My Two-for-One Grandpa: A Tale of Pedigree Collapse
Years ago, I was communicating with someone that I had contacted through ancestry.com. She was helping a cousin of mine build out her family tree. She noted, “My family tree is more like a family bush.” I absolutely adored this statement and I have adopted it ever since then.
I, too, have a family bush. Both my maternal and paternal lines are deeply southern. And many branches were already in Florida prior to it gaining statehood in 1845. I haven’t been able to get any of my lines back “across the pond”. In fact, I haven’t gotten any of my family lines any farther north than Virginia. I have lots of folks in Georgia and North Carolina and South Carolina. And the funny thing is that they are from the SAME counties in North Carolina and South Carolina. Even if the branches don’t connect until a hundred years later in Florida, they were still marrying other folks that had the same community and cultural identities as themselves. It’s absolutely fascinating to me as I dig into it!
My dad’s paternal line came to Florida a bit late in the game. The Montgomery’s didn’t arrive in Florida until after the turn of the 20th century, but before that, all of his paternal lines migrated and stayed in Early County, Georgia for multiple generations. Miller County and Seminole Counties were later carved out of Early County, but it is all the same general area. And I am blessed as a researcher because so many of the Early County records from the 1800s are online in the FamilySearch catalog.
However, Early County was not great at indexing its court records. This means that I do a lot of page-by-page research, and this can take hours without any guarantee of reward. But because so many of my paternal grandfather’s family lines settled there and stayed for a long time, I have found so many useful documents. In Early County, Georgia, that portion of my family bush becomes a veritable topiary ball of pedigree collapse and multiple relationships. Almost every page of court records contains a neighbor, husband of a cousin, or great-grandparent of varying degrees.
One of my third great-grandmothers was a woman named Sallie Harris who married Hans Montgomery in 1873.
(Read more about Sallie’s story here.) I knew that Sallie’s mother, and my 4th great-grandmother, was a woman named Elizabeth Hays. And Elizabeth’s mother was a woman named Annie who had married a man named Bird Hays per Annie’s tombstone.
Gravestone for Annie Wife of Bird Hays.
Photo courtesy of Brenda Arnett Darbyshire. Find-A-Grave memorial ID 46685372 for Anna “Annie” Hays.
But I was having trouble finding Bird Hays. This turned out to be because he had passed away before the 1840 Federal Census – the first census that would have been taken after his marriage to Annie - and was most likely living with his father during the enumeration of the 1830 Federal Census. But I didn’t know any of this initially. I also didn’t know that “Bird” was either a nickname or his middle name and may not be the name that showed up on legal documents and I did not yet know Annie’s maiden name.
So, let’s put a pin in Bird and Annie Hays for now.
One of my other 4th great-grandmothers was a woman named Elizabeth Hays who married Walt Grimsley in 1833. There were a few different men living in Early County, Georgia with the last names Hays and at least two of them had women of the correct age range living in their households to be my Elizabeth Hays in the pre-1850 Federal Censuses. I couldn’t find the family of Walt Grimsley on the 1860 Federal Census, but I knew that he had married another woman in 1861, so I could theorize that Elizabeth had passed away by then. And, by correlating documents, I was sure that Elizabeth Hays, who married Walt Grimsley, was not my other 4th great-grandmother, also named Elizabeth Hays who was the mother of Sallie Harris. They were definitely two different women.
I wasn’t having any luck pushing either family line back a generation earlier. At some point, I looked at the probate records, but they weren’t indexed. I was using them if I knew someone’s date of death and just scrolling through the known time periods to see if I found anything. This seemed smart because I was doing concise research.
But I found that as I was scrolling through the time periods that correlated to known deaths of ancestors, I was finding mentions of other relatives in the records as well. And I got to thinking: maybe I should start from the beginning of the records and see if I could find mentions of other folks, especially those for whom I didn’t have dates of death. So, I dug in.
The probate records I found online for Early County started in the 1830’s. When I got to 1838, I found an application for the administration of the estate of Gilbert Hays. This application was made by John Hays.
