In the genealogy blogging community, there are a series of daily writing prompts that are shared to help with ideas for blogging. Today is Saturday, and one of the prompts is “Surname Saturday.” So, for this post, we took inspiration from the blogging prompt and are writing a short blurb about Bell families in middle-Tennessee.
The idea to do this came about earlier today, while I was engaged in a conversation with fellow AAHGS board member, Natalie Bell. We spoke about the numerous Bell families here in the middle Tennessee area. Undoubtedly, many can likely trace their lineages back to affiliation with Montgomery Bell (1769-1855) who owned a large iron furnace in Dickson County and enslaved hundreds of individuals during his lifetime.
Montgomery Bell’s listing in the 1850 US Federal Slave Schedule Census shows that he owned more than 250 individuals in that year alone. I did a quick search of the 1870 US Census, the first census conducted after emancipation, and found more than 200 black and mulatto people with the surname “Bell.” It would be interesting to conduct a surname and/or DNA study of African American Bell families to more fully explore their possible connections and interrelationships.
Natalie can trace her Bell family connections back to Charles Bell and Lucy Stringfellow Bell of Cheatham County. Charles died in 1927 and Lucy in 1944. Both are buried in Belltown Cemetery – located in a community that was founded by those formerly enslaved by Montgomery Bell.
The 1910 US Census shows Charles and Lucy to have been married for 6 years, with 3 children – John L., Mary, and Charles H. Charles was 36 years old and Lucy was 23; this was Charles’ 2nd marriage. Unfortunately, Natalie does not have any additional information about Charles’ background and family and it remains an area of research.
What surnames are you researching in the middle Tennessee area and what roadblocks have you encountered? Part of our AAHGS Nashville mission is to help individuals explore their family histories – let us know how we can aid in that endeavor!
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