Breazeale Name: 1790-1850

Introduction

Tracing back the Breazeale name has been a fascination for many with this surname in their family tree. On the early end, in the late 1600’s we can be confident there was a Henry Brazell in Virginia. Starting in 1850, we have a more detailed Census with places of birth. But between then, we have relatively few primary sources. There are some land records and wills, but we’re limited in what we can know for certain. My curiosity for this project comes mainly from George Washington Breazeale. We know he was in South Carolina and given land in his father’s will, but his residences, marriages, and children become quite a tangle after that. The problem is compounded because there are so many men named George Washington at that time and when I find records, I don’t know if they’re attributable to him. I’m going to use this project to try and pin down where he was during this time frame.

Methods

I used the record search feature at Familysearch.org to compile my lists. I used the last name variants Brazeal, Breazeale, and Brezeal in my search terms, limiting my search results to just a particular year’s Census. For 1790-1840, I kept all results since only head of household was notated. The 1850 data was tough, I ended up cleaning 1306 individuals down to 329 households. In the majority of cases, I kept the oldest male in the household when all members shared the same last name. There are also records (like my ancestor Sarah Breazeale) where one or two Breazeale’s lived in the household of another person’s surname, I kept the Breazeale last name in the data. The location data uses the county where the information was collected. This means there are some inaccuracies in exact location, for example Pendleton District in 1790 includes Pickens, Oconee, Anderson and Pendleton counties.

If you have more questions or would like a copy of the database I compiled, you can find me on WikiTree and in the Facebook group Breazeale Kin in America.

Acknowledgements

I’ve labeled this map after my ancestors, but I also want to acknowledge this migration is also part of the forced removal of Indigenous peoples. Our ancestors directly benefitted from the forceful displacement of the people who already lived there, and I benefit today from that generational wealth. I grew up on Cherokee land near the town of Keowee, and I know of one ancestor who actively participated in the kidnapping and removal of Cherokee people and I’m sure there are more.

I say this to make the point that Indigenous land rights is not a past tense term, Indigenous people are still here and still fighting to keep their land. Hopefully one day in 200 years, my descendants will look me up on the 2020 Census. When I learn about the Keystone Pipeline or McGirt v. Oklahoma and form my opinion based on the information I have in 2021, I wonder what my descendants will think of me and how I relate to my time in history.