ZDUTTON – Roots Update, Thanks, and Some Questions Answered

Dear Cousins,

Sorry to be so slow in replying lately! Wal-Mart seems to
suck up all my time. Thank goodness today is my last day!
Yes, I quit-- time to get ready to go back to school. I have
nearly a full month before I have to go back, though-- time
I intend to spend doing, among other things, genealogy.

I turned in my request for a RootsWeb mailing list
yesterday. I've been writing a lot of "automated" responses
to upload to the list, including the "Welcome" message.
Hopefully, it will be up and running very soon. Someone at
RootsWeb has to review the request and then set up the
software for it; there was no indication on the webpage of
exactly how long that should take, although they did say
that it would probably take "longer than normal" due to a
lot of new services RootsWeb is now offering. Whenever it is
set up, I will automatically subscribe you all, if there are
no objections. From then on, all you'll have to do is send
your mail to the address DUTTON-Z-L@rootsweb.com and it will
go out to everyone on the list. You should receive the
"Welcome" message as soon as you are subscribed.

Thanks, all you AOLers, for your attempts at tracking down
our missing MiMi. Don't know what could have happened, but
hopefully she'll resurface soon. I'll post my reply on the
GenBBS and maybe she'll see it whenever she does. Despite
losing contact with her, we did gain a vital tid-bit of
information (assuming my assumptions are correct)-- that
this Sarah Frances Dutton is the daughter of Alexander
Dutton (son of Edmund Dutton) and that she did marry to this
Thomas Harris Price, I'm assuming in Texas. I had no record
of her before other than the census; for all I knew she had
died young. Now, at least we have something to go on. I'm
interested to find out what county of Texas they were
married in, or if in Texas at all. I don't really have a
clue where the Duttons were living in 1881, having just left
Alabama. 

Thanks, Woody and Betty, for Martha Jane Dutton's death
certificate. I'm glad to get it, but I'm sorry that Stephen
Penn Dutton's didn't pan out. I would like to think that
this tells us something (perhaps that he didn't die in
Oklahoma?) but I tend to think that records were so bad both
in Oklahoma and Texas during the period that he could have
died either place and never been recorded.

Thanks, Darlene, for the Freema Dutton letter-- that is a
vital primary (or at least secondary) source for our records
which substantiates all that we know and believe about
Jarrard Dutton. I've been writing a more detailed response
to you, but it's not finished yet-- I'll send it soon.

Thanks, Eula, for the detailed Irwin data-- that really
makes everything fall into place. The first time I stopped
at Dutton Hill Cemetery, I was on my way down to Tuscaloosa,
and was in danger of being late for orientation-- imagine
the thought of me, running around the cemetery, frantically
copying down tombstones and snapping pictures. Anyway, when
I got to the grave of Susan Irwin, I said "Ah-ha!"-- a
positive connection between these people down here and the
Irwins, I thought. But it wasn't until recently that I
figured out who she was. I was breaking down the 1850 Morgan
Co. census and ran across her in the Herring household-- and
said, "Wait a second... I've seen her before!" I have been
doing some research on the Herring family lately, as they
are a large and old family in the area of Danville and
Massey in Morgan County, and they tie in at several
different places in the Dutton family, as well as many
others.

All right, now, I'll try to answer some of these questions
as best as I can. I'm backtracking-- there's a lot to cover,
probably too much for one message. So I think I'll send
several. In this one, I'll cover Eula's most recent
questions.

Eula wrote:
>  I do not know where he [me --JTR] got the Alexander that 
> died young. I do not  have him on any list of James and 
> Mary's children that I took from census records, James 
> Dutton's probate, and numerous Dutton family records in 
> Walker County. The Rebecca, wife of Simeon was Rebecca 
> Hamilton, dau. of I think Harvey W. Hamilton and a 
> Kitchens who was a dau. of James Matlock Kitchens.

Wow, thanks again, Eula, for this info on Rebecca-- I did
not know she was a Hamilton. That's one more in a long line
of connections to the family of
Kitchens-Brown-Hamilton-etc.  Anyway, Alexander Dutton
involves a slight bit of speculation on my part-- doesn't
all my research? :)  The 1850 Walker County Census Mortality
Schedule shows an Alexander Dutton, age 15, who died in
January 1850. (The Mortality Schedule was used to sample the
national mortality rate, causes of death, etc., and was
taken at each census by listing all deaths within 12 months
of the census date.) I figure that James and Mary were the
only Duttons in Walker County at the time who were (a)
married and (b) old enough to be the parents of a child born
ca. 1835. A date of ca. 1835/36 puts Alexander right in the
middle of a four-year gap between Mary Jane (Dutton) Keeton
and William D. Dutton-- thus, he fits. Alexander is a very
common name in the family, and this Alexander would have
been named for his great-uncle, Alexander Dutton son of
Zachariah Sr., as well as one first-cousin (Alexander J.,
son of Thomas), two first-cousins-once-removed (Alexander
D., son of Edmund, and Alexander F., son of Samuel Sneed)
and one second-cousin (son of Christopher Columbus Dutton).
One more note-- or, another question, actually-- I noticed
that Gerald Dutton listed in his notes another child of
James and Mary who died young: James Dutton, b. 1848, "died
at a very young age". I at first thought this might the same
as Alexander, but the date doesn't fit, and 15 isn't exactly
"a very young age". Younger children, especially these that
died young, are so easily missed and forgotten when doing
genealogy-- Gerald, where did you find out about this
younger James?

