Greetings to the Bell, Carteret, NC, and Canaday Lists:
After a pause of about 20 years, I am again researching
my Samuel Bell (b. 1792 NC) ggg-grandfather, found in the
1850/60 census records of Itawamba Co, MS. My first
impression was that this should not be too hard, as I
should probably be able to see the name of his father
included in the 1790 census index of 1790 NC, some
of whom could be eliminated by finding those in 1800
that had no son under 10 years of age. I quickly learned
the difficulty of that after finding 150 Bell families in
1790, and a few more than that in 1800, but not many,
suggesting that some were already joining the great
westward migration out of NC, perhaps including the
father of Samuel Bell.
The search is still not an easy one, but based entirely on
circumstantial evidence I believe that I now have his origins
placed in Carteret County. Mostly to convince myself, I
hope that readers will be kind enough to allow me to sketch
out the meager information available. Samuel Bell first
appeared in Itawamba Co. records in the state census of
1841 in which his household was listed with 9 members,
and I am able to account for six of the 7 apparent
children. Only two Bell names are found among the
roughly 500 families listed, with the other being
John O. Bell found with six family members only a few
names away in a list not ordered alphabetically.
I have learned that this John O. Bell was the son of
Nathan Bell and Annie Oglesby and that he was born
in 1796 Carteret Co., NC. Listed nearby to Nathan Bell
in the census of 1790 was William Oglesby, who might
have been the father or at least some relative of
Annie Oglesby. There was only one household between
Nathan Bell and Joseph Bell, Sr, who had only 3 males
over 16 in his household. This gives the appearance of
being a family in which two sons over 16 were still living
in a home in which the mother had died and any daughters
had already married. This Joseph Bell, Sr, might well
be the same person who complied the tax list of 1758
Carteret Co. in which the only persons with the Bell
surname might well have been found in two households:
that of himself with three other tithable, and another
headed by Newell Bell in which was found his brother
Joseph and two other tithable. From these eight men
over the age of 16 in 1758, if they all had the Bell name,
came most of the many Bell descendants that followed in
Carteret. It would seem that Nathan might have been one
of the older sons of Joseph Bell, Sr, and already had five
children of his own in 1790, with the birth of John O. Bell
still being six years away.
Also included in that list of 1758 were six households
headed by men with the name Canaday, one of these
being Cornelius Canaday who was listed adjacent to
John Oglesby, possibly the grandfather or maybe even
the father of the wife Annie of John Oglesby Bell of
1841 Itawamba Co, MS. One of the sons of Cornelius
was Richard Canaday, thought to have been born about
1754. When he made his will in 1823 he named a son
Cornelius and one of his daughters was Rebecca Bell.
I am hoping that someone can give me the name of
the Bell man to whom Rebecca Canaday married, and
I would also like to learn if it might have been possible
that a daughter of Cornelius Canaday married a Bell. My
theory at present is that the Bell husband of Rebecca
Canaday was the father of my Samuel Bell, or that his
father was married to a daughter of Cornelius Canaday.
I base this entirely on the fact that the eldest son of
Samuel Bell was named Cornelius C. Bell, born 1824 in
AL. I do not have definite knowledge that his middle
name was Canaday, but because I think that Samuel
was probably a cousin of John O. Bell of Carteret
and because of the known connections by marriage
there between the Bell's and descendants of Cornelius
Canaday, I do have the strong feeling that Cornelius C.
Bell was named for him. Indeed, there was another
Cornelius C. Bell born in the same year in Carteret,
as he was age 26 in the census of 1850. My guess
is that his father was a brother to my Samuel Bell,
with both having the same kinship to Cornelius Canaday.
Time wise, it would seem possible that Rebecca
Canaday could have been born about 1775, when
her father was about 21, and married at age 17
in 1792 to her Bell husband in time to give birth
that year to Samuel Bell. Hopefully, someone on
the Canaday or Bell lists can tell me if this is a
possibility. Even if it is, the problem that I have
with this is that Samuel would have had to skip
back over a couple of generations to name a
son after his Canaday great-grandfather. The
naming pattern would seem more reasonable if
a daughter of Cornelius Canaday was the mother
of both my Samuel Bell and the father of the
Cornelius C. Bell of the same age in Carteret.
This would also work out time wise if Cornelius
had a daughter born shortly before his death
at about age 45 in 1774, as I have been told.
The question is: if there was such a daughter,
could she have married a Bell?
Any information would be greatly appreciated
that might help to answer one of the questions
that follow:
(1) Who was the Bell husband of the daughter
Rebecca of Cornelius Canaday's son Richard?
(2) Who was the father of the Cornelius C.
Bell born in 1824 Carteret Co, NC?
(3) Who were the brothers of Nathan Bell,
father of John O. Bell, as one of these might
be the father of my Samuel Bell?
(4) Did Cornelius Canaday have a daughter
who married a Bell and, if so, what was his
name?
(5) While he does not call her a daughter, the
1823 will of Richard Canaday also mentions
a Joannah Bell and his estate was divided
up as though she was his daughter, rather
than the daughter of his daughter Rebecca
Bell, so who was Joannah Bell?
In addition to living nearby to John O. Bell of
Carteret in Itawamba Co, MS, and having a
son named Cornelius C. Bell, a third reason
that I believe that Samuel Bell was from
there is that he would have been age 20 in
1812 and unmarried, making him a perfect
candidate to serve in the war of 1812.
Records list two men named Samuel Bell
who served in Robert's Carteret Militia
Regiment in the War of 1812.
It would be nice to have evidence that was
more solid, but that is all that I have at
present and is the reason that I hope to be
forgiven for casting such a wide net with this
message in an attempt to learn more. My best
regards and thanks for any help, Ron Bullock