Early Ancestors: The Bays Family

So, I'm here again to trace a branch of my family tree back to an ancestor who was living in colonial America. This time it's the Bays family. Again, the oldest ancestors that I have traced in this family lived in Virginia, and then my branch moved on to Kentucky. It turns out that a few of the descendants also moved on to Oklahoma, as my branch did.

Before I started in-depth research on my earliest Bays ancestors, the farthest I had researched to any extent was William Bays, born about 1760. It was a complaint filed by my ancestor, Anna Bays, to the Scott County, Virginia, Chancery Court that created the situation I described in the post, DNA Circles: William Bays and Rachel Barker. Anna, the youngest child of William, thought she had not received an equal share of her father's estate. In her complaint she names her mother Rachel (no maiden name given) and her siblings: Charles, Elizabeth (and her husband, Joel Bays, who many researchers mistake as the sibling rather than the in-law), John, Polly (Cody), Rebecca (Gray), Sarah (Barker), William, and Peter C. Some of the siblings still lived in Scott County, Virginia; others had moved to other locations in Virginia or to Kentucky.

Anna Bays married John Sargent in Scott County, Virginia, in 1820. Their second daughter, Rachel, was my 2nd great-grandmother. Rachel Sargent married Goldman Davidson Castle in 1844, also in Scott County. By 1860 they were living in Morgan County, Kentucky, from which location my grandmother, Fannie Castle, moved to Oklahoma in 1907. She remembered her grandparents well--especially the sometimes contrary nature of her sweets-loving, pipe-smoking grandmother.

Finding some sources and doing some reading about the early Bays family in Virginia has been enlightening and exciting. I definitely found some background that was news to me. This is where I have to stop and say that most of the information that I'm about to share comes from the research of others. Many dedicated researchers over the years have found clues in land records, court cases, and DNA tests, and have been generous enough to share those details on genealogical forums. Where I can attribute information, I will. Where researchers differ in their conclusions, I'll mention that as well.

Peter Bays I

Up until 2008, the earliest Bays ancestor in America was thought to be Peter Bays, born about 1690. Researchers were not sure at that time if he was born in England or Virginia. He is referred to as Peter I, because he starts a long line of descendants with that name. He was in Henrico County, Virginia, by 1709, living north of the James River in an area that became Goochland County in 1728. For this information about Peter Bays I, I am indebted to a Bays family researcher named Jerry Penley, now deceased. His tree and notes about his research can be found at www.penjaccphoto.com/ourgenealogy.htm. 

Mr. Penley and other researchers name the wife of Peter I as Sarah, whose maiden name is usually shown as Bibb/Bybe/Bybee. I don't know if these are possible surnames or different spellings of the same name. I can find no source for this information; however, there were neighbors with the surname Bybe, as you will see below. 

The children of Peter Bays I and his wife Sarah are listed in Peter's will, dated October 31, 1729. The abstract of the will appears in the book, Goochland County Virginia Wills and Deeds by Benjamin B. Weisiger and is available in digital form at Family Search, but there are also transcripts of the will available on Ancestry, attached to Peter I in Bays family trees. The original will is recorded in Book #1, page #169, in the Goochland Circuit Clerk's Office. 

The will reads, in part,

"I give and bequeath my land and plantation I now live upon to my eldest son, Peter Bayes, and his heirs forever after his Mother's decease...now I give to my son, William Bayes, two hundred acres of land joining upon Richard Oglesby's line and Thomas Christian's land. When my son, William Bayes, comes to age of fourteen years to have the free possession of his land to his use..."

Horses and tobacco were willed to daughters Sarah, Elizabeth, Jane, Judith, and Mary. The rest of his estate was to go to his wife Sarah, who was to be the executrix. The will was witnessed by "Eliz'th (E) Bybe, Edw'd White, Jno (I) Bybe." 

The will was proved on the 17th day of February 1729. This brings up an interesting situation, as you notice that the dates suggest the will was proved before it was written. However, a note posted on GenForum in 1999 by Anne Bays (I will mention her again) was attached to one of the will transcripts. Here is her explanation:

"The date for the proving should be listed as 1729/30, which is really 1730, but the old calendars turned over the new year in late March instead of January 1st. This causes a great deal of confusion because folks think that there is a mistake in the dates and the will was proven before it was actually written. This is not the case. The will was written in October 1729 and presented in Goochland Court in Feb. 1730, indicating that Peter Bays died sometime between these two dates."

Guardianship papers, traced through Albemarle and Amelia Counties, helped Mr. Penley and others pinpoint Peter II's date of birth as 1723 and William's as 1728. Peter I must have been young at his death, as his daughters were all unmarried and his sons not yet of age.

Along with the name Peter appearing in multiple generations, William is another Bays name that appears again and again. The same names appearing in different generations and the different spellings of the Bays surname sometimes make connecting the dots difficult. While my branch has consistently spelled the name BAYS, other spellings in documents and used by descendants are BAYES, BASE, BAZE, BAISE, and BAIZE.  

Researcher Mark Baze contributed a post to the Bays forum on Genealogy.com in 2008 that compares the accepted spellings of Bays (descendants of Peter I) with those that refer to other families. His criteria for a legitimate Bays spelling is that it consists of one syllable and a long "a" sound. This eliminates spellings that are pronounced "BAY-see" or "BAY-zee," and those with a short "a" sound, like Bass or Basse, particularly since that unrelated name also occurs in the area where Peter Bays I lived.

