FamilySearch Find Of The Day: Tippah County, Mississippi Deed for G. W. Vance

Back in April, I had made a visit to the Newberry library in Chicago, which is known for it's genealogical resources. To my delight, I found a book entitled "Land Deeds of Tippah County, Mississippi, 1836-1870", by Don Martini. I made a post about this in a previous entry, which you can find here. I was thrilled to be able to browse through this book and find the indexed information I needed for my Howell and Vance lines. My brick-wall ancestor, Hiram Howell, was murdered in Tippah County, Mississippi in 1853. His daughter Temperance Howell was married to George W. Vance, place and date unknown.


I was ecstatic today to see that FamilySearch had added a database called "Mississippi, Tippah County Records, 1836-1923". Instantly, I knew I'd be able to view the actual documents from the indexes I had previously obtained. Oh boy, was I excited! The first entry I located was a deed concerning my ancestor, George W. Vance. He apparently owed Jesse Embry $200. George W. Vance's stallion, the "Duke of Gloucester", was taken as collateral and given to Simon R. Spight to sell upon the date the money was due, if not paid in full. Quite interesting! I wonder what made this stallion worth $200 in 1845! Was this stallion a predecessor and ancestor to some modern race horses? Below you can find an extract of the record:

Deeds, 1844-1846, Volume F
Pages 97-98

Simon R. Spight, in trust from G. W. Vance
This indenture made the 24th day of February in the year of our lord one Thousand Eight hundred and fourty five by and between G. W. Vance of the county of Tippah and State of Mississippi of the first partiam, Simon R. Spight of the county and State aforesaid of the other part whereas the said G. W. Vance is indebted to one Jesse Embry in the sum of Two Hundred Dollars by two notes of hand are of which is for one hundred dollars due the 25th day of December 1845 and one also for one hundred dollars due the 25th day of December 1846 each note dated the 25th day of February 1845 and the same G. W. Vance being willing to give Jesse Embry a certain assurance that his money shall be paid at the expiration of the time specified in each note Therefore this indenture witnessth that the said G. W. Vance as well in consideration of securing the said Jesse Embry in the faithfull payment of the debt as also the sum of one dollar to him the said G. W. Vance in hand paid by the said Simon R. Spight the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged hath granted bargain sold transfered and assigned and set over and by these presents doth grant bargains sell assign transfer and set over to the said S. R. Spight his heirs and assigns _?_ _?_ Stallion known by the name of Duke of Gloucester to have and to hold the said horse unto the said S. R. Spight his heirs and assigns forever in trust however and to the intent and purpose that if the said two notes for the sum of one hundred dollars each are not well and truly paid of and discharged before the expiration of the respective times specificed 25th December 1845 and 25th December 1846 for one hundred dollars each by the said G. W. Vance or some other person for him then in that case the said S. R. Spight shall in the executing the trust hereby taken upon himself Advertise the said Horse for the span of twenty days by written advertisement at four public places in said county one of which shall be at the court house door of the county aforesaid that he will expose to the highest bidder the said Horse on a particular day for ready money and if the money aforesaid be not still paid on the day designated as aforesaid then the said S. R. Spight shall proceed to sell the above described Horse to the highest bidder for ready money and aforesaid sale to make a good and sufficient bill of sale in for said Horse conveying all the right and will that said G. W. Vance or his heirs may have in and to hoe same provided nevertheless that the said money should be paid before the day of sale herein mentioned these this indenture to be wholely void and of no effect either in law or equily in witness whereof the said G. W. Vance sets his hand an seal the date above written.

G. W. Vance (Seal)

List
CHarles G. Yancey
Richard Shelton
James H. Embry

What's Been Going On Lately

I've been neglecting my blog really bad lately.. I want to say sorry to my faithful readers out there. You know who you are. :)

I've been busy and preoccupied with a few things going on lately. First is my cousin's Bat Mitzvah, which is tomorrow. There's been months of set up and preparation and I'll be happy when it's over. The other reason I've been busy is I've been doing a lot of research lately.

Last week today, I went to the Newberry Library in Chicago with my friend Cathy. That place is amazing! I didn't even get through half the list of books I wanted to look at, but I found so much information and great leads on my brick-wall Howell family. My Howell's are dead-ended with a Hiram Howell and wife Rachel. They were born in the 1780's-1790's and lived in Western TN and finally Tippah County, Mississippi in the last years of their lives. Hiram was actually murdered in 1853! Hiram and Rachel were married sometime before 1810 in Tennessee and I believe they had somewhere around ten children, eight boys and two girls. One of the girls was Temperance, my 4th-great-grandmother. She was married to George W. Vance about 1844 (place and date unknown) and they had seven children, before George suddenly died in 1859-1860. He was only about 33 when he died... another possible murder? Hopefully further research will yield those answers.

