BT-PER-00215

Agnes

Name: BEFORE TILL: The Living Evidence Archive
Creator: Amberly R. Carter-Mills
License: https://beforetill.com/terms

Enslaved person named in the same recordsUnder Investigation· 1 sourceNo verified portrait

Named alongside Hilliard in the 23 March 1855 notice of an ownership dispute concerning enslaved people held by the William Q. Taliaferro estate.

Kinship not established

This record documents a person named in the same documents as the family. No relationship to the Smith–Tolliver family has been established, and this person is not placed in the family lineage.

This record documents a historical connection to the Smith–Tolliver family's history. It does not document kinship, and this person is not part of the family lineage.

A shared surname does not establish kinship. Shared residence, shared county, appearance in the same record, or being enslaved by the same estate does not establish kinship. Surnames carried by formerly enslaved people frequently derive from the people who enslaved them, not from descent.

Any biological relationship would require its own documented claim, with its own evidence, published separately in the archive.

Research & Interpretation byAmberly R. Carter-Mills— Founder, Creator & Descendant Archivist

ANo verified portrait

Overview

Born: Not yet documented
Died: Not yet documented
Archive identifier: BT-PER-00215
Claims attached: 1

Life Timeline

No dated events have been documented for this person yet.

Documented Role

This record is held in the archive as: Enslaved person named in the same records.

No relationship to the Smith–Tolliver family has been established. Being enslaved by the same estate does not establish kinship.

Kinship not established

This record documents a person named in the same documents as the family. No relationship to the Smith–Tolliver family has been established, and this person is not placed in the family lineage.

This record documents a historical connection to the Smith–Tolliver family's history. It does not document kinship, and this person is not part of the family lineage.

Any biological relationship would require its own documented claim, with its own evidence, published separately in the archive.

Historical Connections

Role-based connections drawn from the records. These are historical relationships only. None of them establishes kinship.

Named in the same estate recordsDocumented
Hilliard Taliaferro / Tolliver
Named with Hilliard in the 23 March 1855 notice of an ownership dispute concerning enslaved people of the William Q. Taliaferro estate. No kinship is implied.
No kinship established

View the full historical network

Documents

ProbateDigital ImageBT-SRC-00560
Appraisement of the enslaved people in the estate of Richard H. Taliaferro
Virginia. County Court (Orange County)
1 observation drawn from this source
Line numbers and valuations differ between readings of the clerk's hand; a second reading against the original film is required.

Observations From the Record

Two, possibly three, entries read Aggy or Agnes; one woman appears in the later part of the list valued at about $275. No kinship to any other person in the list is recorded.
Aggy
Appraisement of the enslaved people in the estate of Richard H. Taliaferro · Pages 430-431

Evidence

Under Investigation
A Hillyard and an Agnes in the same Virginia estate, 1831
Research hypothesis — high priority. Hilliard is reported born about 1823 in Virginia; a boy of that birth year would be about seven or eight in 1830, consistent with the low valuation on the Hillyard entry. The archive's standing hypothesis that Agnes may have been Hilliard's mother would place both in one Virginia household before either appears in Mississippi. This is not proof: neither name is uncommon, neither entry gives an age, parent or birthplace, the appraisement records no kinship at all, the line numbers and valuations differ between readings of the clerk's hand, and no document yet connects this Virginia Hillyard to the Hilliard of the William Q. Taliaferro estate in Mississippi.

Unresolved Questions

A Hillyard and an Agnes in the same Virginia estate, 1831

Amberly's Notes

No research note has been published for this person yet.

From the research notebook ofAmberly R. Carter-Mills— Founder, Creator & Descendant Archivist