William Todd Sr. & Family

 

William Henry Todd is our distant relation on the maternal side of the family tree.

He was the son of John Moses Todd Sr. and Ann Filgo. William was born in 1787, in North Carolina. His ancestors were of Scottish and Irish descent.

William Todd was married ⚭ Martha (Patsey) Holder in 1813, Wake County, NC. The man signed the marriage bond on 23 November 1813 (1).

Sometime after their marriage, William and Patsy moved to Georgia. Their daughter 🔹Martha was born there in 1815.

More children of theirs came to this world in the coming years.

🔹Samuel born in Wake, NC, in 1816',

🔹Candice, born in Georgia, 1817,

🔹Susan Johanna Eleonora, born  in Georgia, 1822,

🔹Mary Elizabeth, born in 1823,

🔹William, born on 28 March 1828, Georgia,

🔹Thomas Jefferson born on 1 March 1831, in Putnam, Georgia,

🔹John David Elton born on 11 June 1835, Georgia,

🔹Amanda, born 1837, Texas.

⚭ William married ten years younger Sara Elizabeth Hanks, born in Alabama, in 1834. She was the daughter of James Hanks of SC and Susan Caroline Kennedy.

⚭ Candice married her brother-in-law, Joshua English in abt. 1837, in Tennessee. He was the son of James English and Elizabeth Denton.

The eldest daughter ⚭ Martha married Mr. Jonas English, her brother-in-law, in abt. 1838. 

⚭ Samuel married his cousin Elizabeth on 22 August 1840 in Wake, NC (2). She was the daughter of Moses Todd Jr. and Elizabeth Massey.

⚭ Susanna Johanna married Joseph Goodbread, after his death in 1840, she married Alfred Marion Truitt.

⚭ In abt.1840, Mary Elizabeth married David Ruff Cannon, born in in 1811, in South Carolina. He was the son of William Billy Cannon and Nancy Isabella Cox.

⚭ John David Elton married Ann Smith, born in 14 September 1844, in Washington, Alabama. She was the daughter of William Smith and Mary Carlisle Dunbar.

🏡1850 Shelby County TX Census registered William Todd, a farmer, age 53, his wife Martha, age 55, and children – Thoms J., age 20, John, age 18, and Amanda, age 13. The record reads that William also fathered 2 other children, Samuel Heath, born 1838 and Marthy (Martha) born in 1841. They both came to this world in Texas. I did not find out who their parents were.

In 1850, William’s real estate was worth $4163 (3). William Todd Jr, lived with his wife Sara E., and their son William J. not far from Todd parents’ house.

♦ William Henry Todd passed on 23 April 1850, in Shelby, TX. His wife Martha died in circa the same year.

After the parents passing, William Jr., his wife Sara, and their baby son moved in with Sarah’s father’s family who also lived in Shelby County, TX (4).

⚭ In 1855 (5), Thomas Jefferson married Narcissus Mize, born in 1836, in Alabama. She was the daughter of Obediah Allen Mize and Mary McCrary.

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UPDATE

William’s siblings were

🔸Joshua Robert Todd

Born in 1771, Bertie, North Carolina,

Died on 26 May 1826Wake, North Carolina, 

🔸 Moses Todd Jr

Born in 1775, Bertie, North Carolina

Died in March 1841. Wake County, North Carolina

🔸 Soloman Todd

Born in1777, in Wake, North Carolina

Died in  1838, Wake, North Carolina

🔸 David Todd

Born in 1779, Bertie, North Carolina,

Died on 31 Aug 1853, Lowndes, Alabama

🔸 George Todd

Born in 1783, Wake, North Carolina

🔸 Elijah Todd

Born in 1785, North Carolina, 

Died in about 1865, Craven, North Carolina

🔸 Elizabeth Todd

Born in 1787, Wake, North Carolina, United States

🔸 Nancy Todd

Born in 1791, Wake, North Carolina

🔸Mary Todd

Born in 1793, Wake, North Carolina.

