I have in my files that William Colling Rea was married twice. He is buried next to his second wife, Sarah at Cook Cemetery, Milton, Rutherford County, Tennessee, if this is correct then Winniford wasn't a widow. I also have that William has two children with Sarah, John and Hannah. -----Original Message----- From: Roger Ray <dzupina@yahoo.com> To: ILFRANKL <ILFRANKL@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wed, Mar 6, 2013 1:41 pm Subject: [ILFRANKL] Rays in Marion Co TN -> Reas in FCI ? This is a continuation of my remarks on the juxtaposition of John Overturf, Thomas Ray and Hannah Ray in some land records of Marion Co TN ~1830. In the scenario I'm suggesting, Thomas Ray and Hannah Ray would be the children of William Collins Rea & Winnifred [Wilson] Rea. This would explain what brought them into the proximity of Winny Rea and John & Jane (Rea) Overturf. In this interpretation, Hannah Ray would correspond to "Hanna Rea, my youngest daughter" who is one of two recipients in the deed of gift made by William C Rhea 9 Oct 1815 in Warren Co TN [Warren Co TN DB B:182]. A possible way to understand this situation is to consider the census of 1830. There are only two Ray families (No other spelling variants) found in the 1830 census for Marion Co, TN: Thomas Ray and Winny Ray. Since Hannah Ray still owns a tract of land in 1830, she presumably is part of one of these two households. It seems unlikely that Hannah Ray is Thomas Ray’s wife since Thomas Ray is still alive in 1830. During this period I think it would be unusual for a wife to purchase land in her own name while her husband is still alive. Neither Thomas Ray nor Hannah Ray are found on any other land transaction during this period. The record for “Winny Ray” in this census is very intriguing. The Winny Ray household consists of 1 M (5-10); 1 F (<5); 1 F (20-30); 1 F (70-80). Winny Ray is presumably the older of the two adult women in the listing; hence she was b 1750-1760. This suggests the possibility that Winny Ray might be the wife/widow of William Collins Rea. The younger woman might be their daughter, Hannah Rea. In this scenario one can imagine that Hannah would be charged with the care of her elderly mother and it makes plausible that Hannah would purchase land in her own name using her mother’s funds, possibly because Winny is infirm. Note the similarities between the 20-30 yr old F [Hannah Ray?] and a woman variously described as Sarah Josina “Hannah” Rea who married John Polk in 1836 in FCI. [1850 census => b ~1802 VA] In one place [Eubanks Lineage Book pp 173-174 http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=cjrkhillphotos&id=I09947 ] she is described as Wilson Rea’s sister and as having two children (Esther & James) which she brought to FCI. In another place [ Thomas Shawcross http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=shawcross&id=I925] this woman [Hannah Rea] is described as Wilson Rea’s daughter and as having two daughters with a Cherokee father in TN before being returned to her family. Although these two oral family history accounts have obvious differences, they bear some striking similarities. In any case it would seem that the two children in the Winny Ray household probably belong to the 20-30 yr old F. One of the puzzling things about the FCI Reas is a group of Reas who appear in FCI starting sometime after the mid 1830s but who have no documented ties to the established FCI Rea families: SARAH JOSINA “HANNAH” REA (b ~1802 VA) m. John Polk 9/26/1836 THOMAS HENRY REA ..(b ~1811 TN) m. Parthena Brashears MARY (“POLLY”) REA (b ~1816 TN) m. Peter Wilson 5/28/1840 JAMES REA .........(b ~1820 TN) m. Margaret Eubanks 1/12/1840 ROBERT REA ........(b ~1822 TN) m. Charity Rea (d/o Abner) 3/9/1844 ELIZABETH REA .....(b ~1823 TN) m. Philip Brashears (her uncle) 4/15/1851 FERRIBY REA .......(b ~1826 TN) m. John Wilson 5/6/1844 WILSON REA (.......(b 1828 TN) m. Lucinda Abbott 3/6/1849 GEORGE W REA ......(b ???? ??) m. Nancy Bowlin 3/9/1854 Most of the birth data has been extracted from subsequent census data. [I’m having difficulty in making a positive identification of George W Rea so I’m uncertain as to his birth] Notice how the birth spacing is consistent with a single family group. Moreover there is a striking similarity with the 1830 Marion Co TN census record for Thomas Ray: 1111001 –- 121101 Now overlay this with the unattached Reas of FCI given above: ........Age....Birth...........Possible Identity ------ ----- --------- ---------------------------------------- 1M 1F < 5 1825-1830 Wilson (1828); Ferriby (~1826) 1M 2F 5-10 1820-1825 Robert (~1822); Elizabeth (~1823); Unk F 1M 1F 10-15 1815-1820 James (~1820); Polly (~1816) 1M 1F 15-20 1810-1815 Thomas Henry (~1811); Unk F 1F 30-40 1790-1800 Unk F [wife of Thomas] 1M 40-50 1780-1790 Thomas Only two female children are missing from this profile. Now compare these Reas with the 1840 Franklin Co IL census record for Teney Rea: 11111 – 00111 and again overlay the names ........Age....Birth...........Possible Identity ------ ----- --------- ---------------------------------------- 1M < 5 1835-1840 William J.P. Rea (b ~1840) 1M 5-10 1830-1835 Unk M 1M 1F 10-15 1825-1830 Wilson (1828); Ferriby (~1826) 1M 1F 15-20 1820-1825 Robert (~1822); Elizabeth (~1823) 1M 1F 20-30 1810-1820 Thomas Henry (~1811); Parthena (b ~1811) [William J.P. Rea is the son of Thomas Henry and Parthena] Again there’s an almost perfect match with only one unidentified male. The nature of these records have led me to think that Winny Ray, Thomas Ray and his wife all died by ~1835, leaving Hannah and a group of Ray orphans who came to FCI to join their Rea relatives. They may even have travelled with John and Jane (Rea) Overturf. If this hypothesis were to turn out to be correct, it would provide a sort of “grand synthesis” which would account for a large number of “loose ends” in some early FCI Rea families. I realize that this argument is largely circumstantial so I’d like to hear about any evidence that would either support or refute this hypothesis. I’d especially like to hear from anyone who knows anything about the ancestry of these unattached Reas. Roger Ray Note: Wilson Ray and Lucinda Abbott [above] are my GGGrandparents. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ILFRANKL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message