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.

Celia Sherrod Carroll 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Week 4

A puzzle sorting Celia Sherrod/Brooks/Carroll-Cal

Celia is my 2^nd great grandmother, born in Alabama during October 1864.  According to family verbal history her parents are Silas and Lucy (Shackleford) Sherrod.  This researcher has found no records to verify them as her parents.  Questions occurred while researching Celia for her surname is all over the place in documents as listed below.

Sherrod

1870 US Census, Township 4, Range 8, Lawrence County, Alabama

 Household #296, Lewis Brooks was head of household with his wife Salina, age 30, female, mulatto, born in Alabama.  Living with them are Lydia 15, Danielle 11, Rebecca 6, Celia 4 (recorded as Delia) and Amanda 2 all born in Alabama.  No relationship is indicated.   Believe this is my second great grandmother, Celia.

Brooks

1880 US Census, Township 4, Range 8, Lawrence County, Alabama

In 1880, Celia is listed as Celia Brooks age 16, living with Salina Brooks, age 38 a widow head of household.  Also living in the house is Mandy Brooks 12, Henry Sherard 4 and Dee Suggs 20.  Salina is listed as a mulatto who is farming.  Silas spelled Cyrus in the 1880 census is living in Lawrence HH#19 is 50 years old farming and black smith having been born in AL and both parents born in Georgia, along with his wife Luisa, age 42 and son, Earens, 19.

Brooks

1882 Celia married Henry Carroll/Cal on March 13, according to family records.  The Lawrence County Records show this couples name as Henry Cole and Celia Brooks.  Since there are no other bride and groom with these first names in the Lawrence or Colbert County Records and we could not find anyone in the Lawrence or Colbert County Census by these names this is more than likely our Henry and Celia.  Land Henry own in Town Creek is on the borders of these two counties.

Carroll

1900 Celia and Henry Carroll are living in HH 218 Leighton Beat, Colbert County Alabama with their children.  Now we are getting somewhere for the Carroll and in some cases, Cal name are the surnames passed to the current generations.

Celia and Henry have ten children, nine sons and one daughter.  Celia’s blessings are having ten children and ten living along with a successful husband that own land.

Cal

1908 Celia and Henry’s son, Cyrus (record spelling) Silas Sherrod died on 13 November at age 21 and was single.  Alabama Death Record recorded his parent’s surname as CAL.

Corral

1910 Celia was preparing Christmas dinner and wasn’t feeing very well and like most housewives and mothers of the time kept going, so the family history goes.  On the day after Christmas she took to her bed and died.  Alabama Death Index 1881-1974 recorded her as Celia Corral, birth about 1868 with a death date of 26 December 1910.

Celia is buried in the Cal Family Cemetery in Colbert County, Alabama.  This is a cemetery started by her husband, Henry Carroll/Cal on his land that was set aside for the family.  www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alcolber/cem-aa-cal-1.htm‎

SUMMARY

The focus in this post is recorded surnames of Celia, my second great grandmother.  What a puzzle it has been sorting out and filtering out documented pieces of her life.  While this is a shorten version of the search, there is much more to the story that supports how I came to the conclusion that these records belong to Celia.  What is in a name and how to find family comes to mind as the love of a Family Historian moves forward.