Apparently, there is also a consistent tradition among the Bays/Baze/Baize families that the family and surname originated in France. Many also claim a French Huguenot connection. The French Huguenots (French Protestants fleeing religious persecution) were granted land in Virginia by the English government and settled Manakin Town on the James River (very near our Henrico County folks) in 1700. In fact, a Peter Bayes is listed as Ancestor for a registered lineage in The Huguenot Society the Founders of Manakin in the Colony of Virginia. I may be mistaken here--and somebody can correct me, if they know--but I tend to discount the French Huguenot connection as Peter Bays was living in Virginia long before the Huguenots came.

Edward Bays, father of Peter Bays I?

It was also Mark Baze who announced in a Bays forum post on July 24, 2007, that DNA results had connected descendants of Peter Bays I with the varying surname spellings of Bays, Bayes, Baze, and Baize. Eventually, this led to a post dated March 10, 2008, that extended the Bays family in Virginia back a generation to Peter I's father, Edward "Base," and a couple of generations back through his mother, Anne Harris, and her parents. 

It is apparent that some very rigorous research was done by some devoted genealogists, among them Mark Baze, Anne Bays (deceased) that Mark credits, and a Harris researcher (deceased) named Kathryn Wiggins. I am sure that I am simplifying years of work, but what Mark called a "confluence" of research consisted of (1) his discovery that three pieces of property in Henrico County in the time period 1723-1725 were adjacent tracts of land on the north side of the James River owned by Peter Bays I, Richard "Baze," and Edward Bays/Base, and (2) Kathryn Wiggins' discovery at the Library of Virginia of the will of Peter Harris, Sr., dated 1687 and recorded 1689 in Henrico County that left his estate to his son Peter; daughter Mechall; son John; and daughter, Ann "Base."

Kathryn Wiggins produced an amazing amount of historical research in installments she called "The Harris Papers: A Genealogical Notebook." There are 35 volumes, many of them available at Family Search. I'm pretty impressed with not only the amount of Ms. Wiggins' work but also with the way she produced the information for the use of genealogists, particularly those in the Harris line. Working in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's meant that she did nothing digitally. I know none of this for sure, but it looks like to me that she visited repositories in Virginia and North Carolina, transcribed documents related to the Harris family (and families with a genealogical or geographical connection), typed the resulting abstracts, self-illustrated, then mimeographed and hand-bound her "genealogical notebooks." 

Of course, seeing the originals is always better, but in a time when few people had access to the originals, these abstracts had to have been amazingly helpful. If you had people in colonial America in the following counties of Virginia and North Carolina, I would suggest taking a look at "The Harris Papers." Again, not all the notes refer to Harrises. In browsing several volumes of the "Papers," I found information about the Womacks, ancestors of my deceased husband, and the Toneys, my possible maternal ancestors from Goochland County. I also saw lots of Cockes among the first settlers in Henrico County, making me wonder if they are the earliest of that family in Virginia.

Subjects of volumes of "The Harris Papers"

Getting back to Edward Base/Bays: In Volume 20 of "The Harris Papers" on page 35b is a family tree constructed by Ms. Wiggins. Based on her research, the tree descends from a couple, John and Dorothy (Cawcott) Harris who lived in Charles City County. (In Vol. 1 Wiggins suggests that Peter Harris might be the son of William Harris, first of the Harrises in Virginia. Something must have happened between Vol. 1 and Vol. 20 to change her mind.) Their oldest child, Peter Harris, Sr., mentioned above, was born in 1617 (this is according to his statement in a Henrico County court case, dated 1677, that he was 60 years old.) His wife's given name was Mechall (Michelle? Another French connection?). According to Wiggins, the only Peter Harris of this time period was the one living on Turkey Island in Henrico County. Peter Harris, Sr. died in 1688, and his will was recorded in 1689. Named in the will are his son Peter, daughter Mechall, son John, and daughter Anne "Base." Ms. Wiggins' Harris/Cawcott tree shows Anne married to Edward Base/Bays with children, Peter, Edward, and Jane. Peter would be the right age and in the right geographical location to be our Peter Bays I. The conclusion to be drawn is that Peter I was named for his grandfather, Peter Harris, Sr. or his uncle, Peter Harris, Jr.

You can see by Kathryn Wiggins' hand-drawn map that the West and Shirley Hundred (home of John and Dorothy Cawcott Harris) and Turkey Island (home of Peter Harris, Sr.) were very close to each other, geographically.

 

While Mark Baze noted in his Bays forum post that more investigation needed to be done, he tended to trust Kathryn Wiggins' conclusions. He trusted her because she was a Harris, not a Bays, researcher, and had no reason to force a conclusion. However, he couldn't find the original source of her list of Edward and Anne (Harris) Bays's children, Peter, Edward, and Jane. In the last post that he made to the Bays forum on July 29, 2008, Mark Baze was looking for Vol. 1 (Henrico Co.) of "The Harris Papers," to see if he could find the source of Wiggins' assertion that Anne Harris was married to Edward Bays and had a son named Peter. That was before digitization, and Mark was waiting for a book to be available to check out. In 2020 I'm fortunate to have been able to search a digitized copy of Volume 1 of "The Harris Papers" (plus every other volume that I thought might hold the answer) but unfortunate that it does not reveal the mysterious source. 

