A Dilemma to be Solved: Who was the Sallie Watts who died in Halifax Co, VA in 1865?

When I was a baby family historian, I ended up researching every Watts in the county of Halifax, Virginia to determine my direct line and found out that all the Wattses there were related and descended from one progenitor. Then I could never get out of Halifax County as the origins of the one progenitor has proven elusive ever since. After nearly 35 years of researching my family history, I don't often find any new data on these family lines, but I guess I'm always curious and hopeful. The Watts family has been one that I'm always looking for more.

So there I was the other day, on Familysearch.org looking for a Watts in Halifax County, Virginia. I don't even know how I happened to stumble onto this record or what I was looking for in the first place. I do know that October is the month when I always think of my grandfather as he took his first and last breath in that month with 96 years in between those two moments. These are his ancestors, too, so perhaps he was nudging me not to forget him, which I promised never to do and indeed have not.

Familysearch.org lists a Sallie Watts who died in Halifax County, Virginia in June of 1865 at the age of 86. Hmm, I thought, this would fit my ancestor Sallie or Sarah Overton Watts. How come I never noticed it before? From my research, I know Sarah Overton was married to Thomas M. Watts (born about 1767 and died in the year 1819) in Charlotte County, Virginia in 1792. Sarah lived with her daughter (their connection has also been established in my research) Philadelphia or Delphia Watts during both the 1850 and 1860 federal census. Sarah's birth year calculated from her age listed on those two records vary from 1766 (age 94 in 1860) to 1778 (age 72 in 1850). Given the latest possible age range (born in 1779) can still be consistent and would make her age 13 when she married while her groom would have been 25. That is not unheard of at all. As a matter of fact, when Sarah's grandson George Richard Watts was married in 1859, he was 20 years old and his bride was all of 14. As the saying goes, the past is a different country...

Anyway, I knew that my Sarah likely died between 1860 and 1870 as she is nowhere to be found in that last census year. So again, things fit for this death record to be that of my ancestor. The source of information was Sam'l Watts listed as head of family which I would guess was her oldest living son at the time, Samuel G. Watts, who was born about 1803 and died a year or two later himself. While I can't say I've seen many records using the nickname of Sallie for my Sarah, maybe this is her!

Except for one thing, she's listed as colored not white.

First image for Sallie Watts, died 1865, Halifax County, Virginia (entry #116)

 

Second image for Sallie Watts, died 1865, Halifax Co, VA (entry #116)

The index doesn't offer that detail, but a perusal of the actual image (above) shows the death entry notes the deceased as colored. Another image of the same set of names using a different register form gives almost the exact same information with the exception of noting her as a free colored person. I don't know why there are two different registers with the same information. I also noted another index image that comes up in the search engine that seems to list a Sallie Watts as having died in 1867 but I honestly believe that it is the same Sallie Watts who died in 1865 and was just mis-indexed as 1867. I have combed through the images from Sallie's entry in 1865 to other Watts deaths that occurred in 1867 and there is no other entries for Sallie Watts so I am reasonably sure it is an error.

The entry offers little else to try to otherwise identify this Sallie Watts. She died in June of old age, her parents names were listed as unknown. The birthplace was listed as Halifax County as a ditto mark in continuing through from the first entry at the top of the page. Her occupation was given as laborer (the occupation listed for my Sarah Watts during the 1860 census, I might note). Her marital status was listed as married but also as a ditto mark from an earlier entry. I might also add that there were no other statuses besides married or unmarried on this page and the column is titled "consort of, or unmarried." Focusing on that column for other page images I looked at, most said single, unmarried, married or provided the name of the consort (husband). I did not see any one listed as a "relict" which would indicate widowed or any other terms of that nature. 

Focusing on the informant, I do note that there was a mulatto man named Samuel Watts aged 45 listed in Halifax County during the 1850 federal census. Although indexed in familysearch.org as white, there is clearly an "M" noted in the "color" column and appears to be the only "colored" person listed on that particular page. He was living in the Jonathan B. Stovall household who was a 44-year-old farmer. This Samuel's occupation was listed as bricklayer, a distinctly different occupation than the other Wattses who lived in Halifax County, who were most often listed as farmers or overseers. This Samuel Watts was not found in Halifax County during the 1860 federal census but having been listed by name in 1850 would imply that he was a free person of color.

The only other Samuel Watts shown in Halifax County during the 1850 census was Samuel G. Watts, whom I mentioned earlier was my Sarah's son. That's not to say that there were not also others named Samuel Watts there. I have noted for certain in other blog posts that some of the Watts kin in Halifax County are missing or grossly misidentified in that particular census year, something which I cannot account for any other way.

We do see that Samuel G. Watts was the enslaver of no less than seventeen unnamed persons based on the 1860 slave schedule. Could the death entry be one of Samuel G.'s enslaved persons? Likely not. The oldest female associated with him in the 1860 schedule was aged 60 at the time which would have only put her as 65 in the year 1865. Plus the fact that she was listed in a slave schedule would not be consistent with the death entry listing her as free. 

So what am I to make of this? While there is not solid evidence either way, I can only keep adding to what is known focused on this particular problem in the hopes that one day it can be proven one way or the other. I invite others to contribute their thoughts on this subject as well. I'm not sure where else to focus my efforts in solving this dilemma.