The Daniel family of Heard County

Sometimes it's fun, when you have a bit of extra time, to go off on a tangent and research a family that's not your own, although it helps if you can at least connect it. You certainly don't want to do all that hard work and have nowhere to put your results.

I need to interject here that disaster struck after I started this column and I may have to continue it at a later date. My computer, with all my family information, including everything I had done on this family, refused to start the morning after I finished my research, and is still sitting at AIS Computers in Fayetteville, awaiting the arrival of parts. I will take this as far as I can, then finish later if I have to.

Let's go back about two weeks ago, when my new Rogers cousin (David) in New York wrote and asked if I had ever done any research on the Daniel family of Heard County. His link to this family came with the marriage of William Wyatt Wood (1857-1932), son of Judge William T. Wood and Nancy Blake (my great-great aunt), to Olivia Lee Daniel (1864-1938) of Heard County. Their daughter, Jessie Cora Wood, married Charles Goodwyn Rogers Sr. and the surname of Rogers was introduced into the family.

So, these were David's direct ancestors, but not my own. I was related to the children of Wyatt and Olivia Daniel Wood as their cousin, but I had no blood relationship to Olivia's ancestors.

David had no information on Olivia's parents or siblings and, frankly, neither did I. All he had was an obituary from the "Roanoke Leader," the Randolph County, Ala. newspaper, from 1938 when Olivia passed away. He e-mailed that to me and I told him I would give it a shot, since I had all kinds of Heard County resources and he had none.

For those of you who may be researching this family, here is Olivia's obituary from the June 13, 1938 issue of the "Roanoke Leader", as it was relayed to me by David:

"Mrs. Wyatt Wood Passes At her Home On Louina Street ...

"Mrs. Olivia Daniel Wood died at 4:30 Monday morning at her home on Louina Street. She had suffered a stroke of paralysis recently and gradually grew weaker until the end came. Funeral services were conducted Tuesday afternoon at the residence by her pastor, Rev. H.P. Williams, assisted by Revs. T.E. Steely and Belt White. Burial was in the local cemetery with Quattlebaum directing.

"Mrs. Wood was the widow of the late Wyatt W. Wood, long prominent in the business interests of this community. She was 73 years old. Surviving are five children: Mrs. W.T.A. Huey, Mrs. H.D. Cowden, Blake Wood, of Roanoke; Theo Wood of Jackson, Miss.; Mrs. C.G. Rogers, of Baltimore; four brothers: George and H.D. Daniel of Frankling (sic), Ga.; and Rufus and Frank Daniel, of Oklahoma.

"In the death of this good wife and mother another of Roanoke's early residents has gone. For many years ill health had prevented her activities outside her home and many of those who have moved here in recent years did not know her, but those who have lived here longer knew her well, sorrow at her passing, and sympathize with her loved ones in their sorrow."

The first thing I did was enter Olivia's survivors from the obit into my family tree so I could get a "picture" of her family and possible names of her siblings. I realized that some may have preceded her in death and may have been missing, but it was a place to begin.

Then, as a "quick start" measure, I checked the new 1880 online census database recently released by the LDS church. (What a wonderful tool this is!) I searched for all the Daniel families in Heard County in 1880 and, bingo! I hit pay dirt. Although they had her as "Clevia," one of those common transcription errors, I knew it was her family because of the names of her siblings. Her age matched also.

I checked my Heard County census book (where she was "Olivia"), and, to really solidify it, I checked the actual census online at Ancestry.com. Everything fit and I knew I had found her parents, Isham and Barbara Daniel. I printed out all the other Daniel families I found on the LDS site and started putting my information together.

It was really slow going because I was totally unfamiliar with the family. This is when I tried another tool, the online family trees at Rootsweb. Genforum messages gave me more clues.

Then I went through the Heard County Cemeteries book and checked all the Daniels buried there. That was really a slow process but I finally waded through, wrote them all down, and e-mailed a copy to David.

Now I was ready to study and analyze. I didn't want to enter anything into my family tree program unless it was reasonably confirmed. Marriage records were out of the question because of the Heard County Courthouse fire which destroyed all early records.

It took a few days, but here's what emerged on Olivia's ancestors:

Olivia Daniel was the daughter of Isham Daniel and Barbara Miller. Isham was the son of John Daniel and Dovey Plaster. John was the son of Littleton Daniel and Elizabeth Hinds. Littleton Daniel was said to be the son of another Isham Daniel ... and that's as far as I could get. But four generations ... that wasn't bad for a weekend's work, was it?

Last week, I went to the Coweta Genealogy Library in Grantville and copied the information on the Daniel family from the History of Heard County. The Daniel stories were written by Mary D. Johnston and Kathryn Freeman Paylor and appear on pages 228-229 in the history book. After I put all my information together, this is what I came up with on the early Daniel family:

Littleton Daniel, b. 1758, came to Georgia from North Carolina about 1819. According to the Heard book, Littleton was a Revolutionary War veteran, having served along with his father, Isham Daniel.

Littleton married Elizabeth Hinds in 1801 and lived first in Washington County, then DeKalb County, then finally settled in Coweta County in the extreme southwestern corner. This area later became southeastern Heard County. Littleton and Elizabeth had the following children:

John Daniel, 1802-1876; William David Daniel, 1804-aft 1880; Sarah Daniel, 1806-1879; Littleton Daniel Jr., 1808-1869; Burwell Daniel, b. 1810, died in Carroll Co.; Isham Daniel, 1812-1889; Jeptha Hill Daniel, 1815-1898; Benton Daniel, 1819-1897; Delila (Dilly) Daniel, b. 1817; and Andrew Jackson Daniel, 1822-1888.

John Daniel, above, was Olivia's grandfather and I have more. But I will have to save further lineage of this family for next week's column. I did find some very interesting marriage connections.

Did your family live in the Atlanta area in the 1800s? Can you put a story together on them? I'd love to print it here.

Send stories to The Citizen, P.O. Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214. Or, e-mail them to me at jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.

Until next time ... happy hunting! (And pray that I get my computer back soon.)

Judy regrets that time does not permit her to do personal research for others. She will gladly share information on her own family, including collateral and allied lines.

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