Some More 'First Families' in Union by 1834--the Self Family
THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Some More
'First Families' in Union by 1834--the Self Family
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From time
to time I have been examining the 1834 special
census of Union County to see ancestors of those families who may still
be
living within the area of Union, or those who still come back to visit
graves
of those who have gone before.
This focus will be upon the Self
family. Three households with the last
name Self lived in Union
County in 1834.
The Job Self household had six males
and six females. The Francis Self
household must have been a young or old one, for there was just one
male and
one female registered, no children. The
Thomas Self household had one male and one female, and I can more
readily
account for them, for the first Self marriage recorded in Union
was that of Thomas Self to Nancy Cook on July 11, 1833 by John Thomas, Justice
of the Inferior Court. This marriage occurred about seven months
after Union was created on December 3, 1832. Nancy
may have been a daughter of William Cook, the only Cook family in Union in 1834 with 7 males and 9 females.
Thomas, the
groom, was probably a son of Job Self.
Unfortunately, no family article about the Selfs appeared in The Heritage of Union County
1932-1994 to assist with this family puzzle.
By the second census in 1840 four Self
families were living in Union. These were Job, William, Thomas R. and Robert
B. The household of Francis Self was not
listed in 1840. Perhaps he and his wife
had died. No marked grave with Francis Self was found in cemetery
records. Another Self wedding had taken
place since
1834. That was of Robert B. Self to Martha
Cook on January 25,
1838,
performed by Jarrett Turner, Justice of the Peace.
We wonder if Martha Cook Self and Nancy Cook
Self were sisters. It is interesting to
note the number in each of the families in 1840, as that census lists
only the
number by gender categories. Job Self’s
household had 4 males and 7 females. In
William’s home were 3 males and 2 females.
Thomas R. Self (Thomas and Nancy who married in 1833) had 3
males and 4
females, or five children. Robert B.
Self (who married Martha Cook in 1838) had one male and 2 females, or
one child
already.
Gratefully, by the 1850 census, not
only were names of heads of households listed, but the wife’s name was
given,
the place, if not Georgia,
where persons were born, and the names and ages of husband, wife and
children. In 1850 we find four
households of Selfs and another household with a child having the last
name of
Self. William, Thomas and Robert had
remained for the decade since 1840. The
fourth household, not listed in 1840, was that of Francis Self, age 32,
born in
NC, his wife Hester, 31, born in NC, and their five children all born
in
Georgia: Job 12, John 10, Thomas 8, John
4 (this may have been a mistake in transcription, for they already had
a son
John, age 10), and Joseph, 1. This
Francis could have been missed in the 1840 census, for their oldest
child, Job,
would have been born about 1838.
Tracing the other Selfs in the 1850
census, we find William, age 37 and his wife, Elizabeth, both born in North Carolina. Their first four children were also born in North Carolina: David, 17, Berryman, 14, John 12, and Sarah
10. Mary, 8, Franklin, 6, and Barbary
4 were born in Georgia.
Robert Self and his wife Martha Cook
Self were both born in North
Carolina. He was
30 in 1850 and she was 29. They had
married in Union
County
in 1838. Their children were James, 13,
Susan 8, Elisha 7, Jane 4, and Job 2.
Thomas Self and his wife Nancy Cook
Self (married in Union in 1833) and
both born
in North Carolina
had a large family by 1850. Names of
their children listed in the 1850 census were William, 16; Sally, 15;
Caroline,
13; John, 12; Elizabeth, 10; Francis, 9; Jehu, 7; Monroe, 6: Newton, 5;
Thomas,
3; and an infant male with no name yet given when the census taker
visited
their house in 1850.
The other Self listed in 1850 was a
child, Selia (Celia) Self, who lived in the household of a young
couple,
William Crumley, age 31, born in NC and Jane Crumley, age 28 who listed
her
birthplace as Alabama. Selia was age 6
and had been born in Georgia. Noting the marriage records, I found
that Jane Self and William Crumley were
married February
25, 1849
by Charles Crumley, Justice of the Peace. Celia evidently was Jane’s
child born
before her marriage to William Crumley.
Could Jane have named her after her aunt, Celia Self Collins,
wife of
Thompson Collins?
In consulting the helpful resource
book entitled Union County Marriage Records 1833-1897
compiled by Viola Holden Jones of Louisville, TN
in 1992, I found a total of
fifty Self marriages recorded between 1833 and 1897.
Space precludes my listing them here, but it
is interesting to see the children’s names of the 1850 households
listed among
those marriages.
Consulting another valuable resource, Cemetery
Records of Union County,
Georgia
(c1990), I decided to seek marked graves of any Selfs born
before
1850. I was disappointed to find only
three: Ezekiel Self (1845-1890) buried
in Antioch
Cemetery; John J.
Self (Dec. 6, 1835-
Oct. 22, 1921) and Margaret Self (May 28, 1939-Sept. 18, 1928) both
buried in Shady
Grove Cemetery. Referring again to the marriage records, I
found that Ezekiel R. Self married Rosa A. Hix on March 10, 1867 with Jebiah
Jackson, Justice of
the Peace performing the ceremony. John
Self married Margaret Daniel on February 10, 1856 with Charles Crumley,
Justice of the Peace, the
officiating officer.
At best, this account of first
families Selfs is incomplete. I am
greatly interested in Self genealogy because I descend from Celia Self
Collins,
wife of Thompson Collins. They were
among the first settlers in Choestoe District of Union County and were
here
when the first census was taken in 1834.
What research I have been able to do reveals that Celia was a
daughter
of Francis Self and that she had siblings named Job, Sarah, and Jesse. I believe the Job Self in the 1834 Union
Census was my great, great uncle, and the Francis Self listed then may
well
have been my great, great, great grandfather (Celia Self Collins’s
father). This research leaves me wishing I
knew for
sure.
c2009 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published Oct. 8, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood Road,
Milledgeville,
GA
31061-2411.]
Updated October 18,
2009
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