Eula wrote:
> (quotes from Darlene)
> "The 1830 census of Granville Co NC shows only Stephen and 
> Matilda Dutton, both listed on page 5.  Matilda is listed
> with 2 white females ages 20-30 and there is also 1 white
> male under 5, belonging, no doubt to one of the younger females."

> Question (#1): Anyone have any idea who the two females could
> have been. There was a sister Elizabeth that would fall in 
> that age.  But I did not find any  possibilities of other
> sisters or sisters-in-law still in NC that looked promising.

> Question (#2):  I do not have a spouse for Matilda or for that
> sister, Elizabeth. Did I miss something that was sent on 
> e-mail last year? Or is there no other information known 
> on Elizabeth and Matilda?

Wow, Darlene and Eula-- I didn't have this at all. Since I
saw Zachariah's will, I've been scratching my head about
Matilda Dutton, wondering where she was on the 1830 census.
Now I know. My census notes for 1830 Granville Co. were very
sketchy-- I only have Stephen listed-- I must have missed
Matilda, as I don't think she was listed in the index. It is
apparent to me that Matilda never married-- if she is the
oldest child, as she appears to be, she would have been
nearly 60 years old in 1830-- by all standards, an "old
maid". She is shown buying property in the estate sale of
her father in 1829, still listed as Matilda Dutton, and now
we have a census record for her. So I assume she died
unmarried, sometime after 1830. Elizabeth Dutton is known to
have married William Bailey, per their marriage record in
Granville County dated 27 Apr 1817. She is listed as "Betsy"
Dutton on the marriage record, and called in Zachariah's
will "my daughter" Elizabeth Bailey (spelled "Baley"). I did
a little bit of searching in the few Granville County
resources I have access to in Huntsville, but didn't come up
with anything conclusive. The data is quite confusing, as
there appears to be a number of men in the area called
William Bailey, who may or may not be related.

Abstracts of Wills & Estate Records of Granville Co., N.C.
1808-1833 Vol. 1.
108-112 - Inventory & sale of estate of William Bailey, Sr.,
dec'd., Nov. 24, 1828; sold Dec. 9, 1828, by David J. Young,
adm.; among buyers was Elizabeth Bailey.

This, it appears to me, is probably our Baileys. The above
David J. Young was also the executor of Zachariah Dutton's
estate a year later in 1829, and is referred to by Zachariah
in his will as "my friend, David J. Young." If this is what
it looks like, it appears that our Elizabeth Dutton Bailey
was widowed even before her father died. I should note that
in many cases, a father would will his daughters' shares of
their inheritance to their husbands rather than directly to
them-- that is, assuming the husband was still living.* As
William Bailey is not even mentioned in Zachariah Dutton's
will, it would be logical to assume that he was no longer
living, and that the above estate record was indeed for the
husband of our Elizabeth Dutton.

* I'm no lawyer-- does anyone have a legal explanation for
this? 

There are a number of other records mentioning one William
Bailey or another, but the only other one I found that might
possibly fit is the following:

Granville Co., N.C. Record of Wills, Book 2 (Abstracts)
Page 3 - Will dated April 5, 1824, Proved August 1828.
Will of William Bailey. Son: William A. Bailey, daughters
Polly, Sarah. Wife still living, but not named in will. Adm:
Daniel Easley, David J. V.easey(?) [At this point, I can't
remember what the book I was copying actually said-- it's
possible that this David J. ________ is actually the David
J. Young believed to have administered our William Bailey's
estate.]

The dates here are fairly consistent with the dates in the
previous record. If William Bailey signed his will in April
1824, but it was not proven until Aug 1828, that would
indicate he may have been sick for a very long time. The
estate inventory record was for November 1828, and the
estate sale was in December; these events would have
presumably taken place not long after the will was proven,
and the process of administering the estate begun. This
record could also explain why the William Bailey in the
other record, if indeed the same as the one in this one, was
referred to as William Bailey, Sr.

As for the women and child living with Matilda Dutton in
1830, your guess is as good as mine. It would make sense
that Elizabeth Bailey, now widowed, and her children, would
go to live with relatives; that could be who this is. But
there's a note in my margin I scribbled after I found these
Bailey records: "Elizabeth Bailey listed on Granville County
1830 Census - p. 14". This could be our Elizabeth, also, or
it could be a different Elizabeth Bailey. Without further
information, it's hard to say.

Well, this message is getting awfully long... I think I'll
go ahead and send this one before I write another book. :)

Anybody else have some imput?

Cousin Joseph