So...are Edward and Anne (Harris) Bays the parents of Peter I? I still don't know. If they are, it means that both Peter I and his mother were born in Virginia, not England--or France. 

Peter Bays II

Having gone back a generation to pick up the Edward Base/Bays story, let's go forward now to Peter II, son of Peter I. According to Jerry Penley, Peter II (1723-1801) was living in Albemarle County in 1744 when he returned to Goochland County to sell the piece of land his father had left him. From this, Mr. Penley surmised that Peter II's mother was deceased (since there was no other claim on the land) and that Peter had reached the age of 21, which allowed him to sell the land without the aid of a guardian. 

Before I began this story of the early Bays ancestors, I had gone along with the Ancestry members who named Peter II's wife as Susannah "Hannah" Barker. In fact, when I first read Jerry Penley's account of Peter II's life, I thought he must be mistaken in his insistence that the wife of Peter II was named Sarah. This confusion about wives was one of the reasons that Mr. Penley wrote his account: "There is so much incorrect information about Peter Bays, that I would like to help you to sort out the various generations."

Now that I've seen the evidence, I think Mr. Penley was right. According to him, Peter II must have been married to Sarah in 1744 when he sold the land in Goochland County, but she was not able to accompany him to court at that time. We know this because she appeared in court in Goochland County in 1746 and gave up her dower rights to the land that Peter had sold in 1744. 

In 1749 "Peter II and wife Sarah bought land on Tobacco Row in Albemarle County (present day Amherst County)"; on 14 June 1759 "Peter Bayse of Halifax" and "Sarah wife of Bayse" sell this tract of land to William Gilliam of Albemarle County (Albemarle County Deed Book 2, page 128). 

I think the problem is that some researchers combine the two Sarahs, wives of Peter I and Peter II, and skip right from Peter I to Peter III.

Peter Bays III

Mr. Penley believed that Peter Bays III was born about 1750 because he appeared in court in Halifax County for the first time on 15 October 1772, and he would have had to be 21 to do so. It is this Peter Bays that was married to Susannah, whose last name was "possibly Barker," according to Penley. It was also this Peter who fought with the Henry County militia in 1781 at the Battle of Guilford Court House, in which British Lt. General Charles Cornwallis's troops defeated American troops led by Major General Nathanael Greene. A descendant was accepted into the Sons of the American Revolution (#132436) on the evidence of this Peter's military service. 

Peter II was also living in Henry County in this time period but was too old to serve with the militia. Penley says, "There is also a William Bays living in the same area of Henry County as Peter, Sr. (II) and Peter, Jr. (III). I believe, but have not proven, that this William, who later moves to Washington, Lee, Russell, and Scott Counties, is a son of Peter II and a brother to Peter III." This is my William! According to Penley and the SAR application, Peter III died in Russell County, Virginia, before 24 November 1801.

Recently I found the transcript of a deed (Russell Co. VA Deed Book 3, page 347, executed 25 October 1802, recorded 26 October 1802) originally contributed to Ancestry by EmergedDragon7 in 2012. I believe it may list the children of Peter III. It reads:

"This Indenture made the Twenty fifth day of October in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and two Between Jacob Crabtree of Lee County & Commonwealth of Virginia and Mary his wife of the one part, and John Bays, William Bays, James Bays, Joel Bays, Peter Bays, Joseph Bays, Mary Bays, and Susanna Bays, heirs at law of Peter Bays deceased of Russell County & Commonwealth aforesaid of the other part."

And then today I found the transcript of the deed when the heirs of Peter Bays sold the land. It's very informative, in that it names the married female heirs with their husbands and the married male heirs with their wives.

"This Indenture made the 16th day of November in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifteen between Susanna Bays Sen'r [Peter III's wife], John Bays & Catharine Bays his wife, William Bays, James Bays & Ruth Bays his wife, Joel Bays, Peter & Margaret Bays his wife, Andrew Martin & Mary Martin his wife, Joseph Bays, and Harrington Little & Susanna Little his wife."

Peter Bays IV

This is no longer my direct line, and we're getting close to the end of the 1700's but not to the end of the Peters. This Peter Bays was born about 1785 and married Margaret Stone in Russell County in 1814. He died 27 October 1849 and is buried in the Bays Cemetery in Floyd County, Kentucky. He also had a son named Peter.

 

Peter Bays IV headstone, Bays Cemetery, Floyd Co. KY
Contributed to Findagrave by Bobby Davis

William Bays

I believe that William Bays was the son of Peter II and brother of Peter III. Most researchers think he was born in 1760. Jerry Penley located William in Henry County, Virginia, in the 1780's, and traced him to Washington, Lee, Russell, and Scott counties. In 1820 he is on the census of Scott County, Virginia. The Kentucky death record for his son, William, names his parents as William and Rachel Bays. William died in Scott County on 6 September 1827. Rachel is shown as head of household, age 60-70, on the 1830 census of Scott County. Some trees give her death date as 1848.

