The Family › Woodall–Ramsay › DAVIS
Sallie Fisher DAVIS
1843–1899
✦ direct ancestor — my children's 3×-great-grandmother
· Ramsay line, the Woodall–Ramsay side
— their mother's people
Life
- Born
- 13 Feb 1843 · ., Oconee Co., South Carolina
- Died
- 8 Jun 1899 · ., Oconee Co., South Carolina
Parents
Marriage & children
Timeline
- 23 May 1872MarriedThomas Samuel RAMSAY — ., Oconee Co., South Carolina
Records behind this page
Pickens District, South Carolina, Deeds 1856-1861 (Register of Mesne Conveyance) -- FamilySearch full-text collection 'Pickens. Deeds 1856-1861', 736 images. Read on the page images 30 Sep 2026
Pickens Deeds 1856-1861, pp. 252-253 - deed of gift, William B. Davis to his daughter Sarah Frances Davis, 21 Mar 1857, recorded 26 Mar 1857; FamilySearch images 131-132 of 736, arks 3:1:3Q9M-C3QL-29QK-K and 3:1:3Q9M-C3QL-2931-S
read the transcript
[Read on the page images 30 Sep 2026 (register K923), in full, from the margin title to the recording clause. Spelling as written.] Margin: William B Davis To Sarah Frances Davis. Deed of Gift. || South Carolina, Pickens District. Know all men by these presents that I William B Davis of the State and District aforesaid for divers good causes and consideration to me moving have given granted released and signed over and by these presents do give grant release and sign over to my Daughter Sarah Francis Davis one Negro Girl named Mary about Eight years old to have and to hold the said Negro girl Mary and all her Increase to my said Daughter Sarah Francis Davis during her Natural life and after her Death to the heirs of her Body but if it should please God to call her from time without issue leaving no bodily heirs then the said Negro girl Mary and her increase to go to the use and benefit of my son David B Davis and his heirs and in case of his death without heirs then the said girl Mary and her increase to return to my Estate for an equal distribution among my other Children. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty first day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand Eight Hundred and fifty seven ... Signed sealed and acknowledged in presence of Harvey Davis, W R Davis. Wm B Davis (L.S.) || South Carolina, Pickens District: Personally appeared W R Davis before me and made oath in due form of law that he saw Wm B Davis sign seal and acknowledge the within and foregoing Deed of Conveyance for the use and purposes therein mentioned and that Harvey Davis was with himself a subscribing witness to the due execution of the same. Sworn to and subscribed this 25th day of March A.D. 1857. W R Davis. Before me [J. Hughs?] M.P.D. Recorded the 26th day of March 1857 and examined by [Hagood], C.C.P.
United States Census, 1850, 1860 and 1870 - population schedules, Pickens District and Oconee County, South Carolina (NARA M432, M653, M593), images via FamilySearch
1850 population schedule, Township 5 (Pickens county), Pickens District, S.C., dwellings 495-496, families 524-525; records ark:/61903/1:1:M8Q2-319 and 1:1:M8Q2-31C, image ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DHR3-TJ5, image 276 of 523
read the transcript
READ ON THE IMAGE 30 Sep 2026 (register K924): dwelling and family numbers, name, age, sex, occupation, real estate and birthplace columns of both households. Dwelling 495, family 524: Harvey Davis 66 M Farmer $4500 So Ca; Sarah 64 F; Thomas F. 28 M Farmer; Decatur 23 M; Warren R. 18 M. Dwelling 496, family 525: William B. Davis 32 M Farmer So Ca; Celina 20 F No Ca; David 11 M So Ca (attended school); Sarah 7 F; Henrietta 1 F; Letty Ann 26 F. The 1850 schedule has no relationship column.
1860 population schedule, 2nd Regiment, Pickens District, S.C., p. 161, dwelling and family 1239, lines 36-40; record ark:/61903/1:1:MZTD-KQK, image ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSN-937Z, image 185 of 397
read the transcript
READ ON THE IMAGE 30 Sep 2026 (register K925): dwelling/family number and the name, age and sex columns of lines 36-40; occupation, value and birthplace columns not re-taken at crop resolution. Dwelling and family 1239: Harvey Davis 75 m; Sarah 73 f; Sarah F. 17 f; Warren R. Davis 31 m; Mary 20 f. The FamilySearch index adds Hannah Barton 75 (next image, not read). The 1860 schedule has no relationship column.
