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BIOGRAPHY For the family of Joshua Wright Haley and Elizabeth Fergason
Joshua Wright HALEY was born sometime between 1810 and 1820, according to the 1840 federal census record. He was also born in Virginia, which we know because of his children's 1880 census records which indicated the place of birth of their father. We do not know who his parents were, other than we know his mother's name was Sarah. An interesting note about his middle name of "Wright". According to other researchers, his middle name was "Right". But in the records I have found of him, it always indicated his name as "Joshua W Haley". It occurred to me that the middle name was probably "Wright". I believe this has been confirmed by the names of 2 of his grandsons : son of his daughter Sarah was named "Daniel Isom Wright West" and son of his daughter Milcy was named "Denton Wright Falwell". This is important because many times the middle name was an indication of a maiden name of a mother or grandmother. So this is an important clue to follow up.
Elizabeth C FERGASON was born in March 1815 in Virginia. She was the daughter of John and Sarah Fergason. Research is still ongoing and sketchy at this point, but somehow these two families ended up in Todd County, Kentucky. It is also possible that both families, who were originally from Virginia, migrated together, but this is only conjecture at this point.
The first record for Joshua and Elizabeth is a marriage record of Todd County, Kentucky. It indicated that they were married on 02 June 1836. There are 2 records of the family for 1840. The first is the federal population census record. The head of household is "Joshua W Haley". In his household is listed a male age 20-29 (Joshua), a female age 20-29 (Elizabeth), a male under 5 (G.W.) and a female under 5 (Lucy). It indicated that he was a farmer. At the same time, there was also a tax record from Todd County Kentucky which listed Joshua. But there was no specific tract of land or number of acres listed after his name, which I can only assume meant that he did not own the land.
The next record of the family is the 1850 census schedule. The family is listed as living in Calloway County, Kentucky. 1850 is the first year of the census where each member of the household is listed. So in the family were Elizabeth C Haley, age 33, G.W. age 13, Lucy J age 11, Sarah E age 8, Geo E age 6, Melsey Ann age 4, A.C. age 1 and Sarah Fergason age 61 (Elizabeth's mother). Notice that Joshua is not listed. We can only assume that he died between 1850 and 1860. Which is also probably why Sarah came to live with the family, to help out the new widow.
I have not yet located the family on the 1860 census schedule. But in 1870, they are again listed as living in Calloway County, Kentucky. Elizabeth Hailey is listed with Lucy, Milsey, Andrew and a farm laborer named John C Fallwell. By 1880, the household of John C Falwell and wife Milsey are listed, along with Milsey's mother Sarah Halie. (Note: I'm not sure why she was listed as "Sarah", when her name was Elizabeth. We don't know who gave the information to the census taker, so it could have been John, who would perhaps not have known her first name.)
The 1890 census for Kentucky was destroyed in a fire and subsequent water damage. So the next census listing that we have is the 1900 census. Here, Elizabeth C Haley is listed as living with her other daughter, Sarah E. West in Dyer County, Tennessee. I have information from another researcher that says that Elizabeth died in 1902. Death records were not kept that early and I have not yet found where she was buried to confirm this information.
Further research needs to be done, including checking land records and probate/wills. But at this point, we know that she was the mother of 6 children, as follows. All surnamed HALEY and all born in Kentucky.
Copyright 2008
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