A Koonce Connection

Back in January, I received an email from Jennifer. Jennifer is another African-American Koonce descendant and she found my blog through some internet searching. She blogged about this on her own blog, But Now I’m Found.
I was quite happy to hear from another black Koonce descendant! Her ancestry goes back to a slave named Solomon Koonce, who was the slave of an Isaac Koonce from Jones County, North Carolina – the exact same county my Koonce ancestry goes back to. Isaac Koonce moved to Haywood County, Tennessee around 1827 with his wife Rachel and his sister, Alice and her husband, David Nunn. Jennifer even has a bill of sale for Solomon.
Since “meeting” Jennifer and learning her ancestry, I’ve been interested in trying to figure out the exact relationship of her Isaac Koonce to the white Koonce family I’m tracking. Right now, I have a couple of possible slaveholder candidates for who may have owned my ancestors, James Koonce and/or his mother Hannah Koonce. Right now, one of my top families is that of John Council Bryan Koonce.
In 1870, my 3rd great-grandfather James Koonce is living in Township 4 of Craven County, NC, which is just across the county line from Beaver Creek, Jones County, where JCB Koonce was the only slaveholder in that region of the county. However, at this point, I cannot definitely rule out a few of his cousins as possible slaveholders – I need to look more closely at the ages of their slaves in the 1850 & 1860 slave census records.
But, after some investigation, I have finally tied Ii think) Jennifer’s slaveowner Isaac, to the larger Koonce family of the area. If the lineages of others I have found online and compared are to be trusted, Isaac Koonce & JCB Koonce were 2nd cousins. If anyone is interested in seeing the whole descendancy view from their shared great-grandfather, George Koonce, you can see that here.
I’m so glad to have made this connection! Here’s to hoping that Jennifer and I continue to make more progress. I’ve already informed her I may be crashing her Koonce family reunion! 🙂 Family or not, I feel connected already.
Update: Since I mentioned that I needed to look at the ages of slaves in the 1860 and 1850 census records, I just decided to go ahead and do that. It looks like I may be focusing on the wrong Koonce cluster.
I start with knowing that my James Koonce was born around 1840. In 1870 he also has a woman living with him, Hannah, that is 70 years old that I think may be his mother or grandmother so she would have been born around 1800. When I look at the 1860 slave census for a Koonce slaveholder with a male slave around 20 years old and a female slave around 60 years old, only one comes up with slaves that correspond to both — Calvin Koonce, born around 1805. When I look in the 1850 slave census for a Koonce slaveholder with a male slave around 10 years old and a female slave around 50 years old, only one comes up again – the same Calvin Koonce. From my work on the genealogy of the white Koonce’s I know exactly who he is. He was a 1st cousin to JCB Koonce. His wife was named Amanda and he even had a daughter named Caroline – same name as a daughter of James. While in 1850 Calvin’s home was in a different region of the county, Cypress Creek, in 1860 his home is listed as Beaver Creek (again, this is JUST across the county line from where my father’s family is from). Hmm….. this is getting quite interesting. Why haven’t I looked at this before! I really must get moving on ordering the Koonce estate files for Calvin and JCB. I’ve known about them for at least a year now, just haven’t gotten around to making the request.