RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => United States of America => Topic started by: BingoBuster on Monday 11 February 19 16:06 GMT (UK)
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Hello everyone!
I'm having a little bit of trouble tracing back my fiances' roots and want to make sure I'm on the right path. Their family has claims to be descendants of the Scottish Urquhart clan, with her mother having done a little bit of research and the oral history going back a few generations, meeting some very distant cousins and so forth.
What I've been trying to find is that "correlation" between when their family began. My research and information has been that it may be from Samuel J. Urquhart (JUL 1842: Alabama - AUG 1885 : Early County, Georgia, USA ) who was a slave. Now this is probably all but impossible but I'm trying to see if Samuel was the illegitimate child Alexander Urquhart: AUG 1799(?): Georgia - 3 OCT 1864: Bethel Baptist, Clay County, Georgia). It goes from the family being Mulatto (mixed) to the Scottish lineage of Urquhart.
I know I'm probably way off, and that the family tree can abruptly end with the slave trade history but any assistance would be appreciated! Thank you as always!
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Hello everyone!
I'm having a little bit of trouble tracing back my fiances' roots and want to make sure I'm on the right path. Their family has claims to be descendants of the Scottish Urquhart clan, with her mother having done a little bit of research and the oral history going back a few generations, meeting some very distant cousins and so forth.
What I've been trying to find is that "correlation" between when their family began. My research and information has been that it may be from Samuel J. Urquhart (JUL 1842: Alabama - AUG 1885 : Early County, Georgia, USA ) who was a slave. Now this is probably all but impossible but I'm trying to see if Samuel was the illegitimate child Alexander Urquhart: AUG 1799(?): Georgia - 3 OCT 1864: Bethel Baptist, Clay County, Georgia). It goes from the family being Mulatto (mixed) to the Scottish lineage of Urquhart.
I know I'm probably way off, and that the family tree can abruptly end with the slave trade history but any assistance would be appreciated! Thank you as always!
There is an ancestry tree quoting Samuel J Urquhart but born 1825 Georgia - son of Alexander Haywood Urquhart 1799–1864 born 18 August 1799 - NC passed away 3 October 1864 - Early CO GA ???
FIND A GRAVE
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/68858753
Sandra
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1850 census Township 24, Tallapoosa, Alabama. Lockheart surname mis-transcribed.
Alexander Lockheart Age 51
Alitha Lockheart Age 43
Yelvington T Lockheart Age 16
message board post (30 December 2006) mention Y T Lockhart could be the brother of Samuel J Urquhart.
"Is it possible that Y.T. Urquhart and Samuel J. Urquhart are brothers and sons of Alexander and Althea" ? ???
https://www.ancestry.com/boards/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=785&p=localities.northam.usa.states.georgia.counties.early
Sandra
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1850 census Township 24, Tallapoosa, Alabama. Lockheart surname mis-transcribed.
Alexander Lockheart Age 51
Alitha Lockheart Age 43
Yelvington T Lockheart Age 16
message board post (30 December 2006) mention Y T Lockhart could be the brother of Samuel J Urquhart.
"Is it possible that Y.T. Urquhart and Samuel J. Urquhart are brothers and sons of Alexander and Althea" ? ???
https://www.ancestry.com/boards/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=785&p=localities.northam.usa.states.georgia.counties.early
Sandra
I've run into those two graves and thought originally, but i'm not sure if my reaearch is flawed since theres a census record stating Samuel was born in Alamaba or if I'm getting two different people mixed up with Alexander.
The only thing in Alabama I could find with Alexander was a Alabama, Homestead and Cash Entry issued on Nov 1st, 1858. So I probably have the Alexanders mixed up?
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It has been a long while since I worked on a black Southern U S family, so I forget most of the right terms, but you need to look for the Urquhart's plantation accounts books or whatever they are called. Sometimes the slaves are named, sometimes even birth dates are included. I wouldn't expect to find the father's name admitted to on the record, but there might be a Samuel in the slave side of household.
Somewhere there is a repository or list of repositories of where the various families' accounts books from each state have been donated to, I know I have seen the list, but again I forgot where.
One term I do remember is the Freeman's books. They are available online somewhere also. - records of dealings of recently freed slaves. The few I saw were usually filing complaints that they still weren't getting paid for their work. Samuel might be listed in them for some reason.
The US censuses for the relevant years record the # of free whites, but in the far right columns they are supposed to record the # of slaves as well.
all in all, I suggest finding this book:
Black Roots: A Beginners Guide To Tracing The African American Family Tree
by Tony Burroughs
which included this quote, badly paraphrased: 'at some point your family history becomes the history of the slaveowner's family', which is why you have to do the slaveowner's family as thoroughly as you would do your own.
It is great for research back to c. 1865 and then points you in the right direction before that.
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Are there any direct line male descendants available for yDNA tests? or even autosomal DNA might match the Urquharts closely enough, assuming someone on the slaveowner's side has submitted samples.
