Laban MORRIS (Henby or Henly or Ledbetter)

Ok, unless you've been living under a rock, you probably already know that Laban MORRIS of Craven County is one of my favorite brick wall ancestors. Thanks to family stories that were passed down in very select lines in our great big family, we knew that Laban was really a Ledbetter, whatever that meant. With Y-DNA testing, we were able to figure out that Laban's father was Rowland LEDBETTER, of Brunswick County, Virginia, later Wake County, North Carolina, and finally, eastern Tennessee.

His mother remains a mystery. Rather than re-document everything that I have posted on this site, I'll just put the links here. If you descend from Laban, you probably already know it, but if not, some of these links might help you make a connection.

• Laban Morris Family
• The father of Laban Morris has been identified as…
• Laban Morris changed name from Henly
• Will of John Morris (Craven County, NC; Leon County, FL) – 1866/1869 (John was the oldest son of Laban.)
• The Craven County Morris Family… Really Ledbetters?
• Family Record of William Bryan MORRIS
• John Chapman vs. Joel Wall (1810) – Civil action papers (C.R.028.325.6) (Laban is named as a witness in this suit. No idea what that means, but I thought it was worth noting.)
• Talbot WILLIAMS Estate Records (Talbot Williams was the father of Caroline "Kitty" Williams, Laban's wife and the mother of all of his children.)
• Will of Talbot Williams (1820) – Craven County
• War of 1812: Craven County Militia who enlisted in July 1813 (Laban is in this list.)
• Letter from Turner Nelson to James Roach – 1825 (Laban was mentioned in this letter.)
• Swift Creek residents hire Turner Nelson as teacher of “Reading writing and Arithmetic” in 1823 (Laban is one of the men who hires Turner Nelson to teach one of his children.)
• Is it Henly, Henley, or Henby?