Next, we headed to the county court house. A call I made earlier confirmed that the probate court kept marriage and probate records on site. I knew that there were probate proceeding following Isaiah Sr.'s death in 1861 and that there were likely to be some remaining records on file. However, I wasn't really prepared for the amount of records we found or their contents.
We found numerous documents spread out across a dozen or so books detailing each step of the probate process of Isaiah Sr.'s estate. Isaiah Jr., my 4th great-grandfather, and his elder brother, Fleming, were listed by name in almost every one. Things got really interesting when we discovered a document dated 1829 asking for permission for Isaiah Sr. and his brother William, to sell property in Washington County they had inherited from their father, Cader. This was the first evidence I had ever seen or heard that named ancestors more than 7 generations back.
I also found a document closing out the division and sales of property included in the probate proceedings. It asks that all bills be paid in full with Confederate States Treasury notes by July 6, 1866. By that date the majority of Confederate forces had surrendered but the war wouldn't officially come to an end until President Johnson signed a proclamation a little over a month later.
Until reading this, I never would have considered the possibility of having blood relations that actually lived during this time and accepted the Confederate government as their own. This passage is written in such a matter of fact way, it seems as though at the time that it was written the survival of the Confederate States of America was taken for granted and the possibility that the South might lose the war was somewhat remote.
The more time I spent exploring these books, the more I appreciated their beauty as objects. I was mesmerized by the use of text. The precise penmanship, organization of objects and people into lists, and language of symbolic doodles enhanced their historic value. They became precious objects that I held and manipulated with reverence. Not only for their beauty and fragility, but also for the information they held.
The most fascinating document I came across was an inventory and appraisement of Isaiah Sr.'s estate. A seven-page detailed list of everything he owned that would be up for sale; land, mundane objects, tools, furniture, kitchen utensils, and people, including my 4th-great grandmother and her three children.
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