Finding Your Folks: Boyds from Laurens to Coweta

This week I’ll give you a little more on the third family mentioned by Tim Turner in his letter a few weeks ago, and that is another family of Boyds who ended up in our area. As far as I can determine, these Boyds are not related to the Boyds at Bethany or the Boyds of Meriwether and Cleburne (Ala.)

Tim only gave me his direct line of descent from William Blanton Boyd and Catherine McClurkin who both were born in Ireland and died in Laurens Co., S.C. Actually, he didn’t give me their birth and death dates or their places of birth and death either, but I did a little snooping on the Internet to make the story more complete. Some of the information the earliest Boyds I will use here was taken from Rootsweb, some from Ancestry.com, and some from the ClanBoyd Web site. Therefore, use it as a guide only. It is hearsay.

Info on the later Boyds who were in our area was taken from resources on Coweta County I have here at home — census records, cemetery records, wills, etc. A little more trustworthy sources but they still need to be double-checked with original records.

William and Catherine McClurkin Boyd had 11 children: Catherine b. 1779; James b. 1781; Jane b. 1773; William Blanton b. 1785; David Weir b. 1788; Samuel McClurkin b. 1790; Isabella Elizabeth b. 1792; Eleanor b. 1796; John b. 1798; Isaac b. 1801; and Bradford b. 1804. Bradford (Tim’s ancestor) came to Coweta County.

Married by 1830 to Margaret Watkins, Bradford Boyd (listed as “Bedford”) appears in the 1840 Coweta census with two children, a boy between 5 and 10 years of age and a girl under 5. Oddly enough, he is living next door to Andrew Dominick (remember the Dominick family of a few weeks ago?), so I am assuming Bradford was probably in the first District of Coweta, not far from Meriwether County.

By 1850, the children had increased to four: James (Young), age 19; Sarah A.E., age 12; Amelia J., age 7, and Wm. L.E (William Leander Elihu, Tim’s ancestor), age 5. Next door are James and Milly Watkins, Bradford’s in-laws.

Unfortunately, those were all the children Bradford and Margaret had, as Bradford died the following year (1851) and is buried in the Watkins burying ground between Newnan and Grantville.

Also buried in the same cemetery are Mrs. S.E. Lynch (Sarah A.E. Boyd, wife of L.J. Lynch), 1837-1913; their daughter, Lillian B. Lynch, April 1870-June 1870; Miss Joe Boyd, 1843-1896 (Amelia Josephine Boyd, daughter of Bradford and Margaret, who, apparently never married); Wm. L.E. Boyd, 1845-1891 (son of Bradford and Margaret); James Watkins, 1787-1880 (Margaret Watkins Boyd’s father); Millie Watkins, 1794-1882 (Margaret’s mother); an infant child of Bradford, 1879-1879 (?), Lorena Clyde Boyd (no dates); Co.. E.P. Watkins, and “2 of Big Mama’s babies.” The Coweta cemeteries book states that there are more graves that are unmarked.

Bradford’s son, William Leander Elihu Boyd, married Selena Elizabeth Huddleston before 1880 (no record in Coweta) and had three daughters by 1880: Clara L., age 6, Willie L., age 4, and Mattie, age 2. I could not find them in the 1900 census, but an Internet resource lists other children: Daisy Belle Zollicofer Boyd (also given as a daughter in Tim’s letter), Thadeus Boyd, Major Boyd, Amelia Boyd, Ada Boyd and Grace Larue Boyd.

The Clan Boyd Web site gives more information on W.L.E. Boyd, submitted by Barbara Walker Winge.

William’s obituary appears in the Newnan Herald and Advertiser in February of 1891:

“Mr. W. L. E. Boyd, a worthy and highly respected citizen of the community, died at his home just beyond the city limits (on the Pearl Spring Park road) last Tuesday from an attack of pneumonia. He was sick only five days. He leaves a wife and seven children — five girls and two small boys — and from what we can learn they are in somewhat destitute circumstances. Mr. Boyd's remains were interred yesterday morning at what is known as the Watkins place, about eight miles in the country.”

Apparently Elizabeth (Huddleston) Boyd moved to Waycross in Ware County (Ga.) after William died. She applied for a Confederate widow’s pension there. Barbara states that Elizabeth was living with her daughter in Waycross, Willie Lee Boyd Parker.

Barbara also states that William and Elizabeth were married in Meriwether County in 1873.

Tim’s next ancestor is the daughter of William L.E. and Elizabeth Boyd, Daisy Belle Zollicofer Boyd who married Franklin Kentucky Ware. Their daughter, Annie Bell Ware, married George Thurston Turner; their son, Troy Franklin Turner, married Loma Lee Bobbie Thompson; their son, Terry Thompson Turner married Mildred Elizabeth McKoy; and their son, Timothy T. Turner married B. Kelleene Greer. I am assuming Timothy T. Turner is the Tim who submitted the Boyd information.

I really appreciate Tim’s sharing his Boyd lineage. It gave me an opportunity to do a little light research on another Boyd family and to almost certainly rule out these Boyds as being related to mine — or to those we have written about (so far) in the column.

But ... they did marry in Meriwether County ... hmmmm.

Next week we’ll try to help a reader find her Bennett ancestors in Fayette County.

Although time does not permit me to do personal research for others (unless the family connects to my own), I welcome all letters and e-mails about genealogy and info on south metro Atlanta families. Send them to The Citizen, P.O. Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizen.com or jodiek444@aol.com. Any letters and/or e-mails I receive are subject to being used in the column.

Until next week, happy hunting!