The children of William and Rachel Bays named in the suit brought by their youngest sister Anna Bays Sargent were: Elizabeth, Charles W., John, Mary, Rebecca, Sarah, William, and Peter C. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, was married to Joel Bays. Many, many researchers have listed Joel as the son of William and Rachel, but if you read the court case carefully, it is Elizabeth that is the daughter of William and Rachel, and Joel is her spouse. I believe Joel Bays (1782-1852) of Scott County, Virginia, was the son of Peter Bays III. If Peter Bays III and William were brothers, then Elizabeth and Joel were first cousins.

Recently a Bays descendant from Scott County, Virginia, Donnie Bays, commented on my post about the Bays family court case. He had been in touch with cousins that descend from Peter C., above, who moved from Virginia to Knox County, Kentucky. Donnie is a descendant of Joel and Elizabeth Bays. He mows the cemetery where they are buried! He wondered if I would like to have a picture of the cemetery. Of course! 

Isn't that a beautiful backdrop? I asked if the mountains were part of the Appalachians, and Donnie explained that they are, but each section has its own name. This is the Clinch Mountain Range, which I should have guessed. 

He also sent along a photo of this marker for William Bays. I asked if William was buried in this cemetery, and Donnie explained that there is a cemetery 2/3 of the way up the mountain. It is located on William's farm which extended from the creek up to the top of the mountain. The cemetery where Joel is buried is on Joel's farm. 

It's beautiful there, but it was a hard life on the mountain, Donnie says. His grandfather was one of 13 kids. "His [grandfather's] father died young, living up in that mountain. When each child got old enough to make it on their own they scattered from VA to the west coast." This is Reuben Frank Bays (1847-1892), Donnie's great-grandfather. We think he bears a strong resemblance to my grandmother's brother, Warner. 

Reuben Frank Bays (1847-1892)

Miscellaneous

***Thanks to Donnie and one of his cousins, the Joel Bays Cemetery is on Findagrave. Here are photos by Dave Pierson of Joel's and Elizabeth's markers.

When I got on Findagrave to see the photos, I also got a map of the area where the cemetery is located.

I had to smile. When my brother and I were watching Ken Burns' Country Music documentary a few months ago, we talked about the Carter family coming from the Clinch Valley, the home of our ancestors. Do you see what's right below the marker for the cemetery?--the A.P. Carter Highway. The Carter Family Fold is about 15 miles from the cemetery by road, and even closer as the crow flies.

***I belong to a Facebook group called Stapleton Connections. I'm not a Stapleton, but a lot of the Stapletons are Castles. Someone recently posted a video of a Castle family reunion that took place many years ago at Bays Mountain. Well, I had never heard of Bays Mountain, so I looked it up. According to their website, "Bays Mountain Park is a 3550 acres nature park and planetarium located on Bays Mountain in Kingsport, Tennessee." According to Wikipedia, "Two Bays brothers settled in Southwest Virginia, Russell and Scott Counties about 1780. Bays Mountain received its name from this family as they were noted as great hunters." The brothers have to be Peter III and William. 

If my brother and I ever get to travel again, Bays Mountain will be on our itinerary.

***As time went on, of course, the Bays families began to move west. Of the seven children of William and Rachel Bays that I could locate on the 1850 or later censuses (there were nine total), five were living in Kentucky. Some stopped in Kentucky, then kept moving west. Some left Virginia and ended up in Oklahoma.

Donnie Bays shared with me that he had Bays cousins living in Tulsa and in Kansas City. He wondered if I knew anyone with the name Baize. It turns out that one of his Scott County uncles, Joel Melvin, son of Reuben, changed the spelling of his last name to Baize and moved out west. On the 1900 census Joel and his wife Fannie are living in Madison County, Arkansas, with their five children, all born in Arkansas. 

In 1901 they moved to Oklahoma, where they lived in several locations before settling in Pottawatomie County. Joel died in Dale, Pottawatomie County, in 1939 and is buried in Prague, Lincoln County. He had two sons, Melvin Henry Baize, who died in 1985 and is buried in Shawnee, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, and William McKinley Baize, who died in 1991 in Kansas and is buried at Prague.

I usually take a second look when I see the name Bays. As I told Donnie, that's not a common name here, and when I see it, I always wonder if they are descendants of my Bays family. I would never have taken a second look at a family named Baize. There is a family story contributed by a relative to Geneanet that explains why Joel Melvin made the name change, but it makes me wonder if he reverted to the original spelling of the name when he decided to make the change. 

By 1920 the Baize family had settled in Pottawatomie County about 40 minutes from the Chandler/Davenport (Lincoln County) area where my Castle family lived in 1910.  

Kith and Kin

When the Days and Castles first came to Oklahoma, they lived between Davenport and Chandler. I think it was in the early 1980's that we took my grandmother back there to visit one Sunday. We drove around roads that she remembered from 70 years before. We learned that many of the same families still lived on these farms, and how did we know that? Because my grandmother would point out the home of a family she remembered, and sure enough, the name on the mailbox would be the one she said. 

In my last post I shared a map my grandmother drew in her 80's showing the homes of families she remembered from her early years in Kentucky. The summer after she turned 10 she and her family moved to Oklahoma, and she never returned. She drew that map 75 years after she left Kentucky in 1907. Now, I could probably draw a map of the neighborhoods I lived in before I was 10, but I have lived here ever since, so I have 60 years worth of memories to draw on. If I had left Red Fork at the age of 10, I wonder how much I would remember now.

