ELIZABETH "BETSY" ENNIS, SISTER TO ZACHARIAH ENNIS: CHILDREN OF JAMES AND ANNA ENNIS

Remember that game of "Telephone" where people take what they hear and run with it?  Sometimes family trees are that way. Recently, I have been wading through information that is being added to trees but without any verifications. Evidence, documents, are all things important in genealogy. Yes, not every act with be documented but there should be some chains of evidence via family stories and other sources to give clues. Sometimes there is not but here we will look at one oft repeated story on family lines.

My ancestor never married and had three children. She was from an Irish family in the mid to late 1700's in Virginia and North Carolina so alternative ceremonies might have been used and despite government's interferences, not all marriages were preceded by licenses (or bonds) and recorded in the local government office. For one thing that bond might require anywhere from what would have been 500 pounds to 1000 pounds (and later dollars).  Not all churches accorded the local law the authority to marriage/ Some cultures utilized hand-fasts and similar ceremonies to bind a couple.

Elizabeth ENNIS, known to family as "Betsey", was born about 1770 in (probably) Augusta County, Virginia. Her father was James ENNIS and her mother Anna ---.  Her aunt was Barbara ENNIS who married a David Frazier (thus providing, I believe, the source for Elizabeth naming one daughter Barbara ENNIS). She had numerous brothers, including a Jeremiah, Martin, Elisha or Isaiah, Jesse, Zachariah and others.

In about 1788 she had daughter Barbara Ennis born in Burke Co., NC and who married William TERRY. She dies in the late 1800's in Barry Co., Missouri.

In about 1790, also in Burke Co., NC, she has daughter Nancy ENNIS who married a brother of William, John TERRY. She, her husband and several small children die from a fever in 1848 in norther Arkansas.

In about 1792, also in Burke Co., NC, she has son John Ennis (he will often spell it ENNES) and he will move, along with sisters and mother to Indiana and reside in the same county as Barbara Ennis Terry and her family. It is believed Elizabeth also made that journey and she may have remarried but died before 1850 in Indiana. That is based on stories from several families. John dies in the 1850's there in Gibson Co., Indiana.

Early letters written by William Terry in the 1840-1860's verify many of these connections along family lines as he details and comments much on "connections" (the families, friends, and church leaders they knew).

So supporting the story shared through most of the family line, I can remember hearing the story as a young girl sitting by my father as he told me about his family, is a 1913 letter and another document with witness statements about the family lines as they had been taught them  by their elders.

The 1913 letter has the statement about "Betsey" and prefaces it by stating they are talking about the family of Zachariah Ennis.  "His sister was Betsey Ennis . She never married, but had three children..."

A further important note is that Zachariah's youngest son, Elisha ENNIS will marry the daughter of his Cousin Barbara Ennis Terry (Matilda Terry Ennis).  Such marriages between 2nd cousins was permitted but any closer relationship was frowned upon. So, had Elizabeth been a wife of Zachariah and mother to Barbara, Nancy and John, the relationship would have been too close for marriage.

The records for the area where Elizabeth "Betsey" Ennis lived suffered greatly from time, battling armies, and mishandling of important historical documents. North Carolina and other early colonies have some surviving "Bastard Bonds" that paint a dismal picture of what faced young women who gave birth outside of the state sanctioned and fee based system. Publicly charged, they faced court, fines, and families, if willing, had to pay hefty fees and bonds. In more distant and remote areas, the traveling preachers of Baptist and Methodists traditions would regularly make their circuit and hold baptisms for births, funerals for those who had died and marriage for those who wished to marry or who had already begun living together. The surviving records of such ministers demonstrate the reality and make clear that if they did not report their actions to authorities or inform local magistrates - the information might be totally lost.

Luckily, also, in the 1920's the Ennis family in Missouri gathered some testimony from oldest living relatives, Some were made into legal documents (avadavat) as the family considered making claims against the Irish estates.  In several documents (such as the one above) a consistent story emerged related to who was related to whom. This 1923 statement from Adeline Ussery, daughter:

"Transcription (uncorrected) from a statement recorded in 1923 from Adeline USSERY, Missouri stating her lineage:

"this is my statement as i hav bin teched about my ENNIS ginerasion JOHN ENNIS my grat grat granfather cam from dublin, irlin back in the coln days hee had one son named JIM ENNIS hee had 8 c children thar names was MARTN, an JOHN an WILLIAM an JIM ZACHRIAR an JESSA an JERAMIR and ELISABETH won girl next is our family ZACHRIAR family

now i will comens on ZACKRIAR our grandfather hee was JIM ENNIS son an he was JOHN ENNIS son hoo com from dublin IrlanZACKRIAR had 8 childrn i don noo wher grandmother (i wont bee shore) borned she cam from Irlan too but wher shee was bornd her ir thair i dont remember

Your grandmother TERA was a ENNIS ELIZBETH ENNIS'S daughter your grandmother's mother was our fathers aunt, WILLIS Your grandmother TERA was Barba ENNIS before she marred wasnt she of the 4 ginrarations sam as you father and min

was 11 childrn in your fathers family thair was 14 in my fathers nams ANNA an MARA an ELIZBETH ARONS boys JAMS and WILLIAM an ZACKRIAR an JHON an ELISA grandmother ENNIS her name bee for marig was ANNA BRADCHAW i think grandfather was bornd in for gina family sevn in the first famly an sevn in the last famly thair was 6 marred 2 of the first childern an 4 of the last family WILLIS ant a herin you i noo it will tak time an trubel i just rit becus i hav som wher to rit to i got a leter from Dow the other day hee sad hee was well but Miles had bin sicj but beter you sad you cedn't barly understand albut WILLIAM ENNIS

You noo your uncl WILLAM was my father an his uncle WILLIAM my fathrs uncle was my grandfather ENNIS'S brothe JAMES ENNIS brother JAMES ENNIS'S son.

MARTN

JHON

JAMES J.R.

ZACHRIHAR

JERAMIRE

JESSA

an BETSA

this in the ENNIS children names of our grat grat gran father."

Note: The "TERA" refers to the husband of Barbra ENNIS, daughter of Elizabeth ENNIS, Barbara's husband was WILLIAM TERRY. These Terry's like many of the ENNIS clan settled in the early 1830-1840's in NW Arkansas and SW Missouri.

So, Elizabeth "Betsy" Ennis, sister to Zachariah Ennis and mother to Barbara Ennis Terry, Nancy Ennis Terry and John Ennis, was outside the mold and does not fit into neat little boxes that defined a woman by her spouse. 

I kind of like that about her.