by AUDREY CREEL / November 14, 2020
©Audrey Creel, 2020 (All rights reserved.)
Gelis Maney was born in North Carolina in approximately 1827.[i] It is possible that Gelis came from North Carolina with the Maney family when they first moved to Tennessee in the early 1820s. It is uncertain where Gelis was enslaved in Murfreesboro before the Civil War. Both James and Lewis Maney had enslaved men who would have been born the same time as Gelis Maney.[ii] If Gelis moved from North Carolina with the Maney family in the 1820s, it is likely that Gelis was enslaved by Dr. James Maney, but there is no definitive documentation. Gelis likely worked as a farm laborer on the Maney plantation.
It appears that Gelis Maney’s name was misspelled in the 1870 census. Other records refer to Gelis as Giles Maney. Giles Maney married Lizza [sic] James on July 25, 1866 in Rutherford County.[iii] Giles and Elizabeth lived in Rutherford County in 1870 where Giles worked as a farm laborer.[iv] Elizabeth and Giles Maney likely had a daughter, Jimmi Maney, in 1872.[v] Sometime between 1870 and 1880, Giles Maney found work as a rock mason in Murfreesboro, though it is unknown where Giles was employed.[vi] Giles Maney died in February 1880 from consumption, a common name for tuberculosis in the late 1800s.[vii]
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References
[i] United States Census, “Maney, Gelis,” 1870 United States Census, 1870, accessed November 5, 2020 from ancestry.com database https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4275524_00089?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Kxs1494&_phstart=successSource&pId=4859687.
[ii] United States Census, “Manny, James,” 1860 United States Census – Slave Schedule, 1860, accessed November 5, 2020 from ancestry.com database https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7668/images/tnm653_1285-0152?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=6f69c382c788d8cef8539005c0afd542&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Kxs1499&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.127478793.500685256.1604597354-1700215809.1599080803&pId=92227684. See also: United States Census, “Manny, L.M.,” 1860 United States Census – Slave Schedule, 1860, accessed November 5, 2020 from ancestry.com database https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7668/images/tnm653_1285-0120?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Kxs1502&_phstart=successSource&pId=92225235.
[iii] Marriage Record, “Giles Maney to Lizza James,” July 25, 1866, accessed November 5, 2020 from ancestry.com database https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=4125&h=31143&tid=&pid=&queryId=d098fe5cf073f1e20abf045fe13517c3&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Kxs1512&_phstart=successSource.
[iv] United States Census, “Maney, Gelis,” 1870 United States Census.
[v] United States Census, “Maney, Jimmi,” 1880 United States Census, 1880, accessed November 5, 2020 from ancestry.com database https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6742/images/4244656-00452?treeid=&%3Bpersonid=&%3Brc=&%3BusePUB=true&%3B_phsrc=Kxs753&%3B_phstart=successSource&%3BpId=9980854.
[vi] United States Census, “Maney, Giles,” U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1880, accessed November 5, 2020 from ancestry.com database https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8756/images/TNT655_30-0143?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=d098fe5cf073f1e20abf045fe13517c3&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Kxs1516&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=2136036.
[vii] United States Census, “Maney, Giles,” U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules. See also: Rachel Snyder, Sarah Tran, Scott Sanders, and Jay Pandya, “Who Died of Consumption? Race and Disease in the United States,” Perspectives on History, September 12, 2016, accessed November 5, 2020 from https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/september-2016/who-died-of-consumption-race-and-disease-in-the-united-states.
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