Not
surprising to many researchers, many online public family trees on Ancestry.com and other sites are wrong! Several days ago, my new-found
cousin Janice found an interesting death certificate on Ancestry.com that
contained family names. Turns out, after further investigation, it was of our
4th-great-aunt, Brittianna Bass Early; she remained in North Carolina because
our ancestors' prior enslaver, Council Bass on Northampton County, N.C., willed her in 1830 to one of his three
daughters who remained in North Carolina. This daughter was Mrs. Charlotte
Holloman of Hertford County, N.C. My third-great-grandmother, Beady Bass, and
her children, along with her elderly mother Rose and her brothers, Harry, Jackson, and Seneca
Jr., were taken to Hinds County, Mississippi by 1849 because Council Bass had
bequeathed them to his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth (Bass) Bass, who settled in Mississippi. Cousin
Janice’s third-great-grandmother, Jemima Bass Mayo, and her children were taken to Madison County, Tennessee by 1835 because Council Bass had bequeathed them
to his daughter, Mrs. Martha Bass Mayo, who settled in Tennessee. Grandma Beady and Aunt Jemima were Brittianna's sisters.
Item 5th: I give and bequeath unto Charlotte Holloman my daughter two
negroe girls named Barsilla and Brittania to her and her heirs
forever. (Will dated Sept. 2, 1830, Northampton County, NC.) (Source)
Well,
prior to the discovery of Aunt Brittianna’s death certificate, I had researched
Charlotte Bass Holloman, with hopes of locating Barsilla and Brittianna. Google
searches, Ancestry.com searches, and other searches yielded nothing about
Charlotte Bass. Not even a marriage record on familysearch.org was found. All
of the public Bass family trees that I saw online had no information regarding
her husband, whose name was simply noted as “Holloman” in many family trees.
When I searched only using the wildcards "Charlotte Holloman," nearly
all of the online family trees had her listed as a wife of James Holloman of
Hertford County, North Carolina. However, those family trees had her maiden
name as Charlotte Everett or Charlotte Holloman. Here are two examples: Example
1, Example 2.
Even on Genforum.com, a researcher asked in 2000 if Charlotte Bass’ husband was
James Holloman of Hertford County. A responder refuted her claim in this post.
Therefore,
I felt it would be a waste of my time to look for Barsilla and Brittianna in
Hertford County in 1870. I was wrong!
When Cousin Janice alerted me to Aunt Brittianna’s death certificate, I soon
found her and her husband, Langley "Lang" Early, and their children in the 1870
Hertford County, North Carolina census! Check out who their next-door neighbors
were!
1870
Hertford County, North Carolina Census: Aunt
Brittianna Bass Early and her family lived adjacent to Charlotte Holloman (age 73) in
1870. (Source: Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT,
USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.).
James & Charlotte Holloman were also found
in the 1850 census. Why
did researchers conclude that Charlotte was not the
daughter of Council Bass but the daughter of Cornelius & Judith Everett
Holloman? Were there two couples named James &
Charlotte Holloman in Hertford County? If these public online family trees are inaccurate, how many more out
there are just wrong as two left shoes?
Also, this scenario could be a research tip that many researchers of white
families should consider tracing the formerly enslaved African-American
families that lived nearby in 1870 to find clues about their own ancestors. Would
not Aunt Brittianna Early’s reported maiden name (Bass) on her death certificate have been evidence for a
descendant/researcher of Charlotte Holloman that she was the
daughter of Council Bass….if that researcher had suspected it beforehand? To
add, if AncestryDNA’s DNA Circles are based on submitted family trees, and if many
of them are inaccurate, then…. You get the picture?
The death certificate of Aunt
Brittianna Bass Early who died in 1914 in Hertford County, North Carolina.
Age was reported as 100. This
certificate verified my 4th-great-grandparents’ names, Seneca & Rose Bass. (Source: Ancestry.com. North
Carolina, Deaths, 1906-1930 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:
Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.)
Special Note: If you know a descendant of James & Charlotte
Holloman, please share this post with him or her.
