The Other Jefferson Family

As you know I have been working on the Henrietta Jefferson and Robert Bailey line.  I have a copy of the Eros Gray Bailey (sometimes they called him Uncle Bill) and Kissie May Crawley marriage license which told me that Eros Gray's father was Bob Bailey and his mother was Henrietta.  It also told me that he was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.  Well, I found the census for 1870 for William T. Jefferson showing Henrietta living with her father and mother and the 1880 census showing her still living in Pittsylvania County with her father and mother. As you know the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire.  Henrietta then pops up in the 1900 and 1910 census with her husband Robert .

While searching through some notes I had from over ten years ago, I found a note my mother had sent me.  Quite a few years ago she was at the Pittsylvania Courthouse and someone told her that Robert age 23 and Henrietta (age 19) were married on October 29, 1885.  And she had a note that Robert's parents were William and Celia Bailey and Henrietta's parents were William and Matilda Jefferson.  She also had written that Wm. T. Jefferson and Matilda Ramsey were married on December 31, 1857.  William's parents were Alexander and Mary Jefferson.  If you remember from one of my past blogs that the 1870 census and 1880 census for the William Jefferson family has a Mary Jefferson living with them as widowed and mother.   Matilda J. Ramsey's parents were Henry and Mary Ramsey.

Yesterday I wrote Pittsylvania County Circuit Court and requested copies of marriage licenses for the above. I am really looking forward to see what they have to offer.

One of my problems is that I am having difficulty locating the Bailey Family.  In my searches I have found that Celia may have been a Duncan.  In the 1850 census, I found a Celia Duncan age 17 living with Elizabeth Duncan 40, Martha Duncan 13, Mary Duncan 8, Daniel Duncan 5, William Duncan 0.  In the 1860 census there is a Celia Bailey 28 which I believe to be my Celia Duncan married to William R. Bailey 24, Charles A. Bailey 4, John W. Bailey 2, George W. Bailey seven months. If this is Robert Bailey's family, he would have been born in 1862.  Unfortunately. they seem to have dropped off the face of the earth in the 1870 and 1880 census.  My questions are if William R. Bailey was in the Civil War and that is entirely possible, was he killed?  If he was killed, did Celia remarry.  I have been trying to find her.  I searched all of the Danville District for 1880 federal census and all of the Pigg River District, Pittsylvania County.  It took quite a while.  I have no indication that she lived in that area.  In any case I am getting closer and I will certainly know more when I get the marriage certificates back.

Danville (VA) (Images of America)
A Walking Tour of Danville, Virginia (Look Up, America!)
Take Care of the Living: Reconstructing Confederate Veteran Families in Virginia (A Nation Divided: Studies in the Civil War Era)