Posted on: Johnston Co. NC Queries Forum Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/NC/Johnston/1917 Surname: PACE, HALL ------------------------- Thanks to a wonderful lady in Guilford Co., NC, I have found ABNER PACE'S family. The NC film (C.046 90068) of the Wardens of the Poor for Guilford Co., in 1845-47 shows Abner Pace (b.1821) receiving financial help for the support of his "simple brother" (retarded) DAVID PACE (b.around 1835-36). Also receiving financial help in Guilford Co., NC in this film is ZILPHA PACE, who is probably the ZILPHA HALL who married ALSEY PACE (illegitimate son of STEPHEN PACE and an unnamed Indian lady). In later census records David Pace is shown as "idiotic" (retarded) and lving with his mother, ZILPHA PACE (b.1800 Chatham Co., NC). If Abner and David are brothers, then ZILPHA PACE is the mother of both of them, and also the mother of YOUNG PACE who took ZILPHA and DAVID to Mecklenburg Co., NC with him around 1856-58. The names of the children of YOUNG PACE (Abner, Charles, John, etc.) echo names in the family of ABNER PACE (JOHN FLETCHER PACE, and CHARLES W. PACE, the latter my grandfather from Salisbury, NC). This information confirms the research of Bruce Howard of the Pace Society of America, whose book was the first to theorize that Alsey Pace (father of my Abner Pace) was an illegitimate son of Stephen Pace and that Alsey Pace had married Zilpha Hall. That places Alsey in the line of Paces going back to Richard I of Jamestown, VA in the 1600s, through JOHN PACE and SARAH BURGE, as Stephen Pace was their son. Thank heaven that DAVID PACE was "simple" or retarded because that is the clue that this is the same David Pace who was the son who lived with ZILPHA PACE first in Guilford Co., NC. and then in Mecklenburg Co., NC. At one time they both lived with YOUNG PACE in Mecklenburg Co, NC, establishing that mother-son relationship to both YOUNG and my ABNER PACE. Also going from Guilford Co. to Mecklenburg Co., NC at the same time and living closeby was NEEDHAM PACE. Thus the line goes: STEPHEN PACE (b.1757-d. after 1804) + Indian woman ALSEY PACE + ZILPHA HALL (m. 1820 Johnston Co., NC) Children: (1) ABNER PACE - B. 1821-22 (d. Rowan Co., NC) m. JULIA ANN REED in 1843 Guilford Co. NC (2) NEEDHAM PACE - B. 1828 m. Mary/Margaret MYERS in Mecklenburg Co. NC (3) YOUNG PACE - B. 1834 (d. Mecklenburg Co. NC) m. NANCY WALLS in Mecklenburg Co. NC (4) DAVID PACE - B. 1835-36 (d. Mecklenburg Co., NC) There are other apprenticed, "orphan" Paces from Guilford Co., NC who could be the children of the missing ALSEY PACE and ZILPHA HALL PACE: Edy (b.1828)--also in Wardens of the Poor records; Geo. Washington called "Johnson"; Wiseman (b.1825); Absalom (b.1821-22); Lively (b.1831). I have been told there is an Alsey Pace also in 1850 Johnston Co., NC, who married a Cassandra Dean in 1836. Is this the same Alsey who "divorced"/deserted Zilpha Pace and children? This Alsey Pace in 1850 Johnston Co., NC, is shown as a person of color, going along with the idea that Alsey Pace was one-half Indian. All of the children in Guilford Co., NC are shown as white.