I thought it might be fun to find these Kentucky families on the 1900 census and try to determine where they lived and what connection they might have had to the Castle family. Why did my grandmother remember them? And just for curiosity's sake, was her map correct?

It complicates things a little that the names of the communities around West Liberty seem to have changed. Some of them have disappeared altogether. The communities that I remember my grandmother talking about were Caney, Cannel City, Stacy Fork, and of course, the town of West Liberty. On my grandmother's application for a delayed birth certificate from Kentucky, she said that she was born near Caney. The one-room school she attended was in Stacy Fork. Since he was postmaster, for a time the area around Grandpa Castle's house was known as Castle, KY. The name I never heard was Panama, the area around the little G.D. Castle family cemetery. It must have been a usage that came about after my grandmother left Kentucky.

G.D. Castle postmaster appointment showing p.o. name as Castle, KY

Starting with the cluster around Stacy Fork in the left-hand corner of the map:

I know how my grandmother knew the Ratliffs. Dora Castle, daughter of James H. and Elizabeth Nickell Castle, was married to Wheeler Ratliff. They first appear in the 1910 census in Walnut Grove, Morgan County, also known as Precinct 7, Caney. They are buried in the Walnut Grove Cemetery in Stacy Fork. No wonder this is so confusing! 

How about the Webbs? This was a hard one, but I figured it out. Geneva Haney Alexander was a friend of the Castles who lived in Tulsa but had moved there in her teens from Morgan County. Geneva was born in 1902 in Stacy Fork. Her parents were Jariel D. and Martha Lou Webb Haney. Jariel and Martha are enumerated on the 1900 census in Caney. Geneva, her husband Jess, her parents, and her brother Cecil are all buried at Memorial Park in Tulsa.

Geneva Haney (seated) with my grandmother

Lykins was and is a very popular name in Morgan County. On the 1900 census there are over 35 heads of households with the last name Lykins, just in Morgan County. According to Ancestry, in 1880 and 1920 more people with the surname Lykins lived in Kentucky than in any other state. Eliza, daughter of William and Nancy Wells Castle, married Clay Lykins, but I can't determine from which of these families he comes.

Haney is another popular name in Morgan County. My grandmother listed four different Haney families on her map. My grandmother apparently knew some of these Haney families as relatives and perhaps others as the families of classmates. There were several Haneys in the photograph I have of her classmates at Stacy Fork School. The Castles were also related to the Haneys through marriage. Rachel Sargent Castle's father, John Sargent, died very young. His wife, Rachel's mother, Anna Bays Sargent, remarried to James Haney in 1841. Of the seven children that lived with her on various censuses, she was the mother of at least three: Miriam, Elizabeth, and George Washington Haney. 

Stacy Fork School, about 1902

I found the Gulletts, Quicksells, Nickells, Combses, and Whiteakers all listed on the 1900 census in Morgan County, River, District 0074. Starting on page 26 of that enumeration are the Castles and Gulletts. Heads of households on that page are John Gullett, Mason Gullett, George T. Castle, and Goldman D. Castle. Mason Gullett's son, Asa, married Lutie Day, the first cousin of my grandmother's mother, Sarah Florida Day Castle. 

On page 28 are three families that I know my grandmother knew. First on the page was Massoline Nickell with her six children. She was the widow of Kelsey Nickell, who was the brother of George Turner Castle's first wife, Frances. Halfway down on the page was the family of William H. and Nancy Wells Castle (my grandmother listed all their names on her map; see below). Two houses down from the Castles was Napoleon "Uncle Boney" Haney. He was married to Miriam Haney, daughter of James Haney and Anna Bays.

On page 29 were Combs and Quicksell families, and on page 31 was the family of Alex Whiteaker. Under his name my grandmother listed three of his children. The first name, which looks like Bob, has to be some nickname for his oldest daughter, Mary Belle. Then comes J.D. (James) and Myrtle. James Whiteaker really did go by J.D.; as such he signed as informant on his father's death certificate.

William and Nancy Wells Castle family

On the right of my grandmother's map at the end of Castle Branch she lists all the children of William and Nancy Castle. Again, it's neat to know that they were known as Will and Nan. John Seymour Castle, who apparently went by Seymour, married Rosa Katherine (Kate) Oney. My grandmother listed their two children, (John) Boyd and Edna. Elizabeth (Elizie on the 1880 census) married first in 1892 to G.W. Lee, and then in 1906 to Alonzo Daugherty. She was already married and living on her own before my grandmother was born, which is probably why she is missing from my grandmother's list of Will and Kate's children. The next two children were Eliza, who married Clay Lykins, and (Goldman) Davidson, named for his grandfather, who died by age 25. (George) Barnes Castle married "Lula" Oney, and apparently set up housekeeping very close to his mother and dad. The two youngest were (Rachel) Florida and Effie. Florida's son, Mearl McGuire, and Effie both corresponded with my grandmother in her later years. 

I'm not sure Malone was called Malone when my grandmother lived in Kentucky. It is another small community lying outside of West Liberty. The census does not call it Malone until 1940, and only about 15 families were enumerated in that district in that year. Since my grandmother corresponded with Mearl McGuire, who lived in Malone, she may have used that name on her map because it corresponded to the area where the McGuires had lived when she was young. She lists five families there: the Walshes, DeBords, McGuires, Wells, and Bays.

