Elizabeth English Ward, Conclusions

The final evidence, and possibly the most compelling, is found in the behavior of her children and their descendants.  Half of her children and their descendants continue (or return) to live in Geneva County, AL and pattern their lives similar to the predominately white communities in Southern Alabama.  The other half of her children choose a totally different life style, more in line with Creek Indian culture.¹  They settle in an area of Walton County, FL surrounded by swamps and a river where they remain isolated for almost 100 years.²  They create a community focused on communal living – where livestock and other resources are shared.¹  They maintain an “us” against “them” mindset for generations.  Their community has a clear leader (i.e., “Chief”),¹ adopts other mix-bloods over the years,⁵ creates and maintains a ceremonial ground,⁶ creates its own school,⁷ has its own store,⁸ uses its own “money,”⁹ and eventually has its own post office¹⁰ – it even “banishes” a family who tries to claim communal property as their personal property.¹¹

Why would four brothers isolate themselves and their children & grandchildren in this way?  Some might offer up an excuse of “they were law breakers hiding from the law” – but where is the evidence of this?  Oral histories reveal they left Alabama and moved to Florida to escape prejudice due to the color of their skin – something that rapidly escalated during the Civil War more strongly in Alabama than in sparsely populated West Florida.

No discussion of Elizabeth English and her husband, James B. Ward, would be complete without mentioning Jerry Merritt’s research.  In the late 1990s and early 2000s two researchers were actively posting updates and discussions on the Internet regarding Ward family genealogy.  Ron Jones converted his family newsletter and book regarding Elijah Ward (1780-abt 1865) and his descendants to a website on the Internet.¹²   His book contained a brief explanation saying his research could not find a connection between his Elijah Ward and the James B. & Elizabeth English Ward Indian families.¹³  Jerry Merritt responded with several research articles specific to James B. Ward which were shared on Mr. Jones’ website.  Both of these men were genealogy hobbyist without training or credentials.  Later, more polished forms of Mr. Merritt’s articles were made public on Pensacola Links (http://pensacolalinks.com), a privately owned website.  Today, his articles titled Warning to Ward Researchers,¹⁴ Search for James B. Ward’s Parents,¹⁵ and Finding Elizabeth English Ward’s Family¹⁶ are still viewable on this website.

While Mr. Merritt writes well and appears to present a strong case against Native Ancestry in the James B. Ward family, his research is riddled with substantial errors.  Instead of conducting traditional genealogical research – including onsite record searches, thoroughly reviewing and researching each record found, etc. – he formulates “theories” and takes the reader through a process similar to computer programming “If/Then logic” to prove or disprove his theories.  

Mr. Merritt uses many unproven “facts” throughout his research as if they were common knowledge and fails to identify the source of these “facts.”¹⁷  Sources are defined as the origin of information compiled to formulate conclusions (i.e., the sum of evidence collected and analyzed by the researcher). These sources provide “proof” for the conclusion. It is impossible to judge the reliability of any “fact” unless its origins are known and the strengths and weakness of its source can be evaluated.¹⁸  For example, Mr. Merritt uses the “fact” James B. Ward had four brothers named Solomon, Samuel, Nathan, and John to formulate a starting theory for his final research in Finding James B. Ward’s Parents.¹⁹ What is the origin of this “fact?” Was it told to him by someone? If so, how did they know? At no point in Mr. Merritt’s research does he “prove” James B. had four brothers – much less that they were named Solomon, Samuel, Nathan, and John.  He eventually infers two unidentified sources for these brothers in his final paper Finding James B. Ward’s Parents, under “Formulating an [sic] Hypothesis” when he says James B. Ward “…had Solomon and Samuel Ward with him in 1810 Wilkinson County, GA…” and “…John and Nathan Ward closely associated with him in 1824 and 1827 Jackson County, FL and 1830 Dale County, AL.” James was 14 years old in 1810. Since children were not named on the 1810 census, it is unclear how he identified these individuals as being “with each other” – much less brothers. All of his research is riddled with similar omissions. 

Researching local history during the lifespan of an individual is critical to conducting thorough genealogy research.²⁰  Mr. Merritt offers little to no historical research in his publications which resulted in additional errors.  For example, Mr. Merritt’s research place James B. & Elizabeth English Ward within early West Florida. Florida existed as a U.S. Territory from 1821 until Florida achieved statehood in 1845.  Mr. Merritt found James B. Ward, Nathan Ward, and John Ward’s early Florida Land claim which was presented to congress on Jan 14, 1825.²¹ He attributes these land claims to being filed “on July 17, 1821.” He failed to research the background of this land claim. Had he done so, he would have learned the qualifying legislation titled Donation Act of 1824 required applicants to be a resident of Territorial Florida ON February 22, 1819 or to have established residence and made improvements BEFORE July17, 1821.²² This evidence, which he found but failed to analyze, actually eliminated the 1820 Wilkinson County James Ward²³ he used throughout much of his research.  If James B. & Elizabeth English Ward were living in Wilkinson County on August 7, 1820 (when the census was conducted) how could they have established residence and cultivated 4-5 acres²⁴ of land by July 17, 1821 in Florida?  Furthermore, James B. Ward paid taxes in Jackson County, FL in July 1820 -- just one month before the 1820 Wilkinson County census.²⁵ In another instance, he searches for James English on the 1820 Census because he failed to research Georgia Land Lottery requirements and discover James English had to be deceased for his “orphans” to qualify for the Land Lottery.²⁶ Obviously, Mr. Merritt was wrong on these and many other points.

On October 19, 2006, Zera Denson of the Muscogee Nation of Florida, wrote to Mr. Merritt and extended an invitation for him to visit the Muscogee Nation of Florida, meet his relatives, and learn more about the history of his ancestors.²⁷  In this letter, she tells him his ancestor, Nicey Ward, was a sister to her grandfather, Jessie Josiah (J.J.) Ward.  Mr. Merritt never responded, visited, or called – which clearly indicates the purpose of Mr. Merritt’s research was not based in sound genealogy practices.  Meeting distant cousins and learning their side of the family history is critical to building an accurate family history.

In conclusion, there is a large body of evidence that, when viewed in its entirety, clearly reveals the people who personally knew Elizabeth English Ward knew her to be a Creek Indian woman who was abandoned, found, raised by James English, and married to James B. Ward.

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