Posted By:	David Grimes Carr
	Email:
	Subject:	Re: Wiliam W. Smith d.1853/Mary Bishop d.1876 Sumter Co., AL
	Post Date:	February 20, 2005 at 13:33:48
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/al/sumter/messages/395.html
	Forum:	Sumter County, AL Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/al/sumter/

Jay, Thank you so much for your response – I was beginning to think I’d never hear from anyone! I tried to connect to, or possibly identify your Sarah C. Smith, but have had no luck as yet. The names Clifton, Herbert, Frank and Arthur do not appear in my Smith line either. I don’t think any of my Smith line migrated from Georgia. Powhatan Smith died in Georgia in 1861, and I know he was a Civil War soldier, so he might have died as a result of a battle injury. Three of his brothers died soon after him; Benjamin in 1862, and John and Robert in 1864. Since posting my earlier message, I have discovered that William W. Smith and Mary Bishop were both born in Virginia, he in 1793, and she in about the same year, and that they were married in 1817 in Chesterfield County, Virginia. William W. Smith appears on the 1840 Culpeper County, Virginia census with the correct number of family members. The family appears on the 1850 Federal Census in Culpeper County (each, by name), with the exception of four of the 13 children. These four, who by that time were of age to be on their own, are John, Robert, Thomas, and Mary Ann (who married Andrew J. Guard in 1848). I did not find them in their own households in Culpeper County, Virginia, but I have found individuals who I believe to be these same four children of William and Mary Smith in various households in Sumter County, Alabama in 1850. William W. Smith died in 1853 in Culpeper County, Virginia. By 1860, the balance of the family appears in the Sumter County, Alabama census, including Mary Bishop Smith, who is shown living with her daughter, Mary Guard and family. They all seem to have lived in Gainesville, Bluff Port, Livingston or Boligee, Alabama (which are relatively close). The 1860 census of Sumter County lists numerous Smiths, who may or may not have been related to my line. It’s difficult, though, to imagine a family living in Virginia would arbitrarily choose Sumter County, Alabama as their migratory destination without some sort of established connection, but one never knows…Are you familiar with that area of Alabama? My grandmother was born in Epes (near Livingston), so I am familiar with it to some extent. There were as many as three other Smith households listed in the 1850 Culpeper County Census, possibly brothers of William. The name Sarah appears in two of them, though their ages do not seem to match your Sarah C. – they were either too old or too young (just a guess based on the year she died – from your post – and the fact that she was married at the time). I will keep her in mind & let you know if I come across anything. Thanks again for your response, David