In 1900 the John Debord family was enumerated in the same district with the families above: Morgan County, River, District 0074. John Debord (spelled in various censuses as Deborde, DeBorde, Deboard, Debard, etc.) was married to Calah Wells. Calah was the sister of Nancy Wells, who was married to William H. Castle (Nan and Will), but that is not her only connection to my grandmother's family. The father and mother of Nancy and Calah were James Wells and his wife Carrie Ann Day. Carrie Ann was the sister of Andrew Jackson Day who was the grandfather of my great-grandmother, Sarah Florida Day, wife of George Turner Castle. Whew! Is that convoluted enough for you??

I haven't figured out how or if the Walshes were related to the Castles, but they did live in the same area as the Debord and Wells families. In fact, according to Findagrave, John Walsh and his wife Mary, James Wells and his wife Carrie Ann Day, and John DeBorde and his wife Calah Wells are all buried in the DeBorde Cemetery in (wait for it) Malone. 

The Bays families in Malone were no doubt descended from the brothers of Anna Bays Sargent Haney. My grandmother would probably have known the degree of relationship, but the Bays families in 1900 were too far downstream for me to determine how they were related to Anna.

Caney, Stacy Fork, and Malone are all described by Wikipedia as lying along Highway 191 south of West Liberty, so if you want to read my grandmother's map oriented properly, West Liberty would be rotated to the top of the map.

If you compare my grandmother's map to this 1999 map of Morgan County, it might not match perfectly, but you can sure get an idea of these little communities in relation to each other. Traveling south on 191 from West Liberty, you might first see these little "branches," DeBoard Branch, Castle Branch, and Haney Branch. Just before DeBoard Branch to the east is the community of Malone. Look west between the Castle and Haney Branches and you will see Panama. Just south of Haney Branch on Hwy. 844 you will see Stacy Fork. To the east of Stacy Fork is the Walnut Grove Church. Further south on 191 are Caney and Cannel City.

Some of these families had known each other forever. On this one page of the 1870 census, long before my grandmother was born in 1897, I found these names on Page 1 of the Morgan County, Caney, enumeration: Anna (Bays) Haney, Goldman Castle (and wife Rachel, daughter of Anna), Alex Whiteaker, and John Haney (father of Jerial, grandfather of Geneva Haney Alexander). No wonder they stayed in my grandmother's thoughts for 80 years.

1870 Morgan County Census

DNA Circles: William Bays and Rachel Barker

The Ancestors

Russell and Scott are adjacent counties in southwestern Virginia. The area that became Russell County belonged to several other counties before being separated from Washington County in 1786. Scott County was formed from Russell and Lee counties in 1815. A number of my paternal ancestors, especially the ones who later resided in Morgan and Magoffin counties in Kentucky, came originally from Russell and Scott counties. They include the Castles, Sargents, Oneys, Kendricks, Days, Barkers, Bayses, Lewises, and Hortons, and not only those, but the Farrises and Davidsons from the Wheat (maternal) side of my family.

In fact, the petition to form Russell County in December 1785 was signed by a Bays, Jacob and Joseph Castle, Patrick Kendrick, John Lewis, Benjamin and William Oney, and Champ Farris. The description of the county included many place names associated with these ancestors, such as the Clinch River, the Holston River, Moccasin Creek, and Powell Valley.

My 4th great grandparents, William Bays and Rachel (Barker?) came from Scott County. William died there in 1827, and Rachel Bays is listed on the 1830 Scott County census as a head of household. While some Ancestry trees list her as Rachel Barker and others as Rachel Broadwater, there is apparently no evidence for either. Both Barkers and Broadwaters were present in the area. Based on circumstantial evidence, it is possible that Rachel was the daughter of John Barker and Martha Snead. (I have numerous Ancestry DNA matches to descendants of John and Martha, but that only proves that numerous Ancestry users think their ancestors are John and Martha.)

William and Rachel's youngest daughter Anna married John Sargent on 15 January 1820 in Scott County; after John's death, she married James Haney in 1841, again in Scott County. Anna and John Sargent's daughter Rachel married Goldman Davidson Castle and became my 2nd great-grandmother.

Children of William Bays and Rachel (Barker?)

I think of myself as a serious genealogist, but I'm going to admit something here that would make many serious genealogists cringe. On my family tree on Ancestry.com I had a list of the children of William and Rachel Bays, but I didn't find them through painstaking research. I copied them from somebody else's tree on Ancestry.com. Other trees listed even more children--with absolutely no documentation, including birth or death dates. I at least tried to document the existence of these nine children and find evidence of their lives, even though I didn't know where their names came from originally.

After looking carefully at these children while writing this post, I knew their names had to come from somewhere, maybe a will or Bible record. I had no doubt that there was some document that linked all these siblings, even though I couldn't find a tree on Ancestry that cited that record. Some of these siblings stayed in Scott County, some moved to other locations in Virginia, others moved to various locations in Kentucky. How would you ever identify them as coming from the same family unless there was some evidence? While I didn't completely trust the names I copied from other people's trees on Ancestry, there did seem to be some facts--origin in Scott Co., residence in other locations associated with this family--that made the names plausible.