“John Hays having applied for letters of administration <illegible> the estate of Gilbert Hays late of said County…” familysearch.org; Early County, Georgia; Court Records Minutes, 1820-1902 ;Vol. A 1820-1849; Film # 008188795; Image 72 of 176; https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLZ-L9MW-Y?i=71&cat=288418
The given names of Gilbert and John didn’t currently mean anything to me, but I tucked this record away because I’m was looking for Bird Hays as well as the father to the other Elizabeth Hays who had married Walt Grimsley. Either of these men could be useful to my FAN Club research for the two Hays men that I was looking for.
Just a few pages later, I found a guardianship record for Elizabeth Hays, orphan of Gilbert Hays, and the guardianship was filed by Anna Hays.
“Anna Hays having applied for letters of Guardianship in the <illegible” and property of Elizabeth Hays orphan of Gilbert Hays dcd…” familysearch.org; Early County, Georgia; Court Records Minutes, 1820-1902; Vol. A 1820-1849; Film # 008188795; Image 74 of 176; https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLZ-L9MQ-L?i=73&cat=288418
Now this record DID make me perk up. I had an Elizabeth Hays and her mother was Annie Hays and no census records were noting a father, which indicated that he had died before 1850.
At this point, Gilbert Hays is looking very interesting to me. This record also gets tucked away.
I’m not going to add a screenshot of every record, especially if it doesn't add any additional genealogical evidence, but I’ll keep walking you through what the probate records contained.
Next, in July of 1838, John Hays filed the first annual return for the estate of Gilbert Hays. At this point, we do not know the relationship between John and Gilbert Hays. Some front-runners for the relationship between the two would be brothers, father-son, or uncle-nephew.
In May of 1840, we find two records regarding the return and administration of the estate of Gilbert Hays by John Hays.
In January of 1844, we find a return of account current and a full accounting for the estate of Gilbert Hays by John Hays.
In 1848, John Hays made a payment to Anna Hays who is the guardian of Elizabeth Hays. Elizabeth Hays is listed as the orphan of Gilbert Hays.
In December of 1848, Anna Hays, Guardian of Elizabeth Hays (orphan of Gilbert Hays), appears to the court to make an account of the costs associated with the guardianship of Elizabeth Hays.
In April of 1851, Anna Hays, Guardian of Elizabeth Hays (orphan of Gilbert Hays), appears to the court to make an account current associated with the guardianship of Elizabeth Hays.
AND THEN! 1853 rolls around…
Y’all, John Hays has died.
And this is when the records start getting really good.
Sarah Hays is the administratrix for the estate of John Hays, deceased. She maintains the administration of the account for Elizabeth Hays, minor. "Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-893L-T8WV?cc=1999178&wc=9SYY-RM3%3A267652101%2C267690901 : 20 May 2014), Early > Returns 1852-1857 vol A > image 75 of 362; citing Houston County Probate Court Judge, Georgia.
Sarah Hays is the administratrix of the estate of John Hays. It can be presumed that Sarah is the widow of John Hays for her to become the administratrix (i.e., a female administrator) of his estate. So, Sarah begins making payments to Anna Hays, as the guardian of Elizabeth Hays, who, as we know, is the orphan of Gilbert Hays.
So basically, Sarah is the administratrix of John’s estate but also takes over as the administrator of Gilbert’s estate too. This is really making me lean towards the relationship between John and Gilbert being a father-son relationship only because it would be far less likely that an aunt (one that married INTO the family) would take over Gilbert’s estate administration. It would be the same argument against a sister-in-law. This is not 100% proof, but I’m just walking you through what was going through my mind as I was sifting through these documents and correlating the evidence found in them.
And finally, if you scoot over to a different set of probate records (inventories and sales), I found that all the fun actually started in back in November of 1851.
The estate of John Hays is determined to have seven distributees. "Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G93L-TCBG?cc=1999178&wc=9SYY-RM3%3A267652101%2C267690901 : 20 May 2014), Early > Returns 1852-1857 vol A > image 19 of 362; citing Early County Probate Court Judge, Georgia.
