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Lyles family genealogy notes

Our SOURCES of information

Why has so much genealogical information been so ephemeral?

Although some of us are curious about our OWN ancestry, few of us seem to care, know how, or have the means to preserve for FUTURE generations our own first hand genealogical knowledge.

• We may not value what we think is so commonly and widely known, and feel no need to write about it until it is too late to do so.
• Records are often destroyed (Ederington's almost were and mine certainly will be) by fires, etc.and without being properly evaluated in hurried estate settlements, etc. (most heirs seem to have time to look only for gold and rarely finish our incomplete endeavors).
• Some of us are too fearful of the savages amongst us and concerned about our own and others' privacy to make our genealogical records available to the public in libraries and court houses, or to publish them on Internet, etc.
• During the about six millennia since our most noble civilization invented writing, it has also been devastated by many wars and displaced, and hardly any of have the least understanding why.

No matter how honest, intelligent, well intentioned, careful, trustworthy, certain, etc. researchers may be, information and conclusions which are NOT based on first hand experience are more likely to be flawed.

I recommend that genealogical information and conclusions contained in this document be considered hypotheses which require confirmation by ones own research where possible, and that future researchers facilitate confirmation by explaining the reasoning and refer to the documents on which their conclusions are based.

Carrie Lyles Traylor was my grandmother, and I feel confident that I accurately determined the identity of all her grandparents by using deeds, wills, census information and interviews with her surviving children, etc. during the late 1960's.

I have been unable to continue much genealogical research since then even though Internet has made genealogical research incredibly easier by facilitating communication between distantly related family genealogists.

I was not convinced Carrie Lyles Traylor, who only remembered that one of her ancestors was named "Manus", was a descendant of Arromanus Lyles because of her middle name, or that Thomas "The Regulator" Woodward was her ancestor because her uncle was named Thomas Woodward Traylor.

I am reluctant to report genealogical possibilities based on such flimsy evidence.

I consider information about our ancestry to be sacred and its adulteration sacrilegious.

I also love hard science..

I did not know the names of the parents of Nancey B. LYLES until 12 December 1998 when a great great granddaughter of Millie Lyles (~1804 - ~1880 and wife of Benjamin Dickerson), who is searching for information about Millie Lyle's parents (please contact me if you have any) e-mailed me the following:
"Nancy B. Lyles is listed on page 6 of a Lyles genealogy dated May 1991 which was in the Genealogy Room in Winnsboro. She is listed as a daughter of Arromanus Lyles II and his wife Mary Woodward. Nancy married William E. Traylor." Later she e-mailed that "The Lyles information is in the upstairs Genealogy Room in the Museum. It is a rather large book, printed out in what appears to be PAF format. Ruth Stevenson knows where it is.", and sent me a history.

This above e-mail message confirmed what Carrie Lyles Traylor told me. The passenger list of the Earl of Donegal (which sailed from Belfast October 2, 1767) confirmed what Cousin Harvey Baxter Stewart told me about the Stewart's relationship with the White family in Ireland. The stories of Rosa McElduff, who lived in the Stover or Mitford Community of Fairfield County, about her having been named after her great grandmother Rosanna Harvey, who was named after her great grandmother Rosannah Stewart confirmed and verified my interpretation of deeds, etc. Rosa also proudly showed me the rounded half quart sized transparent green glass water jar that had been used by her ancestor Frank Reid on board the ship he jumped after being shanghaied in England. (for many years after the Revolution, Frank celebrated the fourth of July by firing a cannon). These are examples of the value, reliability and usefulness of even "flimsy" or "mythical" information which for centuries has been verbally handed down from one generation to the next.

My distant cousin World War veteran Harvey Baxter Stewart (his children were very emotional at he funeral just south of Great Falls, SC, and lived in the north eastern part of our exploiter's Federal empire) knew far more than anyone else I talked to about our Stewart family (and even offered to pay me to write a book). He was absolutely certain that when young he had read a genealogy book owned by his family which listed members of our OWN (he insisted) Stewart family, which traced our descent from the Stewart kings of Scotland.

I tried to extract from him all the information I could about that book. He said that a book publishing company had published it (that it was not homemade). He thought the cover of the book was red with gold letters. He remembered reading in that book about a "Black Knight" (or prince? - I once read something about a soldier named "Black Knight" because of his lethality), and about a Queen Wilamena of Holland (or something like that), but nothing more. I searched but found no such book in the library of Congress, etc., but with Internet, who knows what will be discovered?

Does Harvey Baxter Stewart's story seems incredible?

Harvey Baxter Stewart and I seem to be the only members of my Stewart family who care to know anything about their ancestry. Who would believe that: Carrie Lyles TRAYLOR Stewart's many descendants knew nothing about their famous ancestors Arromanus Lyles and Thomas "The Regulator" Woodward, or their relationship to two of the most historic, prominent, and well known of the families of Fairfield County?

