The Family of Mr. & Mrs.Jeremiah Chancey
(3rd Great Grandparents)
Jeremiah Chancey |
Ailsy "Elsie" Osteen
|
Jeremiah Chancey
My third Great Grandfather Jeremiah Chancey was born September 1782, either in North or South Carolina. The 1850 census shows him born in North Carolina, while the 1860 census shows him born in South Carolina.
It is my belief that Jeremiah Chancey was first recorded in the beaufort District Census of 1810. The first found mention of Jeremiah in the 1820 McIntosh County, Georgia census, where at age 38, he is shown with 1 male age ten to sixteen, 1 female age six to ten, and 1 female age sixteen to twenty six. The names of his first wife and children are not known at this time. It is believed that Jeremiah, along with his wife, two daughters, and son moved to McIntosh County about 1810 to be near his relatives who had relocated there several years prior. From there, he and his family moved to Appling County in 1820, where Jeremiah drew land in the 1821 land lottery.
Georgia distributed public lands by lotteries open to all citizens of the state. Each lottery distributed different lands, and had similar, but differing rules of eligibility. Seven times between 1805 and 1832, Georgia used a lottery system to distribute the land taken from the Cherokee or Creek Indians, with special consideration given to Revolutionary War veterans in the 1820, 1827, and 1832 lotteries. These lotteries were unique to the state; no other state used a lottery system to distribute land. Lot size varied widely, even in the individual lotteries.
The 1821 Georgia Land Lottery Participants had to be citizens of the United States and residents of the State of Georgia for the three years immediately preceding the Act of 15 May 1821. Participants who won in any of the previous lotteries were prohibited from participating. Any person legally drafted during the War of 1812, who refused to serve or hire a substitute, and any person who deserted the military forces of the State of Georgia or the United States was prohibited from participating. Any person who left the State of Georgia to escape the laws of the state, to avoid paying debts, or who had not paid all his taxes was prohibited from participating. Convicts in a penitentiary could not apply for draws, but their children were treated as if they were orphans. In addition, those allowed to draw, and the number of draws, was determined using the following criteria.
1. Free white male, 18 or over, one draw.
2. Free white male, 18 or over, with a wife, or a legitimate child aged under 18, two draws.
3. Widow, one draw.
4. Family of orphans aged under 21, father deceased, one draw.
5. Family of three or more orphans, both parents deceased, two draws, to be applied for in the county of residence of the eldest orphan.
6. Family of one or two orphans, both parents deceased, one draw, to be applied for in the county of residence of the elder orphan.
Additional draws were available for those who qualified in the following categories.
- Widow, husband killed “in the late wars” with Great Britain or the Indians, one extra draw.
- Family of orphans, father killed “in the late wars” with Great Britain or the Indians, one extra draw.
After the 1820 census, Jeremiah’s first family is not mentioned again. Between 1821 and 1824, Jeremiah now without family, returned to McIntosh County. At the age of forty-two, he married sixteen-year-old Miss Ailsy Osteen.
Jeremiah, and his second family Ailsy, Elliot and possibly Jeremiah Junior moved to Ware County about 1828, and after living in the upper portion of the county a few years, moved to the 719th district (territory now Clinch County) and lived in the town of Homerville, Georgia, (lot 447) for almost thirty three years.
As for Jeremiah’s military record, it is known that in 1836-1838, he was a private under Captain Jonathan Knight in the Indian War.
In 1861, and at the age of seventy-nine, Jeremiah died at home. He was buried in a small graveyard located on the back portion of his land.
Several years ago, after a great deal of research into the location of Jeremiah’s property, I visited lot 447 in Homerville, Georgia. There was nothing to see, but a dirt road in the middle of a large pine forest overgrown with palmettos. I hesitated driving the sandy, narrow dirt road in my new Honda automobile, but my curiosity finally got the best of me and down it, I drove. I traveled about two miles and found no sign of a graveyard. To my dismay, I found the road to be very sandy with very deep ruts and no place in sight to turn around. After several more miles of worry, I eventually found a small place in which I could maneuver the car around, and this I did in a hurry. I was afraid to stop and leave the car parked in the road while I went wandering off through the woods in search of a grave ... a grave that might be covered with trees and bushes. Since my fear of being lost in the woods outweighed my curiosity, I drove back to the main road and returned to civilization in a hurry
Women of True Grit! Not the exact words that pop into a person’s mind when they think of a young seventeen-year-old girl. However, those are the words that I would use to describe our pioneering women ancestors.
Living as we do in this day and time, can you imagine how unbelievably harsh their lives must have been? Yet, at the same time, their lives seem to appear so simple without the chaotic hustle and bustle of the world as we know it today.
My third Great Grandmother Ailsy Osteen or Elsie (no one to my knowledge knows the spelling of her given name), was about eight years old when her father Obediah passed away. For unknown reasons, it wasn’t long after Obediah´s death that Ailsy, her mother Sarah, her brother James and her sisters Elizabeth, Sarah and Mary moved to Tattnall County, Georgia to start a new life for their now fatherless family.
