Bell Ancestors
I am researching the ancestry of my grandfather, Frederick Benjamin Bell, who was born March 30th in either 1872,1877 or 1882 in Webster County. Both his death certificate and petition to join a Masonic Lodge list his father as William Bell.
I am asking for any help that you can provide. The actual facts known to me are stated above. The material stated below is based on review of Webster County census indexes and microfilm of the census. I make the speculations primarily based on naming trend knowledge. I realize that this is most questionable and flimsy. However, I have tried every possible avenue since 1989 and achieved very little.
I have located a William L. Bell, age 12, in the 1860 census living in the household of Fred Bell in Webster County. William L. Bell is not listed in the Fred Bell household in the 1870 Webster County census (when he would have been 22 years old). By 1872 or 1877 he could certainly have fathered a child. Thus far, I have been unable to access 1880 and later census records. By 1880-1890 William Bell would have had other sons, e.g., Roy Bell, Dennis Alexander Bell and at least two daughters who married doctors in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is my understanding that Dennis Bell was born 1883-84 and as a young man traveled with his wife to the "plantation" about 1909. His death ceertificate lists Mississippi as place of birth.