Seventh Generation

97. Cynthia EDMONDS was born in 1785 in Bucharia Twsp, Halifax Cty, NC. She died between 1870 and 1880 at the age of 85.
Note regarding a purported Edmonds genealogy found on the Internet: Some of the information about the Wager Edmonds family (including identifying Cynthia as his mother) was found in the findagrave.com website, Memorial #156419774. There is no indication of the source of the data and, while some of it is clearly correct and from the same sources we used, some of it seems to be in error. Here we have used the information found there which is not inconsistent with the US Census and NC Archives data. Apparently many members of both the white Edmunds family and their black slaves ... many of whom took the surname Edmonds after receiving their freedom ... were buried in the Edmunds Cemetery in Heathsville, Halifax County, NC.

Note on the spelling of the surname: The white slave-owning family clearly spelled their surname Edmunds. In the 1870 US Census, the former slave's names were also spelled Edmunds. In the 1880 US Census and other subsequent documents, the black family's surname is usually spelled Edmonds. But, remember, at the time most of these people were illiterate and so had no control over the spelling of their name in documents. In the database we have used Edmonds ... since that is how the family name has been spelled for over 100 years. The Superior Court of Halifax County probate documents relating to Benjamin Edmunds' 1857 death (which are in the NC State Archives) may shed some additional light on the subject.

The Family Matriarch: From the 1870 US Census we find Cynthia Edmonds as the 85-year-old matriarch of the black Edmonds clan still living with much of her family on the farm of Dr. Benjamin C. Edmunds in Bucharia Township, NC where they had been enslaved. Living with Cynthia were two elderly family members: Peter born 1791 and Rose born 1798. These are likely siblings of Cynthia. The "sons" of Cynthia shown, and the list of children of Wager, are based primarily on the 1870 US Census with other sources given a secondary role. But, that census does not give the relationships between the people enumerated. Therefore, while the relationships shown in this genealogy seem reasonable, there remains a degree of uncertainty.

Children were:

	i.	Wade EDMONDS was born (date unknown). The Harriet (1841-1930) mentioned in the "findagrave" website was his daughter, not that of Wager (born 1825).
	ii.	Thomas EDMONDS was born in 1816 in Bucharia Twsp, Halifax Cty, NC. Thomas and his family (wife Tabitha and three children) in the 1870 US Census are listed as "Mulatto" while all the other Edmonds "Farm Hands" are listed as black.
	iii.	Nelson EDMONDS was born in 1822 in Bucharia Twsp, Halifax Cty, NC. Nelson and his family (wife Clara and son Wager) had already left the Edmunds farm in 1870. The Wager, Jr. mentioned in the "findagrave" website is almost certainly Nelson's son, and thus not the son of "Wager, Sr." The surname-suffixes "Sr" and "Jr" are never found in documents relating to these two men named Wager.
48	iv.	Wager EDMONDS.

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