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Roll your mouse over the colored blocks...just for fun....

Which Is It?

Are both Marys the same person?

Known

• Mary Black was born April 12, 1806
• Married April 9, 1826 to Amos Dawson (born 1802)
• Died Oct. 24, 1857 in Cocke Co., Tenn.
• Buried in the Dawson Cemetary which is located on the Dawson farm where she and Amos lived.
• Was sometimes called "Polly"
• She had 14 children

Possibilities

Avenues to investigate:

• Paralee might be another spelling of her middle name
• Jerry Black has submitted this information, which we need to corroborate:
  

  James Black b. 8-27-1786 Augusta County, Virginia d 3-27-1847 Washington 
  County, Tennessee killed by 2nd wife buried Black Cemetery, Washington 
  County, Tennessee
  Sources Black Family Records, Cemetery Records, Washington County 
  Records, Virginia Archives, Black English Bible Records, Tennessee 
  Prison Records
  
  1st wife: Jenny Law b. 8-21-1787 Lancaster, Lancashire, England d. 
  3-11-1810 Washington County, Tennessee buried  same as James {died in 
  Childbirth}
  Sources Black Family Records, Black English Bible Records, Virginia  
  Archives, Cemetery Records
  married  12-23-1802  Augusta County,  Virginia
  
  Children and spouses
  
   *Infant female b. 1804 stillborn Washington County, Tennessee
  
    *Mary Paralee Black b. 4-12-1806 Washington County, Tennessee+ Amos 
  Dawson
  
   *Infant female stillborn 1804
  
  *Thomas Black b. 1-24-1808 Washington County, Tennessee + Martha Clark 
  b.1810 Washington County, Tennessee
  
    *Infant Black b & d with mother 3-11-1810 Washington County, Tennessee
  
  2nd wife Rachael Spring{s} b.10-25-1788 Greene County, State of Franklin 
  d.12-6-1860 Alhn, Illinois
  
  Children and spouses
  
  *John S. Black, b. Jan. 15, 1811, Washington Co., Tenn, 
  Married (1st) Anne Foster, Married (2nd) Mary Hawn .  
  
  (info. from Lee M./descendant.  Pattie also descends here.)
  
  *Solomon Black b.12-16-1812 Washington County, Tennessee + Elizabeth 
    Dykes b. 5-5-1817 Burke County, North Carolina
   Solomon took blame for fathers death pulled 6 1/2 years for murder in 
    Tennessee State Prison Nashville when truth was found Andrew Johnson 
    pardoned him according to Tennessee Prison Records{have record}
  
  
  *James Pring Black {my (i.e. J.B.'s) gggrandfather) b. 10-23-1813 Washington County,
   (alternate birth date Feb. 10, 1815 via Lee)
    Tennessee d.1863 Nough, Tennessee Cocke County
    + Mary Howard Dykes b. 3-13-1813 Burke County, North Carolina
  

• James Black's first wife was Jenny Law. They are buried in a cemetary about 1.5 miles outside of Jonesboro. Is there a chance these are Mary's parents??
• One possible source of informaton: Norman Black Jr. has all the family records obtained from Martha Black his great grandmother who died in Greene Co. and is buried at Tusculum. His father was killed in 50's and his mother who was from England took him and his sister back to England.
• Notes about this cemetary: It contains no tombstones only fieldstones. It had been thought all these years that it was a colored cemetery due to the name Black. It is not in a church cemetery but a baptist church is keeping it up.
• James Pring has a 1/2 sister named Mary Paralee- is it a possible that she is OUR Mary Parly???
  James Pring is buried in Old Methodist Cemetery in Nough{slabtown}Tn. Was a church cemetery but church has been abandoned.
• Washington CO e-list site, has a gal, saying she was connected to the Black through her Nelson line, she said she had some checking to do.
• Notes offered by Jerry Black. .... (got info was from 4 sources Tate Family records, Washington Co, Tn, and Augusta Co. Va.)
  Ebb Tate ran a store between Parrottsville and Salem Tennessee also had a cemetery on his property. Abraham Mary's son according to burial records is buried there along with Jane Wrenn his wife. Ebb owned a 20 room rock house across from cemetery which burned several years ago. All the records were destroyed but my dad's brother was married to his daughter. Her sister married a Gregg and her son who is now around 76 told me before she died that she had copied the cemetery and the family records. He is tryng to locate them. The Tennessee burial records and local records mention this. We think the new highway may have destroyed this cemetery due to them not knowing it was there as it had no tombstones just fieldstones and was in a cow pasture in later years. Gabby Hayes local gravedigger had a plot map of it with the same records obtained from Ebb. His ... boy destroyed those records when he died about a year ago. What had us confused was it had a Jenny Black as mother of Mary Paralee. At that time we did not know James had 2 wives but suspected it. The people that maintain the Black Cemetery outside Jonesboro has Jenny Law in it and her listed as James wife. We know for a fact James Black is buried there. Hamblen County did and article on his death and homeplace.
• Washington County at one time encompassed part of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee
• Parents of James Black:i.e. Grandparents of Mary Paralee....
  names of James' parents:
  Father: Samuel Black, II, c1758 -- c1819
  Mother: Mary Penelope Donnally, c1764 -- c1817
• Other Mary Paralee in the same region:
  There was 3 other Mary Paralees but all 3 were colored.
• Appearance of data on second wife of James Black:
  We knew from marriage records in Washington County, that there was another woman because 5 kids were born before he married Rachel who killed him by accident. We know hers and know where they are buried. Jenny was registered in England and Virginia archives but very little mentioned in U.S.records. The Bible I have here goes back to 1850 with a few dates recorded before My father had recorded Jenny in the English owned bible. Norman said he would bring documentation in spring of next year.
• Info received from Washington Co. email list:
  James Black in Washington county Tenn., mrr: 1811, Rachel Spring... There is no Jenny, but, there is a James Law, dcsd, Greene county tax list, 1810 Capt. Clarks company...

Pictures

James Pring Black- Half Brother of Mary Paralee Black

Here is a web page with info on James Black and 2nd wife Rachel Spring, and their son James Pring Black..... Black/Spring Same website has a photo page...here is a photo of a daughter of James Pring Black Black/Spring daughter Photo of Solomon Black= son of James Pring Black Solomon Black, son of J.P.B.

• Black Cemetary at Rock Creek
  

Rachel Spring(s), second wife of James Black

Edited version--- smudge Graciously removed by Faye from Texas