JoEllen (Reed) Ingram's notes and correspondence on James Reed and the Morgan County Reeds

Handwritten notes and an email reply from a descendant of the Morgan County James Reed who holds a copy of his will. They report records she has seen or been told of; most of the underlying records have not been seen here.

What the research takes from them:

• A Morgan County land transfer naming Naaman Reed as “son of James and Susannah” (the deed has not been seen).
• A gift of 29 acres from James to “Norman” in 1836; she is unsure whether Norman and Naaman are one man.
• James’s children: Elisha John, and as possible brothers of Elisha, John, Naaman, Norman and Randal.
• Randal Reed sold 77 acres in 1836, and in 1846 sold 36 acres to “James’ widow, probably his mother.”
• James’s death in December 1845 (the will was recorded on 6 Jan 1845, so one of the years is wrong).
• James buried at Reed’s Chapel Cemetery; her grandfather found him buried in what was known as a “Black” cemetery.
• James’s siblings: John (of Section 17) and Telitha, “verified” by court records about the race of Telitha’s son Abraham; the family believes Telitha married Ambrose Collins. Sarah Reed, wife of Isaac Hollingsworth, as James’s sibling or cousin.
• She has verified only the given name of James’s wife, and rejects the Hollingsworth maiden name on the strength of The Holly Tree.
• A family transcription of the 1860 census (Namon Reed, 47, mulatto, born Kentucky, and household; John Reed, 58, born North Carolina; Abner Reed, 39).
• Family stories: a Native American grandmother; Reed brothers trying to burn the Martinsville courthouse to destroy records calling them mulatto.
• DNA: her brother, a direct male-line Reed, tests about 4% African on Ancestry and 0% Native American.

Her will transcription, handwritten notes and marriage list are three products of one researcher.