The Floyd family is the Illinois branch of my family tree and the first set of great-grandparents (George and Nancy's son Charles Augustus Floyd and Angeline Elizabeth Matlock) and great-great-grandparents (George Floyd and Nancy Finley) that I learned about, thanks to my cousin Paul, through whom I became acquainted with the Floyd family research of my second cousin Eunice Sandling and through her with additional research done on this family by Jim and Pat Dodd. I have to admit, it was awfully hard to find new information on this family. I located a couple of new children for George and Nancy's son Caswell Floyd (covered in the articles Alvin Cletus Floyd and Essie Maples, Finding a New Family, and Alice Floyd Ezell Bibb) and some descendants for son David Floyd (Descendants of David Floyd? – Parts 1 and 2) as well a brother for George back in Illinois, Henry Floyd; I believe Henry's presence was known by the other researchers but they had nothing to connect him to George, but later I found a land deed connecting the two as well as a marriage certificate for George and Nancy.
The Floyd family came with several legends; one seems to have been known by all the Floyd descendants and is covered in the next article. Another is recounted in the Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas (Chicago, Illinois: 1892, Lewis Publishing Company), which is the source of a lot of the information we have on the Floyds: "The grandmother of our subject [Charles Augustus Floyd, so this could have been George Floyd's mother or Nancy Finley's mother] was captured by the Indians, was held in captivity for several years, and was rescued, at a great expense, by her father." Publications of this type, while often containing a lot of material that may be of historical and genealogical interest, are usually largely vanity publications in tone and content and are generally not the most reliable sources of information. Another source of information was a family Bible that was apparently in the possession of my grandmother Eula Floyd Moore at one time.
Here are the outlines of what Floyd researchers know about the George and Nancy Floyd family. George Floyd was born in Vermont in 1807 and as a young man went to Illinois in around 1830, most likely after spending a few years in New York in between. The account in the Memorial and Biographical History makes no mention of Henry, but I think it is likely the brothers went together. On 30 November 1834 George married Nancy Finley, said to be the daughter of a John Finley of South Carolina. In 1846 George went to Texas and took a headright in Peters' Colony in the Dallas area and in December 1848 he returned with his family to settle there. They had five sons (to be covered in detail in separate articles): David Harriet (ca 1836 IL – ca 1867-8 TX), Charles Augustus (1840 IL – 1894 TX), Henry Oscar (ca 1843 IL – ca 1862 IL), Caswell Biankin (1845 IL – 1890 TX), and Alfred Byrum (1848 IL – 1913 TX).
Nancy Finley died on 5 February 1864 and George married a second time to Elizabeth Baines (maiden name unknown), a widow with a daughter named Maud. George and Elizabeth had two daughters, Mary Etta and George Harriett (if you are thinking that this family likes to give boys girls' names and girls boys' names, you are right, although I believe Harriet(t) must have been a family name). George Floyd died on 11 March 1880 and is believed to be buried next to Nancy in the Floyd-Taylor Cemetery in Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas.
I would welcome any additional information on this family. In particular there are several members of the family about whose fates I have no knowledge: Henry Oscar Floyd (other than his reputed death in Illinois), Elizabeth Baines Floyd (no date of death, though she was still alive in 1900), George and Elizabeth’s daughter Mary Etta), and Joe and Hattie Floyd Boyer’s sons Willie and Eugene.
George Floyd
b. 29 Sep 1807, Vermont
d. 11 Mar 1880, Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas
& Nancy E. Finley
b. ca 1816, Greene Co., IL
d. 5 Feb 1864, Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas
m. 30 Nov 1834, Greene Co., IL
|---David Harriet Floyd
|......b. 1836, Illinois
|......d. 1867
|---& Zilla Ann Kelly
|...... b. Jun 1839
|......d. 9 Jan 1914, Sipe Springs, Comanche Co., Texas
|......m. 23 Dec 1858, Dallas County, TX
|---Charles Augustus Floyd
|......b. 28 Jun 1840, Greene Co., Illinois
|......d. 4 Mar 1894, Dallas County, TX
|---& Angeline Elizabeth Matlock
|......b. 18 Nov 1847, Bowling Green, Warren Co., Kentucky
|......d. 11 Oct 1916, Dallas County, TX
|......m. 13 Jan 1867, Home of T.H. Taylor, Texas
|---Henry Oscar Floyd
|......b. 1843, Greene Co., IL
|......d. 1862, Scott County, Illinois
|---Caswell Biankin “Cass” Floyd
|......b. 1845, Greene Co., IL
|......d. 26 Oct 1890, Kleburg, Texas
|---& Mary E. Miller
|......b. Jan 1848, Illinois
|......d. 1916, Texas
|---Alfred Byrum Floyd
|......b. 1848, Greene Co., IL
|......d. 8 Jul 1913, Dallas County, TX
|---& Kate Clara Bass
|......b. 9 Jun 1860, Texas
|......d. 5 Jul 1959, Dallas County, TX
|......m. 22 Sep 1876, Dallas County, TX
George Floyd
b. 29 Sep 1807, Vermont
d. 11 Mar 1880, Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas
& Elizabeth J.
b. Aug 1829, Missouri
m. 1867
|---Mary Etta Floyd
|......b. 1867, Texas
|---George Harriett “Hattie” Floyd
|......b. May 1869, Texas
|---& Joe Boyer
|......b. Jun 1861, Tennessee
|---|---Willie F. Boyer
|---|......b. Jun 1894, Texas
|---|---Eugene H. Boyer
|---|......b. Sep 1896, Texas
No comments:
Post a Comment