How to find physical location in 1850 Slave Schedule?

Question

I am supposed to be connecting, but I discovered an old rabbit hole I have wanted to dive down for years. <shaking head>

Via DNA - mtDNA - I am trying to find out who the Hall family is of Halls Creek, Upper Hightower, Towns County, Georgia. This area was once a part of Rabun County, so records for the family should exist in both.

In the 1850 Census and Slave Schedule of 1850 an E. M. Hall (Often called Elijah Merriman Hall or Elijah Hall or just Marriman Hall) and his wife live Rabun County, GA (Militia District 636, Rabun, Georgia, USA). The enslaved are listed as being in Divison 71, Rabun, Georgia, USA.

I want to see how close this family is to the mtDNA match family of Halls Creek, Upper Hightower. I have done this with E. M. and wife - they lived very close to Halls Creek just over the Rabun County line. I can't figure out where the enslaved lived. Assuming they occupied the same land, but Div. 71 is proving hard to find. Murphys Law that they called things differently in the two documents.

E. M Hall - Hall-53596

Thanks!

Answer 1

Mags, perhaps these enslaved people were working on adjacent property owned by the Halls, just over the district border? Georgia locations are confusing because the name or number of a district would change periodically, sometimes by name according to who the captain of militia was at that time. Or maybe a change in population statistics would occasion a numerical change? Not sure about this last one, but my family's farm is variously in Blassingame's, Northern and District 88 (later known as Vinegar Hill) according to the census of the time.

Without accessing plat maps in the Superior Court office, it's hard to tell. Georgia Archives (georgiaarchives.org) may be helpful.

P.S. The Hightower family were early settlers in Walton County...no doubt some of them later moved up to Rabun.

Comments

Thanks, cousin D. (9th cousins, who knew?!) I have been working with a historian in Towns County and we haven't been able to line things up. There is also the obscure note about the "Hall Plantation" in Rabun County, referenced in the research notes.

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Good luck, cuz! (All us folks with Georgia roots are related somehow ;) . I need to get back down there too; folks at the courthouse are most helpful!

Trying to find farm locations can be a bear. Metes and bounds (100 feet north along the river, 50 feet east to Ganaway Durden's fence post, etc...lol)

Answer 2

I do not know the answer, but I have often looked at the neighboring slave owners listed on the slave schedule when I am trying to connect family members. Assuming they are listed in geographical order by household, the same as regular census? So that might help pinpoint the land location, if you match the neighboring residents on the regular censuses, if they remain in the same place .

Comments

Good idea LA. Thanks, Mags

Answer 3

Hi Mags,

I am not sure this will help, but here are a couple of links:

Military district map of Rabun County: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/maps/rabun.gif

This has some of the enslaved listed in District 71:

http://genealogytrails.com/geo/rabun/RabunMortality.htm

History of Rabun county: https://rabunhistory.org/articles/rabun-county-the-first-200-years/

Comments

Thanks! No map. BUT. I see a lot of people on the mortality list who are family. And even one with one of our quirky family forenames, "Gooly". Interesting!

Thanks!