1870 population schedule, Tugalo Township, Oconee County, S.C., post office Walhalla, p. 10, dwelling 1, family 1, lines 3-5; record ark:/61903/1:1:M8RP-1J8, image ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6P79-WBX
READ ON THE IMAGE 30 Sep 2026 (register K926), lines 1-7, all columns. Enumerated by Alex Bryce Jr., Ass't Marshal. Dwelling 1, family 1: Davis, Harvey 85 M W Farmer $2000 $200 S.C.; Sarah 83 F W Keeping House S.C.; Sarah F. 21 F W at home S.C. Dwelling 2, family 2: Barton, Hannah 85 F W at home S.C., blind. The 1870 schedule has no relationship column.
Research notes
Working notes from the research, kept verbatim — what was read, what it proved, what stays open. Many open with a line grading the parentage; what the grades mean.
Research note · 30 Sep 2026
PROOF CLASS: FATHER = DIRECT (Owen, 30 Sep 2026) - William B. Davis of Pickens District, S.C., whose deed of gift of 21 Mar 1857 names "my Daughter Sarah Francis Davis". Register K923.
AUDITED 30 Sep 2026 - HER FATHER'S DEED OF GIFT NAMES HER. Pickens District, South Carolina, Deeds 1856-1861, pp. 252-253 (FamilySearch images 131-132): on 21 March 1857 William B. Davis gave "to my Daughter Sarah Francis Davis" an enslaved girl named Mary, about eight years old, for her life and then to the heirs of her body; failing issue, to "my son David B Davis", and failing him back to his estate "among my other Children". The margin title spells her Sarah Frances Davis. The witnesses were Harvey Davis and W. R. Davis, who swore to it on 25 March; it was recorded 26 March 1857. Read on the page images 30 Sep 2026, register K923.
WHY IT IS HER (all read on the images, 30 Sep 2026, K924-K926): in 1850, Township 5 of Pickens District, William B. Davis, 32, heads dwelling 496 with Celina, 20, David, 11, Sarah, 7, and Henrietta, 1; next door, dwelling 495, is Harvey Davis, 66, with Sarah, 64, and a Warren R., 18. The deed's son David B. is that David. In 1860 Sarah F., 17, lives with Harvey, 75, and Sarah, 73, with Warren R. Davis, 31, in the 2nd Regiment of Pickens. In 1870 Sarah F. Davis is still in Harvey and Sarah's house in Tugalo Township, Oconee - the Ramsays' township; her age is written 21, where she was 27. About two years later she married Thomas Samuel Ramsay [428], and in 1880 she is Sallie, 37, his wife, in Tugalo (K899). Their shared headstone at Providence Cemetery, Mount Vernon, Franklin Co., Texas reads "Sarah F. his wife Feb. 13, 1843 June 8, 1899" (Find a Grave 116465503, K927). No census states a relationship; the link rests on the deed, and the censuses carry her from it to her marriage.
HER MOTHER IS NOT PROVED. The deed names no wife. Celina, 20 in 1850 and born in North Carolina, is too young to be the mother of a child born in 1843, so she was presumably a second wife; Sarah's own mother probably died before 1850. Harvey and Sarah Davis are probably her grandparents - Harvey witnessed the deed and she lived with them from 1860 - but no record read says so.
CONFLICTS, NOT CHANGED: (1) the tree names her "Sallie Fisher"; the deed, the only record read that spells her middle name, says Frances, twice. "Fisher" has no source seen and may come from her son Henry Fisher Ramsay's name. (2) The tree places her death in Oconee Co., S.C.; she is buried in Franklin Co., Texas, and the stone gives no place of death. (3) Her son Henry's 1953 death certificate gives her birthplace as Georgia (K249); the 1850, 1860 and 1870 censuses give South Carolina.
OPEN: her mother (William B. Davis's first marriage, about 1837-38, Pickens); William B. Davis after March 1857 - he is not in the 1860 Pickens index. Evidence: ancestry/sources/davis-429-pickens-2026-09-30/.
Elsewhere
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