) 
and Champion-Travis-Traylor-sr-to-Rogers.

So Sarah Jones Traylor was my 4 times great grandmother. She lived until April 4, 1847, dying in Union Parish, Louisiana, where she had been living in her son's household, Samuel Traylor. She was 67.

Sarah was born in Sussex, Sussex County, VA, the second to youngest of 6 children. Her mother's family (the Claiborns) had been active in the governance of Sussex, and some of the men were in the Revolutionary War. I couldn't locate much information about her father, and there were a lot of Frederick Jones. Her father died when she was 11. Her mother lived until 1810, but by then Sarah had married and moved first to Georgia, then Alabama, then finally Louisiana.

She married in Georgia, Champion Travis Traylor, when she was 17 and he was 27. They had 12 children who all lived to adulthood, the third one being my great great great grandmother, Nancy Traylor Jones Powell.

Champion Traylor served in the War of 1812, and thus received land in Perry County, Alabama, which is where they moved before 1817. They lived there until his death in 1832, and it wasn't until 1833 that the land grant was finally signed by Pres. Andrew Jackson.

I also was curious how the young Sarah and Champion went from Virginia to Georgia. One source says their families moved there in 1700. This was a booklet published by descendant, William Traylor of the ancestry of William and Anne Hill.

I'll post about that genealogy tomorrow! (Yes, it might have that date of 1700 wrong!)

Champion Travis Traylor Sr to current Rogers family

Champion Travis Traylor Sr. 

1770

- February 6 birthday... 
born in Dinwiddie, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, an unincorporated township in a rural county about halfway from Richmond south to the North Carolina border.  His parents were William Michael Traylor who fought in the Revolutionary War, and Priscilla Nanny Perkinson Traylor.

Spanish moss growing on Live Oak trees.

How is he related to me?  Glad you asked.

My generation is 1
My father George is 2
His father George is 3
His mother Betty Bass Rogers is 4
Her mother Mary Ann Elizabeth Powell Bass is 5
Her mother Nancy Jones Traylor Powell is 6
and her father Champion Travis Traylor Sr. is generation 7 from mine, or my 4 times great grandfather.

Champion married 15 Aug 1797 in Wilkes County, Georgia, to the beautiful (of course) Sarah Jones (daughter of Susanna (Sukey) Claiborne (Clairborne) and Frederick Jones.  Since her family was also from Virginia, it seems probable that they were also immigrating elsewhere at that time, and may have settled in Georgia.

At age 42, in 1812, Champion Travis Traylor (Sr.) fought against the British in the War of 1812.  He received a land grant of 169 acres as a result of this service, in Cahabu, Perry County, Alabama, where he moved before the actual deed was granted.  This is known because his death in Perry County, Alabama occurred in 1832, and the deed was signed by the secretary to President Andrew Jackson in November, 1833.

  From US Archives.

Possibly the Cahaba River near it's intersection with the Alabama River

Now Cahabu is known as Cahawba, the first capitol of Alabama, which has virtually vanished.  Here's a link to information on it...and it's a few miles south of Selma, Alabama, of which you may have heard. 

The Traylors have 12 children listed on Ancestry.com.  My ancestor, Mary Jones Traylor Powell was their third child, born in Oglethorpe County, GA in 1804. They lived there where 6 more brothers and sisters were born, until her little brother, Josiah, was born in 1817 in Selma, Dallas County Alabama. By 1819 the last 2 Traylor children were born in Perry County, AL, which might have been that the county was formed and they were living in the same place.  There are 2 family Bibles available apparently, which list important life events, mostly in agreement. They state the family moved from Georgia to Alabama in 1820.

By April of 1820, Champion was a Justice in Perry County, AL.

And our ancestress, Nancy, married Sept. 19, 1822 to James Moore Powell in that county.  Nancy died June 27, 1881, in Old Waverly, Walker County, TX.

Historic St. Luke Episcopal Church, Cahawba, Alabama

Champion Travis Traylor died on April 4, 1832 at age 62.  I don't know where he is buried.
Many of my ancestors received land in Alabama, and most of them moved on to Louisiana then to Texas.

