>I think I'm coming into this late. But, better late than never? > >Anyway, I would doubt that Benjamin Thomas, Jr., was the son of Mary >Douglas, widow of John Tanner. If John died 1818-1820 (according to Jeff), >or circa 1827 (according to something >I saw), then Mary became a widow, no earlier than 1818. The 1827 was what I had at one point also. I don't know where that came from, but I think I might know why. Then I learned the following: John and Mary's youngest son, Elijah, was born Jun 5, 1818, Emanuel County, GA. The "orphans of John Tanner" drew a prize in the 1820 Land Lottery from Emanuel County. Their lot fell in the newly formed Gwinnett County. It was sold for their benefit. So I would assume that John died sometime between the birth of his youngest son and the point at which that son was recognized as an orphan. This is how it was explained to me by someone who has "done the digging". Boy, wouldn't you like to have owned that lot today? The children of John Tanner, including Green, Berry Hampton, and Elijah (I don't remember if the girls were mentioned or not), all appear on the "Poor School" rolls in Emanuel County in 1827. Perhaps this is where that date comes from -- an assumption that John Tanner died "by 1827"? > >According to Huxford, Benjamin Thomas, Jr., was born in 1807, in Cheraw >District, South Carolina. > >Mary was supposed to have married a Thomas, and it may have been Benjamin >Sr., but I doubt that Benjamin Jr. was her son. > If he married Mehala in Tattnall County in 1834, then that's probably right. Is there any information on when and where Benjamin Sr. died? That land described in that passage which was submitted yesterday sounds an awful lot like it could be very near the Tanner land. Jeff

Jeff Tanner wrote: > The 1827 was what I had at one point also. I don't know where that came > from, but I think I might know why. Then I learned the following: > > John and Mary's youngest son, Elijah, was born Jun 5, 1818, Emanuel County, > GA. The "orphans of John Tanner" drew a prize in the 1820 Land Lottery > from Emanuel County. Their lot fell in the newly formed Gwinnett County. > It was sold for their benefit. So I would assume that John died sometime > between the birth of his youngest son and the point at which that son was > recognized as an orphan. This is how it was explained to me by someone who > has "done the digging". If his orphans drew a prize in the 1820 Land Lottery, then he certainly was dead by then. > The children of John Tanner, including Green, Berry Hampton, and Elijah (I > don't remember if the girls were mentioned or not), all appear on the "Poor > School" rolls in Emanuel County in 1827. Perhaps this is where that date > comes from -- an assumption that John Tanner died "by 1827"? I've copied some names from the "Poor School" rolls in Emanuel County but at the time I wasn't interested in Tanners. Children listed on the rolls were not necessarily orphans. > If he married Mehala in Tattnall County in 1834, then that's probably > right. Is there any information on when and where Benjamin Sr. died? That > land described in that passage which was submitted yesterday sounds an > awful lot like it could be very near the Tanner land. It appears that someone assumed they married in 1834. Huxford wrote that Benjamin Sr. moved to Tattnall County when Benjamin Jr. was two or three years old, which would have been circa 1809 or 1810. He made no other mention of Benjamin Sr. He wrote that Benjamin Jr. grew to manhood in Tattnall County, that he married Mehala Music, born 1814 in Tattnall County, and that their first child was born in 1835. He wrote that Benjamin Jr. moved to Appling County about 1840. I'm just repeating what was previously sent, am I not? Sorry about that. I had not really read the part about his land until just now. Huxford wrote "In the creation of Coffee County in 1854, partly out of Appling he was placed just inside the new county." Sorry Judge, but none of Appling County was placed in Coffee County at its creation! Charles Marks (sic - it should be Meeks) asked the Georgia legislature to include his property in Coffee County. That was approved Mar. 1, 1856. That accounts for the Coffee County line, near Nicholls, protruding into what is now Bacon County, Georgia. There were later changes, but Charles Meeks started it. Clyde