52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Week 17 - Salina Sherrod Brooks

Salina Sherrod Brooks and as my cousin Dorothy reminds me it is Salina drawn out in the pronunciation.  It must be my northern accent not totally dissolved in my thirty seven years of living in the South.

Salina is a very interesting person in our family and why I have not absolutely proven her relationship, it exist without a doubt in my heart.  The dreaminess exist in the heart of most genealogist/family historians and in this case, it is not about a famous person by people's standards.  Records on Salina Sherrod were first found in the 1866 State of Alabama Census in Lawrence County.  Interesting she was found as head of household with a number of younger females living with her.  The census lists the head of household's name, sex and ages of others in the home.  The index lists her name as Selina Sherod.  This is one of the spelling variations of Salina Sherrod that has been found.  In this record, Salina had three female girls under ten years of age, three females 10-20 and one 20-30.  Oh how I wish I knew their names. [source is ancestry.com: Alabama State Census 1820-1866 for Selina Sherod]

From the 1870 US Census in Township 4 Range 8, Lawrence County, Alabama it appears that those females would have been Lydia (1855) Danella (1859) Rebecca (1864) Celia (1866) and Amanda (1868).   From 1870 US Census on, Salina is listed as a Mulatto.  Salina Sherrod married Lewis Brooks on the 19 Aug 1867.  Lewis was one of the black head of household listed in the 1866 Alabama Census.  Question is were any of Salina's daughters fathered by Lewis.  Various records show they used Sherrod as a surname and at other times Brooks.

Verbal family history is that Silas and Louisa Sherrod was Celia Sherrod's parents. Celia married Henry Carroll/Cal in Lawrence County, Alabama in 1882.  However, US Census show in 1900 that Louisa had one child and that son was Earen (Earnest) so it opens the door that Silas had some other relations and who knows it may have been with Salina that led to her daughters, Lydia, Danella, Rebecca, Celia and Amanda.  Celia Sherrod Carroll died in 1910 and her husband, Henry Carroll/Cal was administrator of Salina Sherrod Brooks' estate.  Later records show Salina as grandmother to Eva Bynum MacDonald Lewis.  I met Eva many years ago and she told me she was my cousin and grew up in Colbert County, Alabama.  My great uncle Robert and her argued whether it was Colbert or Lawrence County.  Both were born in Alabama in 1891 and grew up together as cousins.  Both of these family members as I found records on this journey were listed as mulattoes at times. While their race does not prove anything other than somewhere along the way there was a mixing of partners.

Summary is that Salina born in 1841 Alabama was a mulatto and own land.  It leaves one to wonder whether she was fathered by a Sherrod plantation slave owner.  How did she acquire land so soon after slavery in 1866?  Silas was a slave among Colonel Benjamin Sherrod as well as his grandfather. This is documented in the US Claim Commission that he filed in 1871 with Walter Sherrod (grandson of Col. Benjamin) being a witness.  The journey continues to prove or disapprove any possible theories by this Family Historian.