I've also been pretty busy researching my Hungarian nobility. Through my 9th-great-grandmother, Margit Berzeviczy who married István Horváth de Perlak, I descend from many large and old noble families of Hungary.. some with very powerful connections. Here are some of the families I descend from through Margit's ancestry. If you descend from any of these please contact me, we're cousins!

*Bánffy de Gara (garai Bánffy) - genus Drusma

*Bárczay de Bárcza (bárczai Bárczay)

*Berthóthy de Berthót (berthóti Berthóthy) - genus Aba

*Berzeviczy de Berzevicze (berzeviczei Berzeviczy)

*Bocskay de Bocskó (bocskói Bocskay) - genus Boksa

*Buchai de Bucha (buchai Buchai)

*Cseley de Csele (cselei Cseley) - genus Bogáth-Radván

*Csúzy de Csúz és Puszta-Szent-Mihály (csúzi és puszta-szent-mihályi Csúzy)

*Garay de Gara (garai Garay) - genus Drusma

*Gombos de Gombosfalva (gombosfalvai Gombos) - genus Tekele

*Haraszthy de Haraszt (haraszti Haraszthy)

*Istvánffy baranyavár és Kis-Asszonyfalva (kis-asszonyfalvai és baranyavári Istvánffy)

*Izdenczy de Izdencz és Komlós (izdenczi és komlósi Izdenczy)

*Kapy de Kapivár (kapivári Kapy)

*Lipcsey de Nagy-Lucse (nagy-lucsei Lipcsey)

*Macedóniai de Macedónia (macedóniai Macedóniai)

*Merse de Szinye (szinyei Merse)

*Nekcsey de Nekcse (nekcsei Nekcsey) - genus Aba

*Ostffy de Asszonyfalva (asszonyfalvai Ostffy) - genus Osl

*Soós de Sóvár (sóvári Soós) - genus Boksa

*Szilágyi de Horogszeg (horogszegi Szilágyi)

*Szini de Teresztény (teresztényi Szini)

*Zombory de Zombor (zombori Zombory)

I've also been working on something for my website Hungary Exchange that I hope a lot of people will find useful. It's guides on how to read and decipher church parish records. It explains how to read baptism, marriage and burial records and I'm doing three records of each of those events for each of the religions in Hungary. There's the Civil Registration, Evangelical, Greek Catholic, Jewish, Reformed and Roman Catholic. So there would be a total of nine (9) guides for each religion, totaling 54 pages of guides when I'm completely finished. At the moment I have 100% of Reformed complete, 2/3 of Greek Catholic complete and 2/3 of Jewish complete. I hope to have it up soon.

All you Hungarian genealogists, please visit my website and submit the surnames you're researching in Hungary. The Surname Database already has 125 Hungarian surnames posted, so check it out!

Black Sheep Sunday - Hiram Howell

Not much is known about my 5th-great-grandfather's early life and family.. or his immediate family, for that matter.

I do know this: His name was Hiram Howell. He was born about 1790 in South Carolina and died in 1853 in Tippah County, Mississippi, from very curious circumstances. He was shot and killed, by his probable son-in-law, Lindsey Slaughter. How ironic is Lindsey's surname?!

Anyway, Hiram was married to a woman named Rachel. Her surname and past is unknown, but I do know she was born about 1794 in Georgia. She died sometime between 1853 and 1860 in Mississippi. According to various state and federal census records, they may have had a total of up to eight children. Three are definite: a daughter who's name is unknown (that married Lindsey Slaughter), a daughter Temperance Howell (who married George Vance) and a son Joel Howell (that married a woman named Rebecca).

As I said, Hiram was listed in several various state and federal census records. Here's a list of the records:

• 1820 Federal Census: Lincoln Co, TN; Also listed are a David, Joel, Jonathan, Reas (Reece), and Samuel
• 1840 Federal Census: Fayette Co, TN
  
• 1845 State Census: Tippah Co, MS
• 1850 Federal Census: Tippah Co, MS

Hiram also served in the War of 1812. He was a Corporal in Cocke's 2nd Regiment, Western Tennessee Militia.

Now for the interesting tid-bits. Hiram Howell, along with his two sons-in-law George Vance and Lindsey Slaughter, are found numerous times in the Tippah County, MS court records. One of the three was usually posting bond to get one of the others out of jail. Certain unknown circumstances lead to the death of Hiram Howell, by Lindsey Slaughter. Did Lindsey shoot him accidentally? Was it intentional? Did the men have a quarrel about money or about other no-good men in the area?

In hopes that further research will help settle these questions, I have a feeling I will never know the truth about what happened to my ancestor.

Was he flat-out murdered.....?!