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Hi David,
I regret I cannot offer you much assistance, but I did note that your Sumter County Smith line had a Georgia Connection (Powhatan and Benjamin G. both died in GA) so I decided to "roll the dice" here so to speak. (When dealing with Smith lines we are often looking for the "needle in the haystack.")
My great-great-grandmother died in Sumter County in 1854. She was either a Smith by birth or by a marriage previous to her marriage to my great-great-grandfather, Samuel Roe Curtis (15 August 1804-15 December 1860). I do not know too much about my g-g-grandmother, but according to one of my late great-uncles, her name was Sarah C. Smith. He also stated that the stories he had heard when a boy was that Sarah was born in Georgia and that her family had moved to Tennessee before coming to Alabama and finally, that she died in 1854 just before Samuel R. Curtis and others in his family moved to Choctaw County, Mississippi.
She was the third wife of my g-g-grandfather Samuel R. Curtis and based on the birth of dates of their two sons,George Washington Curtis [4 March 1848-12 September 1899] and Elijah Smith Curtis [14 August 1850-24 February 1927], respectively, and the death date of Samuel's 2nd wife, Harriet (Busby) Curtis who died during or after 1844, Samuel and Sarah were probably married c. 1846 or 1847.
The census record of 1850 for Sumter County would appear to confirm my great-uncle's information that his grandmother's name was Sarah and that she was born in Georgia. The census also gave her age as 38 (b. ca. 1812).
My great-grandfather's name, Elijah Smith Curtis, is PROBABLY NOT much of a clue as the name "Elijah" is VERY common in my Curtis family for generations. However, both sons of Sarah and Samuel Roe Curtis named a son with the middle name "Smith," Clifton Smith Curtis and Herbert Smith Curtis, respectively, and neither Christian name, Clifton or Herbert, are commonly known in my Curtis family.
[I have several thousand names in my database and from my memory, I cannot recall any other individual with either the name Clifton or Herbert in the generation of either "Smith" Curtis boys, or in any of the preceeding generations going back to the mid-1700's, so at least in the case of "Herbert" it would be plausible that the name is from Sarah's lineage. Another POSSIBLE clue is that Elijah Smith Curtis named his eldest son "Frank Elijah Curtis." Elijah was the name of the grandfather of E. S. Curtis, Elijah Curtis (31 Dec 1776-24 May 1864) and that of his father-in-law, Elijah Curtis Jr. [16 November 1808-6 August 1875) [E.S. Curtis & his wife Mary Elizabeth were cousins] and I also know the name "Frank" is not found the lineage of Mary Elizabeth's lineage either for at least four generations back, so I believe it would be reasonable that "Frank" could be a name from the lineage of Sarah C. Smith. Another Christian ("1st")name that seems "out of place" for coming from the Curtis side of the family is the name of the 2nd son of E. S. Curtis, Arthur Roe Curtis. The "Roe" name is very much a Curtis family name, but "Arthur" is not a name found in the lineage of either E. S. Curtis or that of his wife Mary Elizabeth, so as in the case of the eldest son, it could be that E. S. Curtis was naming the sons for individuals in both of his parents' lineages.]
My Curtis line came to Sumter County from Marengo County, Alabama between 1830 & 1840; and prior to that had moved from Stewart County, Tennessee between 1815 & 1820; and to Stewart County from Anson County, North Carolina around 1809; and to Anson County from Queen Anne's County, Maryland around 1769. I mention this time line as I have found that prior to 1900 it was common to find lineages of a husband and wife to be interwoven, or at least to have "cross" in terms of geographic location in previous generations.
I have found a Smith family with "Arthur" as a common name in Washington County, Alabama, but have never been able to make a link to them, or to the other Smith families in Sumter, Marengo, Washington counties, etc.
Anything sound familar? Thanks, Jay.
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