The estate of John Hays was divided into seven portions. Embarrassingly, these seven portions of the estate were all enslaved individuals. As I noted above, my lines are deeply southern. So that means that unfortunately, I have run across this issue many more times than just this one instance. This is an issue that I have had to deal with and “come to terms with” mentally over and over again. I’m sure that it will eventually get its own blog post. But today is not that day. That post will be a very important and heavy one for me to write. And I’m not ready to do that yet.
For now, I will just touch on this one point that I want to address before going any further with this story: please know and understand that any delight that I dedicate to this particular record, or any such in the future, is from the genealogical value contained within. I.e., the family relationships gleaned from the information contained in these documents.
I am fully aware that this same document describes other, currently unknown, family relationships of the enslaved individuals named and that this document is most likely also describing the ripping apart of these same family units. That fact is never lost on me. Please never assume that I am in any way trivializing the lives of the enslaved individuals that are listed alongside the names of the white enslavers found in my family tree.
With that important qualifier intact, let’s discuss the individuals who were to be given a portion of the estate of John Hays:
Sarah Hays, widow of the deceased.
Etheldred Hays
Jeremiah W(alton) Grimsley – remember that Walt Grimsley is the husband of Elizabeth Hays
Green W Odom – a marriage record between Green Odom and Emily Hays has been found
James Hays
Dicey Hays
Elizabeth Hays
Who gets estate distributions? Folks who die intestate (i.e., without a will) have their estate divided between their wife and children. If their children have predeceased them, that portion of the estate goes to the widow and/or any offspring that the deceased child produced.
Note that Walt Grimsley is getting a piece of the estate of John Hays. That means that Elizabeth Hays was the daughter of John Hays. The father of Elizabeth Hays, b. abt. 1816 and died bef. 1861 who was married to Jeremiah Walton Grimsley, is confirmed!
Likely, Sarah Hays is also her mother, but technically, I have not been able to confirm that fact since I have not yet located a marriage record. I do know that marriage records exist in Early County starting in 1820, so John and Sarah were likely married before that date (and/or were not married in Early County), but that is not proof that she is Elizabeth Hays Grimsley’s mother.
But given that information, what else does this record tell us? If Walt Grimsley is receiving the daughter Elizabeth’s portion of John Hays’ estate, then the “Elizabeth Hays” also listed as receiving one of the seven portions is NOT the daughter Elizabeth Hays.
John’s daughter Elizabeth would NOT receive two portions and everyone else just one portion.
The next document confirms this.
Anna Hays, guardian of Elizabeth Hays, receives her portion and her daughter’s porton of the estate of John Hays. (Images have been spliced together for ease of reading) "Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-893L-T83K?cc=1999178&wc=9SYY-RM3%3A267652101%2C267690901 : 20 May 2014), Early > Returns 1852-1857 vol A > image 121 of 362; citing Early County Probate Court Judge, Georgia.
The final accounting of the estate of John Hays by Sarah Hays shows that Anna Hays received one of the seven portions of John Hays' estate in 1853 by right of her daughter, Elizabeth Hays. As we know, Elizabeth is the orphan of Gilbert Hays. Thus, Gilbert Hays is also the son of John Hays. Again, it is likely that Sarah Hays is his mother, but for the same reasons noted above, I have not yet been able to confirm this fact.
Elizabeth Grimsley is explicitly described as the daughter of the deceased John Hays. "Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-893L-T83K?cc=1999178&wc=9SYY-RM3%3A267652101%2C267690901 : 20 May 2014), Early > Returns 1852-1857 vol A > image 121 of 362; citing Early County Probate Court Judge, Georgia.
And happily, it is explicitly stated that J W Grimsley’s wife, Elizabeth Grimsley, was the daughter of the deceased.
Pedigree collapse strikes again! I got two grandpas for the price of one! (And most likely two/one grandmas as well!). Probate records in Early County, Georgia have confirmed that John Hays is both my 5th and 6th great-grandfather.
