Family Tree Fact Check: Elial Edwards, son of Emanuel Edwards

There is a persistent error on Ancestry and elsewhere that is conflating two Elial EDWARDS from Beaufort County, North Carolina.

The first one was Elial EDWARDS born in 1774. He moved to Indiana with his wife, Sinah HILL, and he died there sometime after 1850.

The second one was Elial EDWARDS born about 1800. He lived in Beaufort County his whole life until he died sometime before January 1853. His wife was Lovey (LNU).

I will share what I know about both of them below, including listing their children (that I know of) and grandchildren if I know of them. If you have more information you can fill in on any of these — with sources — please comment below.

I. Elial Edwards [Sr] (NC to Indiana)

This Elial EDWARDS — we’ll call him Elial EDWARDS [Sr] — was born about 1774 in North Carolina (based on his age given on the 1850 Federal Census in Posey County, Indiana.)

His wife’s name is Sinah. She was born about 1772 according to the same census. (We know she’s Sinah HILL, the daughter of John HILL and Keziah GRIFFIN.)

From census and other available records, it appears that Elial and Sinah had the following children:

• Wiley EDWARDS (1807–1876) m. Sarah Ann “Sallie” NELSON (daughter of William NELSON and his wife Rachel of North Carolina)
• Lucinda Clements EDWARDS (1810–1895) m. Thomas K. HARDY (b. abt 1793 in North Carolina).
  Note: This Thomas HARDY fits to be the father of Stephen AVERITT, an illegitimate child of Selah AVERITT born in 1825. Thomas HARDY doesn’t appear on the census records in North Carolina, but he does start to appar in Posey County, Indiana on the 1830 census — around the same time as a large group of folks from the Swift Creek / Chocowinity area all migrated to Indiana.
• Jesse Edwards (1814–?) m. Sarah ANDERSON (b. abt 1813 in North Carolina)

Elial EDWARDS [Sr] Land Transactions

By the end of 1829, Elial EDWARDS [Sr] had sold off all his land in Beaufort County and moved to Indiana in time to show up on the 1830 Federal Census in Indiana.

Beaufort County Land – Purchased and Sold

1811 Jun 26 – Ausband CLARK (Osborn CLARK) to Elial EDWARDS (Bk 11, p 276)
£75 for 200 A. S. Side Tar River, mentions Laughinghouse, Ralph’s Swamp. Witnesses: Ausband CLARK, Jr., David CHAPMAN // This one is sold to Robert WALLS for $200. 23 Oct 1829 (Bk 15, p 437)

1811 Dec 14 – State of North Carolina to Eliel EDWARDS (Grant Bk 1, p 321)
100 A. of land at a pine on Blounts swamp Charles Roach’s corner running with his line S 10 E 200 & 60 pole to a pine on Pollards Swamp Wiley Hill Corner then with Hill line N 62 W 280 pole to a stake on the Great Glade? then S 8 E 60 pole to Deep Neck Swamp & then to beginning. Entered 4th December 1810. (14 December 1811) // This one is sold in March 1814 to David CHAPMAN (Bk 11, p 59)

1823 Jul 21 – William MILLS (of Craven) to Elial EDWARDS (Bk 16, p 140)
Two tracts of land. One for 100 A, the other for 63 A.

• Tract 1: Parcel of land from estate of John MILLS, deceased. Beaufort County. S. side Pamlico River. E. side of head of great branch beginning at a pine on head of great branch running N 57 W 33 poles to a pine, then N 7 W 62 poles to a pine, then N 28 E 66 poles to a lightwood stump, then N 14 E 40 poles to a pine, then N 10 E 126 poles to a pine, then S 80 E 86 poles the B?? pond then S 87 poles to Pollard’s line, by the side of the great glade, then with Pollards line N 63 W 40 poles to a pine in the glade then to the beginning, being 100 A more or less.
• Tract 2: Another piece (Beaufort County) adj to the same beginning in the single branch at the lightwood stump in the footway the fourth corner of lot No 2 and runs N 62 W 170 poles to a pine by Simons tar kiln bed then S 4 then W 60 poles to the beginning of the Patent, then south 70 E 170 poles to the aforesaid small branch, then with the said branch the various courses to the beginning containing 63 A more or less. Witnesses: Abner HARTLEY, Wilea HILL
• The above tracts are sold together to Farnifold CHAPMAN on 18 Sep 1829. (Bk 18 p 186)

