Finding Your Folks: More on the Byram family

I’m still trying to juggle these Byram kids around and figure out when they were born so I can get them in some semblance of birth order. It’s very difficult when you’re working that far back in time (James and Hannah were married in 1808) and there are no census records to give you specific ages. All you get before 1850 is a “range” of years when the children might have been born.

I transcribed James’ will and the protest lodged by his daughter, Amy, and posted it in several places on the Internet. Although the abstract has been around for a while, it is amazing what a difference having the entire will makes in figuring out the children.

As to the exact number of children James and Hannah had, using all the censuses from 1810, I can only come up with the number named (or implied) in the will and possibly one more daughter who may have left home before 1830. If there was another, she died without issue.

I also count only four boys — Upton, James, John and Andrew, who plainly show even in the “non specific” censuses. There was some question about there possibly being a child named “Turner” Byram, born in 1814, but he does not appear to connect to this family. Turner is quite a puzzle and appears in the 1850 and 1860 Coweta censuses living with the Bartow (or Barton) Smith family.

Turner, like all of James and Hannah’s children, is said to have been born in North Carolina.

In 1850, his age is very plainly 35 but in 1860 he is listed as being 65, a pauper and insane. The 65 could be interpreted as being 45 if you look at it right, but a pauper and insane? Goodness! And why was he consistently living with the Smith family?

With a little searching, I found that Barton/Bartow Smith was married to an Elizabeth Hogan who may be related to the husband of Hannah Permelia Robinson Hogan, daughter of Susan Byram and John R. Robinson. So there may be a family tie there of some sort.

But Turner is alive when James Byram’s will was written and probated and he is not named as a son. Unless there was some kind of extenuating circumstance and a good reason he was left out, I think we can rule Turner out. He appears on several Rootsweb files as a son of James and Hannah but no one gives a valid source for the information.

And just to cover all the bases, there was another, older Turner Byram in Washington County, Ga. in 1840. Another child in this family who is causing some confusion is Susan Byram who married John R. Robinson. The marriage record (original one in the courthouse) gives John’s name as “Robertson.” Susan is one of the daughters who died before her father made his will and her children are listed there as James Robinson, Frances (Robinson) Williams, and Hannah P. (Robinson) Hogan. The only person I could track in this family was Hannah P. (for Permelia) and she is buried in the same cemetery as many of the Byrams (Cook, Attaway, Cedar Creek, etc.) along with her husband, James Hogan. I could not find Susan or any of the other children.

At the Coweta Genealogy Library last Wednesday, I found one lone record of these Robinsons in the vertical files, and John R. is said to be “John Rush Robinson,” son of Henry Robinson and Elizabeth Cunningham. Henry was said to have been born about 1785 in Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland. Elizabeth Cunningham, Henry’s wife, was born about 1790 in North Carolina. I have no idea of the accuracy of the statements and the submitter of the information is unknown.

I could find no trace of the other Robinson children, James or Frances (Williamson.)

James Tidwell, the grandson named in James Byram’s will, was, of course, the son of Nancy Byram and John J. Tidwell who were married in 1832. James was born in 1836. Nancy apparently died and James was raised by his stepmother, Martha Westmoreland.

Bob Johnston of California jotted me a note that said James was buried at County Line church cemetery in Fayette County (almost in Spalding County). I didn’t know that and I appreciate the information.

John J. Tidwell, James’ father, was the brother of Benjamin Tidwell, who was the father of Mary E. Tidwell (Byram Hayes).

There was another file at the genealogy library on Beverly Byram, James’ brother, and his descendants who lived in Pike County and later in Senoia. Beverly married Sarah (Sallie) Williamson, sister of Hannah, his brother’s wife. Both girls were named in their father’s will (Upton Williamson) written in Mecklenburg County, N.C. in 1827, probated in 1829. Many of Beverly’s descendants were members of Bethel Methodist Church near Senoia.

I couldn’t help but wonder about the Williamsons having an Upton early on and the Byrams having one too. Perhaps this family tied together even before the Byram boys married the Williamson girls.

I will continue to try and put this family together with as much documentation as I can. If you have something to add, please write and let me know. Any little tidbit might be more helpful than you realize.

Stories about your ancestors who lived in the south metro Atlanta area are most welcome. Send them to The Citizen, P.O. Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214, or e-mail jkilgore@thecitizen.com or JodieK444@aol.com.

Until next week, happy hunting!