***-----Original Message-----
***From: gwlerose [mailto:gwlerose@netzero.net]
***Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2001 8:07 PM
***To: CHANDLER-L(a)rootsweb.com
***Subject: [CHANDLER] Cornelia L. Chandler
***
***
***Hi, I'm Jennifer and I'm new here..so here goes.
***
***Cornelia L. Chandler was the wife of my gr-gr-grandfather,
***James Knox Polk Slay..that's all I know about her personally.
***James was born in 1847 in Miss. and died in Nov. 1927.
***That's it for him as well.
***
***Thanks for being here,
***Jennifer M.
Hi,
I don't know anything about these families, but can report what is on some
census pages.
In the 1880 census, District 5, Simpson County, Mississippi, film # T9-0664,
p. 258A is James K. Slay, farmer, age 30, born in MS. It appears that the
place of birth of his parents may have been reported as Miss. and then
crossed out. Miss. is written above the spaces for the parents' birthplaces
and then a line is drawn through. In the actual spaces ( this is the first
line on the page, so there is no one above James) there is nothing for
parents' birthplaces. So it appears that the enumerator may have found that
Miss. was wrong or there may be some other explanation, but ultimately I
guess you'd say the birthplaces are unreported. Wife Cornelia is age 29 or
possibly 27. It is a very badly written nine or a very badly written 7.
Comparing it to other numbers on the page I would guess it is 9, but I'm not
certain. Cornelia and both parents are reported born in Mississippi. There
are children Willie D. age 7 and Lusia age 1.
Next door to James and Cornelia is Nathan Slay, age 46, wife Jennie and
children Ida, 17; Webster, 12; Robert, 11. Then there is Nathan's mother,
Elizabeth, age 68, born apparently in NC as were both of her parents. I say
apparently because the "N" is made in two entirely different ways. One way
for Elizabeth and her father and another way for her mother. However, the N
does not in either case look at all like how this person made an S, so I
think it is NC and not SC.
In the 1850 census for Copiah County, Mississippi, there is a James Slay,
age 46, and wife Elizabeth, 38. Again the birthplace is hard to read, this
time because the image is poor, but I think it is SC. There are children
Nathan, 17; Thomas, 15; Joel, 13; Davis, 11; Nancy, 6; James, 3, which all
works out well with the 1880 information.
Very close to James in the 1850 census, and perhaps next door, depending
upon whether the enumerator went from one side of a road to the other and
back, is Alexander Slay and his family. Alexander also has a son Nathan,
his first born. With so many recurrences of that name I would think the
father of Alexander and James (assuming they are brothers, and it looks that
way) might well be a Nathan Slay.
There is a Mary M. MacLean, age 67 in Alexander's household, and two McLean
households very close, so I would suspect that Mary is Alexander's
mother-in-law. This begins to be highly speculative and parts from your
direct line, but Alexander, his parents, his wife's parents and Mary McLean
are all born in NC, so the McLean name might help somehow later on.
I looked at the Chandler families in Simpson County in 1850. There are
several. One group appears to be William and Tabitha Chandler from SC and
some of their sons in other households of their own. There are other
Chandler families as well, but I have no idea if they are related to
William. Naturally in 1850 Cornelia hadn't been born, but I was hoping
maybe there was a wife named Cornelia, and there wasn't. If I were looking
I think I'd get the 1860 census film for Simpson County and hope to find
Cornelia in one of the Chandler families. (My personal and entirely
irrational favorite is William B., son of William and Tabitha, because the
two daughters in 1850 were Lucinda and Lorinda and they seemed to like to
use girl's names that ended in "a.")
Good luck.