Sarah Reid

Named as the mother of Nancy Williams (née Collins, b. about 1822, d. 1909, Appanoose County, Iowa) on Nancy’s death certificate, with Bradley Collins as the father; her birthplace is given there as “Germany,” an informant’s guess. No marriage record for Sarah and Bradley is known; they were together by about 1821. Bradley’s file records the partnership.

If she was James Reed’s daughter, three of his daughters had children with or married Collins men between about 1821 and 1829 (Sarah with Bradley, Mary with Jesse, Elizabeth with Hiram). The research calls this the “three-sisters hypothesis”; only Mary is proven James’s daughter.

The master tree gives her death as before 1830, without stating its basis; Bradley’s 1830 Clay County household has no adult woman. John Collins (b. about 1821), of Independence Township, Appanoose County, in 1850, who named a son Bradley, may be hers and Bradley’s.

Open questions

• Was she James Reed’s daughter?
• Is she the Sarah Reed who married Isaac Hollingsworth, whom JoEllen Reed makes James’s sibling or cousin? Not known.
• The main research file asks whether she is the slave female aged 14-26 in Bradley’s 1820 Floyd County household.
• When did she die?