In Search of Elias David Rudd

I’ve come to realize that there were several reasons that contributed to the assumption that Elias David Rudd was the son of George Lounsdell Rudd. One of those reasons was due to the fact that George Lounsdell did have sons named Ely and Lias and both of those names appear in the Charleston District census. If you look at the 1820 Charleston census you will see Ely Rudd and, like I said before, there was an assumption that this Ely was our Elias David. This assumption was reinforced because Ely Rudd does not show up in Charleston after 1820, and we know that Elias Rudd surfaces in the 1830 Jefferson County, Florida census. The assumption was made that Elias David migrated from South Carolina to Florida after the 1820 census and before the 1830 census. That assumption was then reinforced by what we know about the reported birth location of his children.

Well, as it turns out the assumption about his migration is correct. He did migrate out of South Carolina to Florida after 1820 and before 1830, but he’s not the Ely in the Charleston District census. Before I go any further I want to also point out that there is also an Elias Rudd in the Charleston census who is alive in the 1840 census when Elias David is recorded in the Dale County, Alabama census.

Remember my telling you about some of the obstacles we have to overcome when depending on the census indexes and the interpretation of the name RUD and REED? Well, I’m now of the opinion that’s why our family researchers of the past couldn’t find Elias David in 1820 and assumed him to be in Charleston. But he was living in Beaufort County, South Carolina. In the index to that census he is listed as Elias Reed.



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Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, there is a Reed family in Barnwell, actually they might be Rud since sometimes their name clearly looks like Rud and sometimes it looks like Reed. They could be somehow related to our family, they’re not in our cluster of families, but they live nearby. I’ve done a good deal of investigation of the records concerning this family that includes Hugh, Samuel and John, but they never include an Elias.

Take a look at the 1813 land survey in Beaufort that list G. Rud as a land owner and taking note also of the other family names listed on the survey. Then compare that survey with the 1820 census and the cluster of names. Of course we have to allow for two variables. First, the survey and the census are 7 years apart. Second, the survey records the names of the land owners not necessarily the inhabitants. That’s one of the challenges in using land records, trying to determine what tract of land was the homestead. We’ll talk about that more when we identify George Washington Rudd in Barnwell.



Make note that on the survey you also see Absolom Breland. I’ve discovered a wonderful website for this Breland family and in a future post we’ll explore the origin of the name Fannie Breeland Tanner. Also make note of the Breland and Taner names on the 1820 census. It seems we have pretty strong circumstantial evidence that this is Elias David Rudd and he is living on land that is owned in 1813 by G. Rud. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to find a grant or deed assigned to a G. Rud in Beaufort to determine who this is. It’s not a far stretch to guess the G stands for George. We can’t be certain this is George Washington Rudd, Elias David’s brother, but it’s a good guess!

Also note on the census that Elias Rud has 3 males and 2 females under the age of 10 years old. He and Fannie list their ages as between 26 and 45 years old. To determine the most likely birth year for Elias David Rudd, we have the War of 1812 Pension Application he filed on November 1, 1875 where he states he is eighty-seven years old, making his birth sometime between November 2, 1787 and October 31, 1788. Most census schedules we have available have insinuated his birth as January 1790. However, I feel his pension application in most likely more accurate than those census schedules. Therefore, in 1820, Elias David was 32 to 33 years old.

In addition, this discovery of 3 male children born before 1820 would support the idea that those males were: William Wesley, b. 1815; Seth Jackson, b. 1817; Elias Trowell, b. 1819. I’ll not tell you YET who I think the 2 female children are!