And then, when I had almost finished this post, I found the record upon which this list of siblings was based. It was attached on an Ancestry tree to Elizabeth Bays, a child of William and Rachel that I didn't even have on my list. I am grateful to the Bays researcher who found the document--a court case--in the records of the Virginia Chancery Court and transcribed the portion of the file that would be most helpful to genealogists. He also provided the link to the actual record, 

http://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=169-1836-007#img,

which I read.

Ironically, the court case was brought by my ancestor, Anna Sargent, against her mother and siblings, claiming that she had not received a fair portion of her deceased father's estate. The list of defendants corroborated the list of siblings I copied from Ancestry, with one exception. While many trees list Joel Bays as one of the children of William and Rachel Bays, it turns out it is really his wife Elizabeth who was their child, and her husband Joel was her first cousin. The transcription of the court case was attached to this Elizabeth on a family tree to prove that she, not her husband Joel, was the child of William and Rachel Bays.

The court case gave me quite another shock when the original complaint listed the widow of William Bays as "Rebecca." I just couldn't figure out how William could have remarried since his wife Rachel appears as head of household in 1830 and didn't die until 1846. Apparently, the name Rebecca was an error, as later the court records list the widow many times as "Rachel."

The suit was brought against "1 Charles Bays, 2 Joel Bays and Elizabeth his wife, 3 John Bays, 4 Thomas Cody and Polly his wife, 5 Isaac Gray and Rebecca his wife, 6 John Barker and Sarah his wife, 7 William Bays, 8 Peter C. Bays children & heirs of William Bays deceased and also against Rebecca [sic] Bays widow of said William deceased." It states that William died in 1827, and the estate was divided in 1831. 

Original complaint brought by Ann Sergeant against her siblings and mother

Anna Sergeant complained that she had not received her portion of one of the tracts of land owned by her father. Reading the descriptions of the land makes me wonder how the metes and bounds system could have ever worked well. Hardly anyone could agree on the extent of the tracts or how much they were worth. What I found really entertaining was how many ways they could spell the word we know as "moccasin," as in Moccasin Creek. Most prevalent were "moqueson" and "mokasin."

Here are the children listed in the court case and thus the children of William and Rachel Bays:

Defendant #1 was Charles Bays. I found him at 65 years old on the 1850 Floyd County KY census and therefore born about 1785. He was the head of household of a family including wife Susannah and four children. All members of the family were born in Virginia. Floyd County KY was a transition residence for many of my Morgan/Magoffin County ancestors.

Elizabeth Bays, defendant #2 along with her husband Joel, was 66 on the 1850 Scott County census (Western District) and therefore born about 1784. She is listed on the census with her husband Joel Bays, age 68, and their daughter Malinda, age 23. Elizabeth and Joel were born in Virginia, but Malinda was born in Tennessee. Next door is William Bays, age 26, born in Tennnessee, most likely the son of Elizabeth and Joel.

Trees that list John Bays as a child of William and Rachel Bays give his birthdate as 1787 and his death date as 10 September 1867 in Carter County KY. They show his wife as Jane Kilgore, and one tree lists nine children of this marriage. A John Bays appears on the 1820 Scott County census and the 1830 and 1840 censuses in Russell County. I could not find a John Bays on the 1850 or 1860 Carter County KY censuses. However, an extensive entry for John "Jack" Bays on Findagrave claims his birth in Washington County VA in 1787 to William and Rachel Bays, his marriage to Jane "Jennie" Kilgore, residence in Morgan County KY in 1840, the birth of eight children, and his death in 1861 in Carter County. He was defendant #3 in the court case.

Numerous trees on Ancestry.com list Mary "Polly" Bays as a child of William and Rachel. They give a birthdate of 1792 and a death date of 28 September 1853 in Perry County VA. She is listed as defendant #4 in the court case, along with her husband Thomas Cody.

The court case lists Rebecca Bays as defendant #5, along with her spouse Isaac Gray. Trees on Ancestry.com give her birth year as 1794 and a death date of 1850. While many trees on Ancestry and sources on the Internet repeat this information, I can't find a marriage or census record for them.

Sarah "Sally" Bays, defendant #6, married John Barker on 26 March 1815 in Scott County. They are living in the Western District of Scott County on the 1850 census as family #357 with five children, ages 22 to 11. Their children's names follow family naming traditions. Son Joel is 20 and daughter Rachel is 14. Sarah is age 51 on the 1850 census, thus born in 1799. A Lydia Vickers, age 25, is living with the family. Older married/widowed daughter?

William Bays, defendant #7, is pretty well documented as a child of William and Rachel, even without the evidence of the court case. He was born in 1795 in Scott County VA and died on 19 October 1878 in Elliott County KY at age 77. These facts are supported by his death record which also includes the names of his parents: William and Rachel Bays. Descendants show his wife as Ann Elizabeth Kilgore whom he married in Scott County.

Peter C. Bays married Mary "Polly" Addington on 27 May 1830. Peter is 49 (born 1801) on the 1850 census of District 54, Russell County. In 1860 Peter and Polly are living in Knox County KY. Peter was defendant #8 in the court case.

