Candace Tillman's Page

Glad to have helped.

Hey, well, I'm glad you found that Free Negro Register (as it was really called on the microfilm, but they thought it would be more PC to call it Free Persons of Color Register when I put it online, the next one I do will be on my own Halifax Co. website and it will have the correct name). You know, what I found about the register is that persons of color would register when they were going to leave the county for one reason or the other so that they could have papers showing that they were free when traveling outside of their own area, so I'll bet that it was around 1853 that your William Dempsey left Halifax. The fact that no wife or children were mentioned also means that he was alone by that time, so it definitely sounds like they must have died between 1850 -1853, and that was when William decided to move elsewhere and make a new start of it.

That's another clue, your William Dempsey was a blacksmith, like Etheridge, while Tamberlin & his son were listed as a laborer and farmer in the census; it would have been more likely for a son to have the same occupation as the father. I would look around the 1850 census in Halifax Co. to see which Dempseys may have been nearby the William, b. 1827 & Mary, and son William, and that may point you to who his family was since it is more likely that was the same one who moved to Tyrrell by 1860. It's probable that after his wife & son died shortly after 1850, he moved to Tyrrell to get a fresh start and away from the sad memories, and went to work for Etheridge.

That is why I think it more likely your William Dempsey was the one in 1850 Halifax Co., b. 1827, married to Mary, with son, William. I don't see that one in Halifax afterwards, and it's possible that his wife, Mary, died by 1860, because that was the year that your William married Angelico. Tamberlin Dempsey & family were in 1850 Franklin Co., (listed twice), with the their son William, included in one of those listings, showing born 1834; the entire family moved back to Halifax by 1860, by which time William, b. 1834, had married Mary Lawrence in 1857 and had 3 children. The William who was in Halifax in 1850 was not the same one there in 1860, that is what I am saying, and I think it likely that one, b. 1827, was the one who moved to Tyrrell Co. by 1860.


Deloris

I just took a look at the census on these names, and I don't think they were the same people. Tamberlin & Tabitha DEMPS(EY) were in Franklin Co. in 1850(twice) with a son named William, b. 1834 in one of those h/h's; by 1860 a William, b.1834, was in Halifax Co.,NC with wife Mary LAWRENCE, b. 1833 (mar. Jan. 7, 1857 Halifax ) and children John, Susan, & George; in 1870 Halifax, William DEMSEY, b.1835, & Mary, and children John W., Susan, George W., James T., Ellis, & Prisciller; again, in 1880, the family was still in Halifax Co., with most of the children still living with them; wife Mary, remained consistently a yr. older than her husband in all the census, so I know they were the same family from 1860 onward.
I see your William DEMPSEY Aug. 11, 1860 in Tyrrell to Angelico BRYANT, and she was in 1850 Tyrrell, d/o Thomas & Affa(?) BRYAN. I also see their bondsman, William B. ETHERIDGE, b. 1822, white, in 1850 Tyrrell, a blacksmith.
The confusing part, though, is that in 1850, there was a William DEMPSEY, b. 1827, wife Mary, b. 1830, and son William, b. 1849 in Halifax Co. ; this may have been William DEMPSEY, m. Maria PUGH, March 8, 1848 Halifax. Curiously enough in 1850 Halifax, Mary LAWRENCE, b. 1832, was living with Ciah (Hezakiah?) & Holly HAITHCOCK, 2 doors from Uriah DEMPSEY, b. 1805 & Martha FOSSET (white), b. 1820. I don't see this couple (William, b. 1827) anymore in Halifax and I'm wondering if he was yours, possibly remarried to Angelica in 1860? What do you think?

Deloris