Honoring Ned Washington: My 2nd great grandfather

On March 30, 2023, I submitted my application to the lineage society, Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage (SDUSMP) and my application was accepted on May 8, 2023. 

Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage was started in 2011 to recognize free and enslaved individuals of African descent who lived in the United States from 1619-1865. Descendents of such Ancestors are accepted into the Society with documentation of their direct lineal line.

Applying to the lineage society SDUSMP is important to me because my work was reviewed by genealogists specializing in the field of African American family history research. My research being accepted means it will be preserved and my Ancestor's name will live on.

My Honored Ancestor, Ned Washington, is my 2nd great grandfather on my mother's maternal Washington line. I was able to document him named in the 1857 will of his enslaver Bozeman Adair, along with Sylvia and Elijah --  ."To my son James L. Adair my three Negroes, to wit, Elijah about sixty years of age, Silva about fifty two years of age and Ned a man about twenty five years of age. . . the said Negroes are not to be separated."  Sylvia (her name has been spelled many ways) is in Ned's household in the 1870 census. 

Ned's birthplace is consistently listed as Georgia. However, his birth year varies. 

Age listed as 50. Birth year approximately1820. 1870 census of Polk County, Georgia

Age listed as 56. Birth year approximately 1824. 1880 census of Barkers, Floyd County, Georgia

Age listed as 78. Birth listed as Feb 1822. 1900 census of Beat 1, Holmes County, Mississippi

Age listed as 85. Birth year approximately1825. 1910 census of Beat 1, Holmes County, Mississippi

Ned Washington and my 2nd great-grandmother, Darkis were married about 1866, probably in Georgia which is listed as their birth places in all of their census records. Georgia is also where they are recorded as living in 1870 and 1880 census records. They had six sons -- Clinton, Silas, Newton, Elijah, Peter (my great-grandfather), and Ned. 

He spent most of his life providing for his family as a farmer; first in Georgia and later in Mississippi. Ned died in Lexington, Holmes, Mississippi on May 31, 1918, at the age of 98 years old. Mississippi State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate #10163, filed June 1, 1918.

I believe my 2nd great-grandfather is the first Ned Washington because it appears the surname was taken or selected after emancipation. The name, Ned, became a family name as he named his son, Ned, and at least two of Ned (the first) sons had a son they named Ned.

Copyright © 2023 by Sandra Williams Bush, Ancestor Callings: Georgia and Mississippi Roots. All Rights Reserved.