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Are there any direct line male descendants available for yDNA tests? or even autosomal DNA might match the Urquharts closely enough, assuming someone on the slaveowner's side has submitted samples.
Thank you for the book recommendation! I'll look into it.
I do not think there are any direct males that we know of sadly.
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And actually, in hindsight. I think I have two different Urquharts mixed up. Samuel lived mostly in Dublin, Montgomery, Alabama, USA during most of his life, so the Haywood Urquhart likely isn't the one I'm looking for. I'm going to try and narrow down the Alabama side and see if anything pans out.
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Okay, I did a little more sleuthing and found a US Federal slave census record that matches up pretty closely to the information I have on Samuel. He was a slave at the age of 7 when he was on the Urquhart plantation. According to the records, it looks like this was in Montgomery County, Alabama to a slave owner named Henry S. Urquhart on October 7th, 1850. Hoping this pans out a bit and if I can find any slave owner records that can expand on.
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Do you have this? Is this Sam's son? If so, it gives his wife Susan's maiden name.
Alabama Deaths
Name: Tom Urquhart
Event Date: 01 Mar 1964
Event Place: Montgomery, Montgomery, Alabama
Gender: Male
Age (Original): 82y
Birth Year (Estimated): 1882
Father's Name: Sam Urquhart
Mother's Name: Susie Hayes
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JXYP-PT5
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A few more things to throw at the wall and see if they stick:
is this Samuel in 1880? If so, he named his first son Henry.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4V4-8SW
Why do you say he died in 1882 in Georgia? Could this be him in 1900?
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9DL-ZPT
If so, is this his death in 1923? The image might list skin color.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JXCX-F3T
Are these two of his daughters, in 1920?
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXD4-XSX
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Henry S Urquhart, 1850, Montgomery County, but it only says "Second District"
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH5Z-NNV
does the slave owner record have a better location? is it near Dublin, Alabama, where Samuel seems to be in 1880?
a bit of a family tree for Henry:
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LXM8-JW1
Have you found Samuel in 1870? Lots of ex-slaves were skipped in 1870, according to what I have heard. And I haven't found him yet.
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I located the guide to the archived plantation records that I was trying to think of. I heard of it as the Schipper Collection.
Long story short, here is the link for what records have been archived for Alabama:
http://www.lexisnexis.com/documents/academic/upa_cis/2444_AnteBellSouthPlanSerJPt7.pdf
shortened, since that doesn't look right:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01ne9/
edited to add: the long link looks better outside of the editor, but I guess both links work.
I searched the .pdf for Urquhart and didn't find anything, but it is worth a look through anyway just to get a feel for things.
this is the name of the full work:
Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War
Author: Kenneth M Stampp; Randolph Boehm; Martin Paul Schipper; Library of Congress. Manuscript Division.
availability
https://www.worldcat.org/title/records-of-ante-bellum-southern-plantations-from-the-revolution-through-the-civil-war/oclc/12894903
and I also found this, I don't know what it is.
A genealogical index to the guides of the microfilm edition of records of ante-bellum Southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War
availability:
https://www.worldcat.org/title/genealogical-index-to-the-guides-of-the-microfilm-edition-of-records-of-ante-bellum-southern-plantations-from-the-revolution-through-the-civil-war/oclc/53999037
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A few more things to throw at the wall and see if they stick:
is this Samuel in 1880? If so, he named his first son Henry.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4V4-8SW
Why do you say he died in 1882 in Georgia? Could this be him in 1900?
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9DL-ZPT
If so, is this his death in 1923? The image might list skin color.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JXCX-F3T
Are these two of his daughters, in 1920?
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXD4-XSX
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Henry S Urquhart, 1850, Montgomery County, but it only says "Second District"
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH5Z-NNV
does the slave owner record have a better location? is it near Dublin, Alabama, where Samuel seems to be in 1880?
a bit of a family tree for Henry:
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LXM8-JW1
Have you found Samuel in 1870? Lots of ex-slaves were skipped in 1870, according to what I have heard. And I haven't found him yet.
Hey, sorry for the late reply. I did take a look into the "Second District" and it looks like the Judge Henry Snowden Urquhart is the same Henry Urquhart from the slave census. I apologies about my initial post, with Alexander / Georgia as I had gotten misinformation and was following the wrong branch of the Urquhart tree and hence why I was getting confused. I'm fairy confident that Judge Henry was the Urquhart owner of Samuel in his youth
I couldn't find any additional slave record aside from the 1850 but the Dublin isn't too far away from Pike where I found Judge Henry Urquhart.
Samuel's death date I found was in 1923 and in Montgomery Alabama so that matches up correctly. Sam's first child I had is James Henry (but Henry can be right as well.) He did have a son named Tom and Sam's daughter is Jane as well. I found a census from 1880 that has Sam living in Dublin with his family, so I'm confident that he stayed around after being freed.
Also, thank you for detailed index on slave and plantation records. Appreciate it!