This focus will be upon the Self family. Three households with the last name Self lived in Union County in 1834.
The Job Self household had six males and six females. The Francis Self household must have been a young or old one, for there was just one male and one female registered, no children. The Thomas Self household had one male and one female, and I can more readily account for them, for the first Self marriage recorded in Union was that of Thomas Self to Nancy Cook on July 11, 1833 by John Thomas, Justice of the Inferior Court. This marriage occurred about seven months after Union was created on December 3, 1832. Nancy may have been a daughter of William Cook, the only Cook family in Union in 1834 with 7 males and 9 females. Thomas, the groom, was probably a son of Job Self. Unfortunately, no family article about the Selfs appeared in The Heritage of Union County 1932-1994 to assist with this family puzzle.
By the second census in 1840 four Self families were living in Union. These were Job, William, Thomas R. and Robert B. The household of Francis Self was not listed in 1840. Perhaps he and his wife had died. No marked grave with Francis Self was found in cemetery records. Another Self wedding had taken place since 1834. That was of Robert B. Self to Martha Cook on January 25, 1838, performed by Jarrett Turner, Justice of the Peace. We wonder if Martha Cook Self and Nancy Cook Self were sisters. It is interesting to note the number in each of the families in 1840, as that census lists only the number by gender categories. Job Self’s household had 4 males and 7 females. In William’s home were 3 males and 2 females. Thomas R. Self (Thomas and Nancy who married in 1833) had 3 males and 4 females, or five children. Robert B. Self (who married Martha Cook in 1838) had one male and 2 females, or one child already.
Gratefully, by the 1850 census, not only were names of heads of households listed, but the wife’s name was given, the place, if not Georgia, where persons were born, and the names and ages of husband, wife and children. In 1850 we find four households of Selfs and another household with a child having the last name of Self. William, Thomas and Robert had remained for the decade since 1840. The fourth household, not listed in 1840, was that of Francis Self, age 32, born in NC, his wife Hester, 31, born in NC, and their five children all born in Georgia: Job 12, John 10, Thomas 8, John 4 (this may have been a mistake in transcription, for they already had a son John, age 10), and Joseph, 1. This Francis could have been missed in the 1840 census, for their oldest child, Job, would have been born about 1838.
Tracing the other Selfs in the 1850 census, we find William, age 37 and his wife, Elizabeth, both born in North Carolina. Their first four children were also born in North Carolina: David, 17, Berryman, 14, John 12, and Sarah 10. Mary, 8, Franklin, 6, and Barbary 4 were born in Georgia.
Robert Self and his wife Martha Cook Self were both born in North Carolina. He was 30 in 1850 and she was 29. They had married in Union County in 1838. Their children were James, 13, Susan 8, Elisha 7, Jane 4, and Job 2.
Thomas Self and his wife Nancy Cook Self (married in Union in 1833) and both born in North Carolina had a large family by 1850. Names of their children listed in the 1850 census were William, 16; Sally, 15; Caroline, 13; John, 12; Elizabeth, 10; Francis, 9; Jehu, 7; Monroe, 6: Newton, 5; Thomas, 3; and an infant male with no name yet given when the census taker visited their house in 1850.
The other Self listed in 1850 was a child, Selia (Celia) Self, who lived in the household of a young couple, William Crumley, age 31, born in NC and Jane Crumley, age 28 who listed her birthplace as Alabama. Selia was age 6 and had been born in Georgia. Noting the marriage records, I found that Jane Self and William Crumley were married February 25, 1849 by Charles Crumley, Justice of the Peace. Celia evidently was Jane’s child born before her marriage to William Crumley. Could Jane have named her after her aunt, Celia Self Collins, wife of Thompson Collins?
In consulting the helpful resource book entitled Union County Marriage Records 1833-1897 compiled by Viola Holden Jones of Louisville, TN in 1992, I found a total of fifty Self marriages recorded between 1833 and 1897. Space precludes my listing them here, but it is interesting to see the children’s names of the 1850 households listed among those marriages.
Consulting another valuable resource, Cemetery Records of Union County, Georgia (c1990), I decided to seek marked graves of any Selfs born before 1850. I was disappointed to find only three: Ezekiel Self (1845-1890) buried in Antioch Cemetery; John J. Self (Dec. 6, 1835- Oct. 22, 1921) and Margaret Self (May 28, 1939-Sept. 18, 1928) both buried in Shady Grove Cemetery. Referring again to the marriage records, I found that Ezekiel R. Self married Rosa A. Hix on March 10, 1867 with Jebiah Jackson, Justice of the Peace performing the ceremony. John Self married Margaret Daniel on February 10, 1856 with Charles Crumley, Justice of the Peace, the officiating officer.
At best, this account of first families Selfs is incomplete. I am greatly interested in Self genealogy because I descend from Celia Self Collins, wife of Thompson Collins. They were among the first settlers in Choestoe District of Union County and were here when the first census was taken in 1834. What research I have been able to do reveals that Celia was a daughter of Francis Self and that she had siblings named Job, Sarah, and Jesse. I believe the Job Self in the 1834 Union Census was my great, great uncle, and the Francis Self listed then may well have been my great, great, great grandfather (Celia Self Collins’s father). This research leaves me wishing I knew for sure.
c 2009 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Oct. 8, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Iam a descendnt of john calvin self. son of francis and hester. he married Rebecca seabolt. they are buried at mt.pisgah by dicks creek.i am looking to find more info..would like to know when and where in north carolina francis and hester were born and married.
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