Deposition to establish the blood and parentage of Abraham Collins, Morgan County, Indiana, 20 Oct 1856 (a transcript)

A page of a modern handwritten transcript of a deposition taken before a Morgan County justice of the peace, posted by a descendant of James Reed of Morgan County. Seen 11 Oct 2026 as a screenshot of the first page in the Ancestry viewer (the foot of the page is below the screen). The witness is not named on this page.

“16 Apr [?] 1856 Bk U. Morgan Co. Henry Ridener [?], Justice Peace. Abraham Collins, age 63, 20 Oct 1856. Establish blood & parentage of Abraham Collins.

Q. Were you acquainted with my parents, grand parents & great grand parents? If so state of what decent they were & native of what country.

A. His great grandfather I knew well & was 1/5 [?] African blood which was proven in Court in the State of Virginia on his father’s side. His grand father was less than an eight Affrican blood. His grand mother was a native of Ireland. The father was less than one sixteenth & I never knew his blood to be questioned & all of his relations in the paternal line were allowed to vote & regarded as white men. Abrahom Collins mother was a Reed and of Portugees extraction as I am informed & believe she was a sister to John & James Reed who are now deceased of late Mo. Co. In.”

Abraham, aged 63, was born about 1793. He may be the Abraham Collins on the 1830 Clay County, Kentucky, page above Hiram Collins and James Reid, entered there in the slave column aged 24-36. The witness makes his mother a sister of John and James Reed of Morgan County, which agrees with the Reed family’s account of Telitha Reed, wife of Ambrose Collins (james-reed-1766).