Thursday, April 24, 2014

My great grandmother's great grandmother

Julia Ann Holloman Bass Green (Julian?) was born on this day in 1785 in Wayne County, North Carolina, the mother of Col. Richard Bass. Death March 11, 1861 in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana,

What of Julia Ann's Holloman family?

Her father was Thomas Holloman (Holliman) - born in 1740 in Surry, Surry, Virginia, died in 1790 in Raleigh, Wake, North Carolina.  Records on Ancestry.com show he lived in Johnston County, NC in 1784.  These counties (Wayne, Johnston and Wake) are all in close proximity, and several were formed with shifting boundaries of neighboring counties.

Her mother is only known as Emaline, born in 1746.  

Julia Ann is the youngest of 5 children in the family.  

Julia Ann married John Bass on Oct. 8, 1805.  John was born in 1784 in Wayne County, North Carolina, and died in 1822 in Perry, Alabama  

His Bass family were early settlers in VA, with at least one marriage with a Nansemond Indian woman.  I spoke of some of her Bass relations HERE.    Of note is Dr. Andrew Bass (1698-1770) born in Norfolk Independent City, Nansemond County, Virginia, who donated the land for the court house of Waynesborough, Wayne County, NC.  He was the great uncle of Julia Ann's husband, just as a note of interest as to the family's status in the community.  However, history fluctuates a lot in a few generations, so perhaps that's a premature assumption of high standing of the Bass family.

Julia Ann had 8 children.  The family moved to Perry County, Alabama between the births of Elizabeth on 9 Oct 1810 in Wayne County, NC and Molly Ann Moseley Bass on 18 Jun 1811 in Perry, Alabama.  Julia Ann's youngest 4 children were born in Alabama.  

My grandfather's mother's father was Richard Bass, Julia Ann and John Bass's youngest son.
I posted about Richard Bass earlier HERE.  To quote myself:
 His father's estate had a petition against it which gives Richard's birth as 1814.  This date is not corroborated by his census data as well as his grave marker which all reflect an 1819 birth.  So the legal petition in Alabama might have been wrong.  Another source has him born in NC rather than AL.  Wherever he was born, he was the youngest of 8 children of his parents, and his father died when he was very young, and he was raised by a step-father. His mother was Julia Ann Holloman Bass Green.  Father was John Bass, both from Wayne County, NC, which is near where I currently live.  His step-father was Jetson Green, who raised him from when he was around 6 years old.
When John died in 1822 (or maybe earlier) the widow remarried to Jetson Green who petitioned the courts to settle the debts.  The estate was inventoried at which time apparently there were slaves, household goods, land and 7 children. Jetson Green says he'd been married to Julian since 1821.  This is an interesting collection of documents to have survived, dated 1823 to 1830, regarding the debts on John's estate, how the widow needed guardianships for the young children, and another person (last name Holloman) signed Julian's name spelled that way, to one petition or letter.   Julia Ann had two brothers and 2 sisters, and I cannot make out the first name of the signature.
 
Julia Ann was now Mrs. Green, and she didn't stay in Alabama.  There was another westward move to Caldwell Parish, Louisiana where the Jetson Green family lived for the 1840 Census.

By 1850 she lived in Union Parish, LA as head of her own household with an overseer, L. Freeman and his family, but no Green family members listed.  The name Freeman may be that of a freed slave, I would surmise. However, also noted is that on the 1850 Slave census, Mrs. Julia A. Green is listed as owner of  8 slaves, of whom 2 were females over 55 years old. 


At a stated 70 years of age in the 1860 Census, Julia Ann lived with the Barton family (her daughter Elizabeth perhaps?) in Morehouse Parish, LA.  She died there March 11, 1861.

I remember as a teenager learning (in St. Louis, MO) about the Civil War, and that every plantation owner had slaves...which of course was a very bad thing.  Since I knew my family was rooted in the south, I asked my grandfather if he knew anything about the plantations or slavery.  This was in the 1950's when I'm asking about something that he had not experienced in his lifetime.  However, I remember his answer.  He said that when their families realized how bad slavery was, they freed their slaves before the war.






6 comments:

  1. Hi I am researching this family too and enjoy your blog, but I must ask hopefully you will know who is Malita Holloman then? She cosigned documents in the papers held in the records of John Bass's estate. I thought she was Juliann Holloman's mom.

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  2. Hi again,

    I sent my query prematurely.

    I posted before I left my name it's Victori Bass. I have been researching this family since 2004. Of course for obvious reasons, my own surname. I also blog, and want to be accurate with the info that I write about. My family were more than likely slaves of the Bass family, but also there may also be a distant relationship Do you know who the parents of Jetson Green were?

    Thanks so much,

    Victori

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  3. Hi Victori:
    I don't know answers to your questions. Couldn't figure out how to write a direct reply to you. I'll check other ways. Ancestry next week sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I descend from the brother of John Bass, namely Andrew Bass.
    Andrew died circa 1836 in Perry County, leaving five daughters, four of them young enough to be awarded guardians. The first in the list is Jetson Green, then Joseph Vanderslice (married his charge Piety Bass, the year after he became guardian (1837).

    Rev Elias George had himself appointed guardian of the minors (infants) of John Bass and Julia Ann Holliman, and subsequently married the oldest daughter Molsey Ann Bass.

    Apparently this was one way for men to acquire property and wealth.

    Jerusha Bass, youngest daughter of Andrew Bass is my 2nd great grandfather.

    John and Andrew were sons of Edward Bass and Sarah (Farmer or Stevens), Edwards will was contested by husband of his daughter Mary Bass Britton.

    Andrew moved from Wayne Co, NC to Johnston Co, NC to Perry Co, Ala

    John moved to Perry Co, Ala,. I have reason to believe that the Bass family were cattle farmers or ranchers, and that Elias George obtained the herd from his executorship and guardianship

    Women, then, did not own property in their own name, when a husband died, especially intestate, the executor (named or appointed by government) took control of the estate, leaving the widow 1/3 of the estate which he then managed.

    Incidentally, Richard Bass, son of John Bass was never a Colonel.
    I have investigated both lines (John and Richard Bass) in considerable death, in fact I have looked up and made a connection with a great great great grandson of Richard Bass.

    My email if you wish contact is farrardna at yahoo dot com

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  5. Hi again,

    Thanks for responding, the name on the document is Malachi Holleman.

    Have a great holiday!

    victori Bass

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  6. Thanks so much Denise, for your details about the family. I certainly need to go back to my Ancestry site and get these people corrected, don't I? I'm in the midst of looking at another branch of my family's ancestors these days, so I will have this at the top of the list of "to do" for 2019! Wonder where the mistake came from about the father's names being someone else...perhaps uncles?

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