Most elderly persons I encountered in Fairfield County knew Carrie's husband "Joe" Stewart. For well over two centuries most of Carrie Lyles TRAYLOR Stewart's many descendants and ancestors have lived in Fairfield or surrounding counties and at one time regularly visited each other almost weekly at each other's homes and family farm, which has remained in their family for generations and is located within a few hours' walk of where some of their pioneer ancestors first settled.

My grandparents' farm would no longer be owned by their descendants had it not been purchased by one of the least schooled of her eight children. Since none of the youngest generation seems interested in buying thier ancestor's land, a pulp wood company may soon own it.

Kinship and Location Correlated

The children of farmers who travelled by horse and wagon often married the children of their nearest neighbors, so the proximity of our ancestors makes our kinship more likely.

Even if wills, census records, deeds, etc. are not found, an ancestor may be the child of a sufficiently old previous owner or occupant of the same land if both had the same surname. The probability increases if verbal tradition confirms such a relationship.

Evidence of undocumented transfers of land between family members, and therefore information which may help determine their genetic relationships, may be obtained from deeds and surveys (which usually name the owners of adjoining tracts) made by owners of land adjacent to land owned by one's ancestors.

This approach may require weeks of deed book searching, but is facilitated by recently available property tax maps which make it easier to ascertain the chain of title back to the original owner or land grant, even when deeds, estate records, etc. can not be found. Property tax maps show property lines, which rarely change in rural areas, and combined surveys of all the land in a county.

Some of the information below was obtained for me in December 1998 by Mr. James W GREEN III, and may have been mis transmitted or misinterpreted:

• William Lyles ran a ferry at Ashford Ferry. A daughter of Aromanus II married John Allen Tharp who made the survey on which the 1820 Mills Map for Fairfield is based.
• Mary Woodward was the daughter of Reverend William Woodward and possibly Nancy BARRETT. In 1810 her first cousin Mary Woodard (a daughter of John Woodward, the oldest son ot the "Regulator") married Major Thomas Lyles (ancestor of Pelham and Collins).
• Posted Fairfield County, SC Query Forum by Molly McLaughlin <molly@jesup.net> on Fri, 21 Aug 1998: "Think the William Woodward you mention went to Arkansas and buried there . . George Ashford, Jr. cemetery which was in Fairfield Dist, Fairfield Co., SC south west of Winnsboro South Carolina and near Highway #215...about 10 miles SW of Winnsboro" (1) William Woodward, son of James W. and Nancy B. Brown, born August 16, 1811 and died 3 February 1812; (2) Col. William Brown, died aged 62 years 2 July 1838; (3) Jemima Brown wife of Col. William Brown, died about 68 years on 21 July 1839; (4) George Ashford b. 11 Feb. 1758 and died 25 April 1815; (5) Joel Ashford, 2nd son of George and Jemima Ashford, died at age17 //sept. 5, 1823 ; (6) Robert Ashford b. 28 JULY 1811 and died 3 Sept 1827; (7) William Ashford, son of George and Jemima Ashford, died aged 31, 1 April 1833 (8) Martha M. Ashford, b. 31 Jan 1805 d. 3 Jan 1895; (9) Martha Matilda Cook, b. 11 Sept. 1847 and died jAN 1864, D/O James Laurence and Rebecca Ashford Cook.; (10) Ruth Robertson, dau of J.W. and M> J. Ashford, b. 28 July 1873 and died 1 Oct. 1875; (11)Mary J. ASHFORD B. August 9, 1833 and died 17 Jan 1906; (12) Joel W. Ashford b. 12 April 1828 and died 17 Jan 1901; (13) Nancy Woodward, wife of the late Rev. William Woodward, d. 10 August 1829 aged 62. This helps establish Rev. William and Nancy stayed in Winnsboro or at least buried there."
• Capt. William Barrett Woodward (12/24/1818-10/4/1897) and his wife Eliza Pickett Woodward, and Edward Mobley Woodward and his wife Tillie, and are buried at Old Fellowship Presbyterian cemetery Molly McLaughlin e-mailed me 21 Jan 1999. How were Capt. William Barrett Woodward and Nancy B. (Barrett?) Lyles (1812 -1895), granddaughter of Nancy Barrett (d. 10 August 1829 aged 62) and William "Preacher Billy" Woodward) were related?
• If Mary Collins Woodward (? - 1855) were the daughter of John Woodward, Sr. and the granddaughter of Thomas Woodward the Regulator, her first cousin of Mary Woodward (1788-?), mother of. Nancy B. Lyles' (1812 - 1895), would have been the granddaughter of Thomas Woodward the Regulator also (which son of Thomas Woodward the Regulator was she the daughter of?).
• Nancy B. Lyles moved with her husband William E. Traylor to Mississippi, where he died. Nancy B. Lyles.moved back to Fairfield with her children and built a small home across Highway #215 from the Boarding House in Feasterville, which is still standing. Her son Thomas Woodward Traylor became a SC state Senator and built a mansion in White Oak in Fairfield County in the 1890's, and also lived in Winnsboro, SC.
• Thomas Woodward Traylor, born in Strother, Belton E. Lyles, born near Blair, John Woodward Lyles, born on Broad River, and John Alexander Stewart born 6 miles north of Winnsboro were listed as still alive in an elaborate Confederate memorial to veterans edition of a May 25 1910 Winnsboro Newspaper (News & Herald?), on page 6, paragraphs 6, etc.of "Farifield Family Histories" (library # 929.3 FAI) by Faifield County Publishers.
• On page 131 of McMaster's History, T.W. Traylor was a Private in the Buck Head Guards and James, Dallis, & W.Stewart were in a unit called the Lyles' Rifles.

