By Wally Waits
©2016
Allen Waits, for many researchers, had no family of
origin. That is, it was not possible to
identify either his parents or his brothers or sisters. At last, I begin to part the curtain of the
past enough to glimpse some of the family members that surrounded Allen’s youth.
I will explore the search for his brothers. I hoped that it
would be a successful search because his brothers would have carried the same
surname. During the search, it was
possible to locate two brothers with a reasonable amount of trust because they
lived during the first half of the nineteenth century, a better documented era
than the century earlier.
My strategy in looking for Allen’s siblings was constructed
to take advantage of the common practice of naming children after close family
members. I used Allen’s forename to
pinpoint otherwise hidden kinships. If
Allen had been named John or William, this avenue would not work because these
Christian names are too common. But
Allen’s given name is not that common. Even then there was no guarantee that this
search would be successful because Allen may not have any nephews named for
him.
The technique used involved a search for grown nephews who
might be named for their Uncle Allen. Such
adults were expected to be the head of their own family. Such men would likely have been listed on
federal population schedules. Now that
most of these heads of household would appear in an alphabetical index, the search
began with the 1820 census. This was
because it was believed to be the first census that might contain a grown
nephew named Allen. That year the only
Allen Waits (of any variant spelling) was listed as a resident in Warren
County, Tennessee. And of course we know
this is the Allen Waits who was born in 1790 because of his marriage in 1814 in
this county.
The 1830 census lists an Allen Waits as living in Jackson
County, Alabama. This again is the 1790
Allen. All other Allen Waitses listed in
the 1830 census live in the northern states and can thereby be ruled out. A couple of other Waitses were ruled out of
the list for the 1820 census for the same reason.
The 1840 and 1850 censuses only list men named Allen Waits
who lived in northern states. The Allen
Waits who was born in 1790 died in 1832 therefore cannot be listed on any
subsequent census.
The 1860 census finally lists another Allen Waits who lived
in the American South who might be a nephew named after the Allen Waits born in
1790. This second Allen Waits was born
about 1814 in Georgia. This geographical
connection fits with the Bible entry that said Allen was from Georgia. This younger Allen Waits was living in
Alachua County, Florida in 1860. Further
research proves that this Allen Waits was the son of Joseph Waits who was born
between 1770 and 1774.
This Joseph Waits happened to have had another son named
Bolin. Bolin is an even rarer forename
than Allen. So Bolin was used to locate
additional relatives in the census records.
A second Bolin Waits proved to be the son of John C. Waits. This John C. Waits was born between 1780 and
1785.
The earliest record of Allen Waits (b. c1790) appears on a
deed that he witnessed on 22 Dec 1809 in Jasper County, Georgia. In this deed, Jacob Warbington sells half of
Lot #11 to Ellemander Warbington and Samuel Warbington. Virginia Weeks believes Ellemander and Samuel Warbington
were Jacob’s sons. Slightly over a year
later,John C. Waits married Martha Jacob’s daughter, “Patsey” Warbington. Allen, we can see, was associated with John
C. Waits’ future father-in-law thirteen months before John married Patsey.