Anna Bays, my ancestor, was born in 1804 in Virginia. She married John Sargent (spelled various ways) on 15 January 1820 in Scott County. Signed by William Bays and John "Sergant," the marriage bond reads:

"The condition of the above obligation is such that whereas there is a marriage shortly intended between John Sergant and Ann Bays Now if there is no lawful cause to obstruct the same; then this obligation to be void otherwise to remain in full force and virtue. Signed and delivered in the presence of John Sergant William Bays"

Rachel Sargent Castle, my 2nd great-grandmother, was born to John Sargent and Anna Bays on 29 September 1825, according to her death certificate. Trees on Ancestry.com show an older sister Sally, born 1822, and a younger brother William, born 1827. John Sargent died in 1827, the same year as his father-in-law, William Bays.

Rachel Sargent Castle death certificate

On 11 March 1841 Anna married James Haney in Scott County. By the 1850 census James and Anna were living in Morgan County KY with children Louisa, age 18; Granville, age 16; Gilean, age 13; Lilburn, age 11; Miriam, age 8; and Elizabeth, age 2. George Washington Haney was born in 1850, apparently after the census. None of the Sargent children appear with their mother on this census. Rachel had married Goldman Davidson Castle in 1844, so she was already in her own home. William married Lizanne Stacy in 1854, so I'm not sure where he was in 1850, but not with his mother and step-father. (Note: I just found William in 1850. I don't know why I didn't see it before.  He was living with his sister Rachel and her husband Goldman in Pulaski County, Kentucky.)

Among researchers there has been some discussion about the mother of the older Haney children. Louisa, Granville, Gilean, and Lilburn were born between 1832 and 1839. Some believe they were the children of Anna Bays Sargent, even though she didn't marry James Haney until 1841. The only clue to the identity of the first Mrs. Haney, if not Anna Bays Sargent, is the death certificate of Granville Haney that shows his mother as Anna Fugate. However, researchers have not found an Anna Fugate in the vicinity that fits the bill.

It's interesting that William and Lizanne Sargent named two of their children Gillian and Lilburn. William, who never knew his father, must have been very close to his half-siblings, if that's what they were. He didn't name a child after his known full sister, Rachel, unless that is Gillian's middle name. She is enumerated on the 1870 census as Gillian R. 

The fact that the court case was brought in the 1830s may be a clue as to the situation in which Ann Sargent found herself. If she was widowed and unattached to James Haney at the time, she may have truly needed the money from the court case in order to support her family. But--it is also interesting that James Haney figures prominently in the court case. If you read it fully, he appears as a witness and, if I am reading correctly, he also delivered notices to appear in court to the defendants. So maybe she really was his common law wife at the time, or at least he was not an uninterested bystander. 

Court case reference to survey of James Haney

One document, signed by Thompson G. Martin, Comr. (Commissioner?), recommended that each defendant (except Charles Bays who had taken no part in the division of the estate, having already received his portion while his father was still alive) remit to Ann Sergeant the amount of $11.42. Wow. Was the family just so scattered or so dysfunctional that they couldn't each have donated an equal amount to help their widowed little sister? Or did they know something that we don't know about her ability to support herself? In any case, the documents do not show if all the defendants ever paid, though a couple of them were given credit for smaller amounts already received by Ann Sergeant.

Members of the DNA Circles of William Bays and Rachel Barker

There are 10 members of the William Bays DNA Circle. Two claim descent from William Bays through his son, John Bays; two name Sarah "Sally" Bays as their ancestor; and two show Peter C. Bays. One each claims descent through Joel, Charles, and William. While it certainly could be true that the Joel Bays descendant can name him as an ancestor, he is not the link to William Bays; his wife Elizabeth is. I am the only member that shows descent through Anna Bays. I am considered a "Weak" match, probably because I only share DNA with one other member in the circle.

There are 15 members of the Rachel Barker DNA Circle. Four of them state that they are from the "Mary Virginia Barker Family Group." Yay! Maybe this is proof that Rachel really was a Barker. Not so fast--all the members of this family group are descendants of Sarah Bays, who was married to John Barker. So DNA Circles still can't tell us if Rachel was a Barker, even though at least 15 circle members show her as such in their trees.

The other members of the Rachel Barker DNA Circle descend from Charles (1); Joel (1) and Elizabeth (1), so that's really Elizabeth (2); John (2); William (1); Peter (2); and two more Sarahs. I make 15, and again I am the only descendant of Anna in the Circle. And again, I match with the same one member of the Circle, which makes me a Weak match in this Circle, as well. 

Conclusions? The really positive thing about Ancestry.com has always been the ability to collaborate with descendants you would probably never find otherwise. I doubt that I would ever have found Ann Sergeant's court case without the help of a Bays descendant who thoughtfully transcribed portions of the case and supplied the link to the original document so I could read it myself. But as always, Ancestry users cannot just copy names to trees or claim ancestors without proof. When family trees and DNA Circles are based on shoddy research and erroneous names, they are useless.

I still have my doubts anyway as to how useful the DNA Circles are without a Chromosome Browser. I share my trees on Ancestry with other researchers, and they share theirs with me. And then we say, "Have you uploaded your Ancestry results to Gedmatch? Have you heard about Genome Mate?" Too bad that Ancestry has to hoard our DNA results and dole them out to us as they see fit.