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• To visit the Colonel Aromanus LYLES CEMETERY
  From Salem Cross Roads, drive about 3 miles north on highway #215: 6 miles west on road #31: 3/4 mile past road #99:: and north on a dead end dirt road.
  From highway #51, drive 1/3 mile south on highway #215: 3 miles west on road #33: 4.5 miles south on road #99 across Beaver Creek: 3/4 mile west on road #31: and north on a dead end dirt road.
• About the time of the Federal Invasion John G. Wolling sold to a Traylor land which Joseph B. Stewart bought, and may have lived in a house Nancy B. LYLES Traylor may have built west of highway #215 across from the Feasterville boarding house, after she returned with her children from Mississippi, where her husband William E. Traylor had died.
• John "Jack" COLLINS, a Lyles descendant who works in the Winnsboro Museum and at the State Newspaper, and may live in Blair, has been restoring Colonel Arromanus Lyles' house, "Ivy Hall"

Ivy Hall photographed by Melinda

"When we first spotted the home it sits back off the road up on a rise which overlooks the forest.We parked the car and had to walk up a long drive around to the side of the home. We entered the front where the first picture was taken, just before I entered the gate. After exploring the home inside, we went outside to the back and I then shot the second photo. Ivy is growing up the back side of the home. It is a beautiful place to have walked and felt the lives of others before us."

On 12/20/98 HJ, a very knowledgeable great grandson of John G. Wolling (a store keeper, farmer, machinist, etc. who sold some land to the family of Carrie Lyles Traylor Stewart) told me:

• The "Robert Coleman Family" (1965) book by J. T. Coleman mentions Traylors who married into the Coleman family.
• the Arromanis Lyles family settled on Henderson Island, which is a very large island in the middle of the Broad River about two miles south of the Tiger River and Shelton, and 1/4 mile north of Lyles Ford (which is near the mouth of Beaver Creek). Southern Railway tracks cross the Broad River at Shelton and run south along the east bank of the Broad river to Blair, etc.
• Cherokees left the area after the treaty of 1745, and about 1750 the first non-Indians who settled in this area came up the Broad River. They also used a wagon road (now called Highway 72 and Highway 121.
• "Our Father's Fields" (1998) by James Kibler is about families on both sides of that part of the Broad River.
• USC history professor Dr. Walter Edgar has written an interesting book about South Carolina history.

Sibbie C. (Coleman?) (9/12/1850 - 5/26/1901) was the wife of Thomas Woodward Traylor (3/2/1841 - 1/18/1923). All of their many children probably died in infancy except for Clarence Traylor (1882 - 1912). Their graveyard is located on a hill a few hundred feet south west of the intersection of Highway #215 and I believe Road #302 (perhaps one a little further south or north).

Pauline Traylor was Joseph Teems Stewart's wife and mother of Horace (who made a career in the military and who has a daughter named Caroline), and Robert Carl "Bobby" Stewart, who I think told me that Clarence Traylor was a druggist in the Feasterville area and used cocaine, which was once part of the Coca Cola formula and considered as socially acceptable as alcohol and tobacco, etc. Pauline must have been the daughter of Clarence Traylor, since she and her husband were cousins. I heard Bobby Stewart was knifed to death in his apartment in Columbia or Charlotte in the 1980s. He married a Maltese named Maria, and had a son named Steven who became a diesel mechanic and a daughter named Crisie who went to USC.

Nancy B. (Baxter?) LYLES Traylor and William E. TRAYLOR were the parents of William Henry Traylor. They may have had a son named W. B. Traylor: The "Robert Coleman Family" (1965) book (may not be reliable) by J. T. Coleman says: W. B. Traylor was born in Cahaba County, Alabama in 1847 and died in 1865. He was a member of the S. C. reserves. He was the son of N. B. (Nancy B.?) Traylor but it also says he was the son of W. B. (W. E.?) Traylor. He is buried in the Fitz Coleman cemetery in the woods north of Highway 302 about 3 miles west of Highway #215 in Fairfield County, South Carolina.

The Feaster cemetery may also contain members of the Traylor family.

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