Rosannah Dickenson ^78,208

  General Notes:

Email note from Max Ervin about Amanda and her family dated August 19, 2000:

Rosannah is living alone in the 1850 census, next door to Edmund Dickenson (her father).

She is not in the 1860 census, but there is Martha Dunford, Age 8, in the household of Ralph Castle and wife Sarah Carty; and Rosannah's husband (m. 1855), William F. Dunford, age 64, is in the Hackney household. There are no other Dunford's in the Russell 1860 census, so it is assumed that Rosannah died prior to 1860. Martha may be her daughter, and may be the same person as Susan M. in Edmund's household in 1860 (counted twice by the census taker).

Russel County birth records show that Susan M. J. was born to Rosannah on 10 Sept. 1853. Rosannah is likely the mother of Robert (Age 4 in Edmund's household, along with Susan, in 1860). This Robert is probably the same as "Doc" Dunford, age 14, in Edmund's household in 1870. Rosannah and William Dunford are probably the parents of Henry and Amanda Dickenson in the Akers household in 1850. (Henry kept the name of Dickenson, and married a first cousin Nancy Dickenson, daughter of John D. Amanda went by Dunford, and married John Franklin McIlhenny "Pretty John" Carty.)

Rosannah and William Dunford were indicted for lewdness in 1849 along with several other unmarried couples who were either cohabitating, or had had children out of wedlock (6 June 1849, Russell Co LOB 12, p200-201), but were acquited (7 Nov 1849, LOB 12, p244), lending credence to their having had Amanda and Henry out of wedlock.

And, James M. Dickenson, b. 1839 and in Edmund's household in 1850 and 1860, was a son of Rosannah as evidenced by his marriage record of 2 June 1860.

Rosannah's 1855 marriage bond lists her parents as Edmund and Polly. (In the 1850 Russell census there is a James W. Dunford, age 8, b. Giles Co, in the Anderson/Haggy household. This is probably a son of William F. Dunford by a former marriage, as there are no other Dunfords in Russell Co.)

"There as an Albert Dunford age 22 in the 1880 census living with Harvey Speer, so I checked his marriage records and he was the son of William and Rosa Dunford. I wonder if Dock and Albert are the same person. Albert Dunford does not appear in the 1860 Russell County Census. If Albert was 22 in 1880 he would have been born about 1858. If Dock is the same person, he would have been born about 1856. (He was 14 in 1870). I wonder where Rosannah and this child were in 1860? Another thing I found was where a family of Hamiltons adopted or applied for legal custody of Susan Dunford. I wonder if this was Rosannah and William's Susan."

  Noted events in her life were:

1. Census: Russell County, Virginia, 1850.

Rosannah married William F. Dunford on 14 Feb 1855 in Russell County, Virginia. (William F. Dunford was born about 1797 in Cumberland County, Virginia and died after 1860.)