SEARCHING: Wills, Other Documents; NANCE, comments

Remember, please, that this, like any other material, is not without its errors!
PLEASE check, and double check, all material in which you have an interest.

Please note that any comment or question mark was in the original material
as I received it from Ann Mellard, who copied and shared it.

I would sincerely appreciate ANY information that might answer the questions which were raised by Ann in the following material.

I have tried for years to find Martha's family, but I do not know either parent's name (given) name or age. The only one who is listed in Caswell Co. N.C. is THOMAS NANCE, and Martha named her second son for some THOMAS. I should have been looking in Guilford Co. N.C. I think.

Page 8
"While SAMUEL SMITH was still in the war, he met MARTHA NANCE, and said that 'if he lived to get out of the war he would marry her, if he could get her.'     They were married April 3, 1783.

From her (his grandmother) the writer of this book learned much of the family history, but has forgotten much that she told him.    The writer was about nine years old when SAMUEL SMITH (his grandfather) died, but his (Samuel's) wife survived him about fourteen years...

Martha (Nance) Smith was living with the writer's uncle when the 1850 census was taken and was given as 87 years old then and J. Fletcher was listed nearby in his father's home at 20) but he did not leave home until he was 22.    So he should have remembered much that she told him:

He remembers that she told him that
- her ancestors came from the "old County"
- and settled in North Carolina before the Revolution,
- and that they were Quakers.
- She was born in Guilford Co. N.C. and the
- Indians were plentiful when they settled there . . .
- She had one brother who moved to Virginia;
- one sister who married a POTTER and moved to Tennessee
- another sister married a TROTTER and moved to western N.C.
- another sister married a MICHEUX and moved to Burke Co. N.C.
- After her father (?) Nance died, Martha's mother married a Mr. Williamson
- and they had two children:
- a daughter who married Mr. Prather and
- Robert Prather of Guilford Co. was a descendant of this marriage.
- also a large family of SWIFTS & GRAVES were descendants of this half-sister annd half brother of Martha Nance.
- Al Thomas and Swift Williams and John and old Calvin Graves were her relatives.

Martha (Nance) Smith died at the home of her son, Clement Smith, the father of the author of this book, 1n 1853. He helped her get her husband's Revolutionary War pension."

All comments, suggestions, additions and CORRECTIONS are appreciated!

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