1826 Nov 1 – Emanuel EDWARDS to Elial EDWARDS Sr. (Bk 17, p 119)
$300 / 300 A. Tract of land granted to Ralph Richards, beg at Pine on Blounts Swamp then south 180 pole to Ralph Swamp to a pine then due east 253 pole to ?? then due north 180 pole to a pine from thence to the beginning. To have and to hold said lands given, granted and sold (except 12 acres, six acres sold by Ralph Richards to Richard Grist and the other six acres sold by Thomas Laughinghouse & Wife Elizabeth to Jesse Chapman out of aforementioned survey) // This one is sold on 22 Sep 1829 to William BOYD for the same price Elial purchased it. (Bk 17, p 119) Yes, both the purchase deed and the sales deed are on the same page. I don’t think they bothered to register it until Elial decided to sell it.

II. Elial Edwards (Born in NC, died in NC)

This Elial EDWARDS – we’ll call him Elial EDWARDS (Jr) — was born about 1800-1801 based on his age in the 1850 Federal Census of Beaufort County, North Carolina. His wife’s name was listed as “Lovey” and their children are listed as follows (I will take the liberty of naming the spouses they eventually married, as well as children, if I know them):

• Frances EDWARDS. Frances was born about 1823. It appears that she and her brother Eason were twins based on both being born the same year. I’ve been unable to track her past the 1850 census.
• Eason EDWARDS. Eason was born abt 1823 and he married Matilda (possibly CAMPBELL) sometime around 1848. They had at least two children, and like Eason and his sister Frances, these two were also apparently twins per the 1850 census:
  • John EDWARDS (b. 1849)
  • Lovey EDWARDS (b. 1849)
• “Barbary” EDWARDS. Barbara EDWARDS was born 12 May 1825. She married John CAMPBELL and they had the following children:
  • James CAMPBELL (1851–1943)
  • William Henry CAMPBELL (1854–1911)
  • Thomas Archibald CAMPBELL (1855–1940)
  • Fanny CAMPBELL(1857–)
• Harvey EDWARDS. Harvey EDWARDS was probably born on 26 Apr 1824, though his tombstone says 1820. Every census has him born somewhere around 1825. He married Jane HOLMES, daughter of John HOLMES and Celia AVERITT. They had the following children:
  • Sallie EDWARDS (1854–1932)
  • Isaac EDWARDS (1855–1929)
  • John EDWARDS (1857–1933)
  • Henry A. EDWARDS (1859–1940)
  • Frank EDWARDS (1862–1947)
  • Harvey EDWARDS (1864–1943)
  • Noah Nash EDWARDS (1867–1960)
  • Serenia ‘Renie’ EDWARDS (1869–1922)
• Emanual EDWARDS (b. abt 1827). Emanual EDWARDS married Nancy MORRIS. I think she is likely the Nancy MORRIS who spent at least a couple of decades in the household of Laban MORRIS. Nancy may have been another of the illegitimate children of Selah Averitt, possibly by Zachariah WILLIAMS, one of the brothers of Laban’s wife, Kitty WILLIAMS. Emanual and Nancy only had one son before Emanual was killed at Drury’s Bluff, Virginia during the Civil War. Their only son was:
  • William Henry EDWARDS (b. 29 Oct 1863, d. 11 Nov. 1840)
• Thomas EDWARDS (b. abt 1828). I’ve been unable to confidently track Thomas past the 1850 census.
• Elial EDWARDS Jr. (b. abt 1830). I’ve been unable to confidently track Elial Jr. past the 1850 census.
• William Henry EDWARDS (b. abt 1832). I’ve been unable to confidently track Henry past the 1850 census. (Honestly, not sure if there was a William and a Henry or just a William Henry — it’s hard to tell from the estate records.)

Here is an estate document that names the children of Elial EDWARDS who married Lovey (LNU) and who died in October 1852 in Beaufort County.

The following children are named:

• Fannie
• Eason
• Harvey
• Thomas
• Barbara
• Emanuel
• Elial
• William Henry

This Elial EDWARDS’s father was Emanuel EDWARDS of Beaufort County. But how can we be sure? There was an Emanuel EDWARDS who left a will in 1828 and he names a son, Eliel. How do we know it’s the one who stayed in Beaufort County rather than the one who moved to Indiana?

Land Transactions

The land transactions for this Elial EDWARDS begin in 1823, when he would’ve been about 22 or 23 years old.