Sources:

1.     1  "North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-2011 ", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKJQ-HKNF : Thu Mar 07 10:52:19 UTC 2024), Entry for William Todd and Patsey Holder, 23 Nov 1813.

2.      2. "North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-2011 ", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP9J-J73H : Fri Mar 08 16:36:20 UTC 2024), Entry for Samuel Todd and Elizabeth Todd, 22 August 1840.

3.      3.  http://www.shelbycountytexashistory.net/Shelby/Census/1850censusT.htm

4.       4. "United States, Census, 1850", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXLG-G8P : Fri Oct 17 04:40:42 UTC 2025), Entry for James Hanks and Johnathan Hanks, 1850.

5.    5. The Houston Post. (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 21, No. 358, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 29, 1906, newspaper, March 29, 1906; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth603417/: accessed March 20, 2026), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .

familysearch.org

Our Direct Ancestors Pioneers

Finally, I closed the list of our Direct Ancestors who moved from Europe to the faraway land. The list is not closed for good as there are still branches which I need to investigate and would be happy to find out more. So many direct lines in our family tree do not make it that easy to track them. However, making that list, I tried to be very careful not to overlook anybody.

I would want to find out more about them - who and what they were when they arrived, what their fate was. It would be great if I could write a post dedicated to each one of them or at least about every family/ family name of our progenitors. The work is very time-consuming and challenging, though, as I enjoy learning and writing about all our relatives. Including the distant ones. Therefore, I am not sure whether I will manage to describe them all. Anyway, I am going to keep trying and do my best.

Here is the list of our Pioneers.

Rippy - Our Irish Ancestry

Today I introduce one of our direct Irish lines - the Rippy family.

Edward Lee Rippy - born in 1678 in Dublin, Ireland is our 7 times great-grandfather. His wife was Miss Nannie Ross also from Dublin. Edward died where he lived in 1732 and was buried at St. Nicholas Without parish cemetery in Dublin.

Edward and Nannie's son was Joseph Rippy born in 1708 in Dublin as well. About the year 1728, Joseph married Miss Ellen Patterson, daughter of Mr. John Patterson and Ms. Agnes Moffet. Ellen was born between 1706 and 1708 in Fingal County, Leinster, Ireland. Joseph passed in March 1774, Ellen in 1777. They were both buried in Dublin.

The couple had at least four children including Edward Ross (b. in June 1729 in Baile Átha Cliath, County Dublin, Ireland), Ellen, Mathew (b. 1740 in County Fingal), and John. Mathew is our 5 times great-grandfather.

As far as I know, Edward and Mathew emigrated to America. The brothers settled in North Carolina.
Mathew started his own family around 1757 when he married Miss Nancy Anne Holliday (born about 1738 in Orange County, Colony of North Carolina, British Colonial America). Nancy Anne's parents were Samuel and Elisabeth Holliday.

Mathew and Nancy got married and lived in Orange County. They had thirteen children.
Our direct ancestor Mathew died at the age of (about) 77 in Hillsboro District, Orange County, North Carolina.

What is the exact connection of the Rippy family and our family line?

Mathew and Nancy's oldest daughter Frances (b. 18 Oct. 1760, Orange County, NC), called by her immediate family "Fanny", is our 3X great-grandmother. About 1785, she married our ancestor William Gant (b. 14 August 1763, Granville County, North Carolina).

William's sister Keziah (b. 1764, Granville, NC) married Fanny's brother Thomas S Rippy (b. 13 Jan. 1764, Alamance, North Carolina).

There are a few more Irish family branches in our family tree and those ancestors cannot wait till they are mentioned on the pages of this blog. I will tell you about them some other time, though.

Credits:

• Information based on my MyHeritage research
• Ireland flag by abFlags.com cc: by nc sa
• Descendants of Matthew Rippey