Then in 1821, the family moved to McIntosh County Georgia where Sarah was granted 350 acres of land in addition to drawing land in the 1821 Georgia Land Lottery. In Georgia land records, it appears that Jeremiah Chancy and Martin Shaw (a close friend of Jeremiah’s) surveyed the land that Sarah and her family had just acquired. It was from that chance meeting, I believe, that Jeremiah and Ailsy struck up a courtship that was to last the rest of their lives. Ailsy, now a young seventeen or eighteen years of age and Jeremiah about thirty nine, were married some two years later. Please be aware that many of the dates relating to the Osteen family are only approximate. As I look more into the history of this family, hopefully, some of the dates will be more specific.
Records are scarce that describes the early life of Ailsy, Jeremiah and their twelve children (and perhaps even Jeremiah’s first three children by another spouse). In piecing together the small bits of information that are available, it seems probable that Ailsy was Jeremiah’s second wife. The 1820 McIntosh County Federal Census shows a Jeremiah Chancy as the head of household with three children or two children and a very young spouse. The male was age 10 to 16, one female under the age of 10 and the other female between the ages of 16 to 26. It is doubtful that the eldest female was his spouse. Therefore, I believe that Ailsy, now at the young age of eighteen, with her marriage to Jeremiah, committed to raise three children that were close to being the same age as her, and one perhaps even older. Then over the years, mothering and raising her own twelve children. How strong these women must have been.
Jeremiah at the age of 79, and being some 25 or so years older than Ailsy, passed away in 1861 while living in Clinch County, their home since about 1828.
After Jeremiah's death, Ailsy, still a relatively young woman at the age of 52 lived the next few years in their home in Clinch County raising their children to adulthood. Then in the 1880 Clinch County Federal Census, Ailsy is shown living with her son Shelton Chancey. I feel that she remained living with her son and his family until her death in 1891 at the age of 83. She then was laid to rest in the Ramah Church cemetery, also located in Clinch County.
The Family of Jeremiah and Ailsy
Name: Jeremiah Chancey
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Birth: 5 Sep 1782 South Carolina
Death: 11 Jan 1861 Ware/Clinch County, Georgia
Marriage: abt 1824 McIntosh County, Georgia
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Spouse: Ailsy "Elsie" Osteen
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Birth: 1808 McIntosh County, GA
Death: 1891 Clinch County, GA.
Burial: 1891 Ramah Church - Clinch County GA
Father: Obadiah Osteen (~1760-1816)
Mother: Sarah
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Children
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1 M: Alexander Elliott Chancey
Birth: 1825 Appling or Ware County, Georgia
Death: 12 May 1875 Magnolia, Clinch County, Georgia
Spouse: Nancy Sylvania Stalvey
Marriage: 29 Mar 1850 Clinch County, Georgia
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2 M: Jeremiah (Dud) Chancey Jr.
Birth: 1828 Appling or Ware County, Georgia
Death: 25 Nov 1906 Suwannee Co. FL
Spouse: Nancy Anderson
Marriage: abt 1867 [Location Unknown]
Spouse: Nancy Joyce
Marriage: Jul 1850 Dupont, Clinch Co., Georgia
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3 M: John M. Chancey
Birth: 3 Oct 1832 Ware (now Clinch) County, Georgia
Death: Jan 1917 Bradford Co. FL (now Union Co.)
Spouse: Belinda Stafford
Marriage: 1861 [Location Unknown]
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4 M: Mark C. Chancey
Birth: 1835 Ware, Clinch County GA
Death: 28 Aug 1862 Manasses, Virginia
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5 M: Samuel Chancey
Birth: 1837 [Location Unknown]
Death: 19 Jun 1862 Savannah GA
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6 F: Olive Chancey
Birth: 1838 Ware County, GA
Death: 1864 Louisiana
Spouse: William Jackson Brack
Marriage: 1855 Ware Co. GA
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7 F: Lucy Chancey
Birth: 1840 [Location Unknown]
Death: [Location Unknown]
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8 M: Wade Hampton Chancey
Birth: 2 May 1842 Ware County GA
Death: 22 Aug 1926 Clinch Co. GA
Spouse: Ella Altamyra Malinda Bullard
Marriage: 27 Jun 1867 Ware County, Georgia
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9 M: Rowan Chancey
Birth: 1844 Ware County GA
Death: Unknown
Spouse: Malinda Baxley
Marriage: Location Unknown
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10 M: Shelton B. Chancey
Birth: 3 Sep 1846 [Location Unknown]
Death: [Unknown] [Location Unknown]
Spouse: Mary C. Johnson
Marriage: [Unknown} Location Unknown
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11 F: Rachel Chancey
Birth: 1848 Ware County GA
Death: Unknown
Spouse: Randall Skinner
Marriage: 25 Jan 1870 Clinch GA
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12 F: Rebecca Chancey
Birth: 23 Feb 1851 [Location Unknown]
Death: 11 May 1922 Lowndes, GA
Spouse: Abraham Register Skinner
Marriage: 1868 Location Unknown