Elial Edwards (Jr) as GRANTEE

1823 June 8 (Bk 13, p172) – Robert S SALTER (Pitt) Elial EDWARDS (Beaufort). $150 cm / 150 A.
… a certain tract or parcel of Land situated in Beaufort County and aid State beginning at the Middle of Blounts Swamp where Emanuel EDWARDS lives goes to the same middle of said Swamp being one of the lines that the aforesaid Emanuel EDWARDS bought from Caswell ARMSTRONG which deed bares date the 30 Jan 1819 runing the said EDWARDS line reverse N 179 pole to a pine said EDWARDS corner then E 130 pole to a stake and pointers then S 179 pole to the middle of Blounts Swamp then to the first station containing 150 acres… being part of a patent granted to John SALTER by the State for 1000 A baring date the 4th Feb 1800. Witnesses: John EDWARDS, M CHANEY

Note: The witness John EDWARDS is one of Elial’s brothers. The Emanuel referred to in this deed is Elial’s father.

This Elial has several more deeds that continue on, but anything from 1830 on cannot be Elial EDWARDS (Sr) because he is already in Indiana by sometime in 1830 since he shows up on the census there.

Emanuel EDWARDS was too young to be the father of the Elial EDWARDS (Sr)

Emanuel Edwards named the following children in his will:

• John EDWARDS (b. abt 1790)
• Thomas EDWARDS (b. abt 1794)
• Elizabeth “Betsy” EDWARDS (b. 12 Jan 1796) m. Robert WALL, son of Joel WALL and Elizabeth (LNU)
• Mary “Polly” EDWARDS (b. abt 1800) m. William BOYD
• Eliel EDWARDS (b. abt 1801) m. Lovey Ann (LNU)

All of the children named in Emanuel EDWARDS 1828 will were born within a couple of years of each other, in succession, starting around 1790 or so.

The Elial EDWARDS who moved to Indiana was born in 1774. That would mean for the Emanuel EDWARDS who wrote his will in 1828 to have been his father, he would realistically need to at least have been born by 1758 in order to father him at age 16, but a more likely scenario would be that he would’ve had to be born around 1752, at a minimum, to father that Elial at age 21 or 22.

That doesn’t work with the census. No census suggests that Emanuel EDWARDS was born prior to 1755. The 1800 census has him being between 26-44 years of age, which would mean he would’ve been born between 1756 and 1774. That actually makes it more likely that Emanuel and Elial EDWARDS (Sr) were brothers, not father and son. And that makes sense since Emanuel had a son and named him Elial and then Elial (Jr) had a son and named him Emanuel and another son Elial Jr.)

Emanuel EDWARDS in the census

We can guess at Emanuel EDWARDS’s age based on the ages of his living children at the time he made his will, as well as his and his wife’s ages as given on various census records. (Note: He may have had other children born earlier who didn’t survive until he made his will, but we have no way of knowing that. Also, on a couple of census records, there are some individuals in the household who I can’t identify, but I hope to figure their names out soon.)

1790 United States Census – Beaufort County

• 1 white male 16+ (Emanuel, b. possibly abt 1764);
• 2 white females (wife Elizabeth, b. abt 1760 and unknown female)

1800 United States Census – Beaufort County

• 1 white male 26-44 (Emanuel, b. abt 1764);
• 2 white males 10-15 (son John, b. abt 1790, and unknown male);
• 1 white male under 10 (son Thomas, b. abt 1794);
• 1 white female 26-44 (wife Elizabeth, b. abt 1764);
• 1 white female under 10 (daughter Betsy, b. 1796).

1810 United States Census – Beaufort County

• 1 white male 45+ (Emanuel, b. abt 1764);
• 1 white male 16-25 (son John);
• 2 white males 10-15 (maybe sons Thomas and Elial);
• 1 white female 45+ (wife Elizabeth, b. abt 1764);
• 1 white female 26-44 (? none of his daughters are old enough to fit this age group);
• 1 white female 16-25 (daughter Betsy);
• 1 white female 10-15 (daughter Mary)

1820 United States Census – Beaufort County

• 1 white male 45+ (Emanuel, b. abt 1764);
• 1 white male 16-25 (son Elial, b. abt 1801);
• 1 white male under 10 (? – I’m wondering if this might be a grandchild);
• 1 white female 45+ (wife Elizabeth, b. abt 1764);
• 1 white female 16-25 (probably daughter Betsy)

In Conclusion…

The Elial EDWARDS who moved to Indiana is not the son of the Emanuel EDWARDS of Beaufort County who left a will in 1828. I’m not sure who his father was, but the Elial who went to Indiana may have been one of Emanuel’s brothers.

If you have any questions or comments, please respond below.