All photos shared on this post are from .cahawba.com/index.
This is an update of an old post from "When I Was 69" that I published about Sukey Jones Traylor's husband, on Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The Jones to Rogers connection

Yesterday we went through 5 generations from Stith to Jones, rather quickly I'm afraid.

Today let's go down those branches until we connect to more modern Rogers folks.
I'll first re-post an older blog from Friday, November 29, 2013

Oh Susanna!

Susanna Claiborne, what a melodic name.
She was a grandmother of mine, times five greats.  She actually had the nickname "Sukey."

I invite you to walk into her life.  None of the "intellectual way" of looking at her dates and places.
Let's just imagine when she lived, raised her family, and made her mark on lives to come (including mine).

She lived in the18th Century in rural Virginia.  She was probably a farmer's wife, since Surry and Sussex County, VA have historically been farm country.  She was born Nov. 29, 1751.  She married in Sussex County, but I don't think she had to move far.  The new county was just created out of Surry County about the time Susanna was 3 years old. 

Interesting reading HERE about Sussex history, or HERE.  I'll let you go see it if you're interested. 

(1) Susanna Claiborne married  Frederick Jones (1756-1791) when she was 22 years old.

Since she died in 1810 in Dinwiddie County, (the county to the west of Sussex), I have that link HERE.

She had 6 children, and the one that became my ancestor was Sarah Jones, born also in Sussex County, VA on 2 Feb 1780, who died 4 Aprl 1847 in Union Parish, Louisiana.  That's not only a long way from Virginia, there were Alabama connections as well...and Georgia, then finally Texas!

Sarah Jones (2) married Champion Travis Traylor, Sr. (2) who had been born in Dinwiddie County, VA. (Speaking of names, I think his is my favorite ancestor male name) They married in Alabama, and he died 4 Apr 1832 in Perry Alabama.

Their daughter, (3) Nancy Jones Traylor Powell was born 16 May 1804 in Oglethorpe County, GA.  She died 27 June, 1881 in Old Waverly, Walker County, Texas.

So when following my maternal genealogy, it's really interesting to see how these women traveled all across the south.  In the latter 18th Century and then into the 19th Century, you can imagine what life must have been like.  I always like to do that...think of a household full of children, servants perhaps, slaves if there was farming in the south, and husbands, brothers, uncles and sons working to keep everything running smoothly.  Of course the household was run by the oldest wife...which changed as households aged.  By the time each of these women had stopped bearing children, they were often in their 40's.  Only a few of them lived to go through menopause...it was a hard life not only with frequent childbirth, but the rigors of moving from one frontier to another.  These were true pioneers.

Nancy Jones Traylor Powell (3) married James Moore Powell,(3) and his dates are interesting because apparently he died on his birthday, 27 Feb. born in 1791, b. in Bertie County, NC, died same date in 1886 in Waverly, Walker County, TX.

Not yet having a Rogers child.  My father's father is where we're going.  George Elmore Rogers, Sr. born in Texas in 1877 in Willis,  Walker County, TX.

Where oh where is the connection  though?
 Their daughter, Mary Ann Elizabeth Powell (5) married none other than Col. Richard Bass (5).  Where and when were her dates?  (I've struggled, and we're still following the data rather than the actual lives, aren't we?)  Born 21 Feb, 1825 in Perry AL, and died 12 Oct 1871 in Old Waverly, TX.

And finally, their daughter, Elizabeth "Bettie" Bass, (6) was born either in Feb or March 1860 in Old Waverly, San Jacinto County, TX, and died 17 July 1924 in Galveston, TX.

She was married to...
William Sandford (W. Sam) Rogers, (6) born 9 Feb 1850 in Huntsville, Walker County, TX, who died in the same town 29 May 1879.

And they were my grandfather's parents. George Rogers Sr. would be generation (7), my father would be (8) and I'm (9) generations removed from Oh Susanna!

And a post script is in order here.  The Claibornes had an old name from Europe, and the name referred to living near clay deposits on a stream.  As you may already know, I am a potter.  So clay is important to me in both ways, my ancestors and my avocation.