Household #35: Roundtree, Jerry

Back to the 1900 Census & Household Index

In the 1900 Barney census, Jerry Roundtree headed a 4-person household. The table below preserves the exact names, relationships, ages, birthplaces, and occupations recorded for the household.

Household Snapshot

Jerry Roundtree headed a 4-person household in the 1900 Barney census with 1 spouse or marital partner and 2 extended-family members.

Jerry Roundtree's listed occupation was Farmer.

All listed household members were reported as born in Georgia.

1900 Census Household

Children and Later Trails

No child-tracking items are open for this page because the 1900 table lists no children in the household.

Family Narrative

• Head: Jerry Roundtree (age 55, Georgia, farm laborer) — born Mar 1845 per 1900 census
• Spouse: Rebecca Roundtree (age 40, Georgia) — born Jun 1860 per 1900 census

• Other household members: Charley Surmans (age 15, farm laborer) and Ada Surmans (age 13), both born in Georgia

• The Brooks County marriage license and return show Jerry Rountree and Becky Jones married on 4 Jul 1879 in Brooks County, Georgia.

• In the 1880 census Jerre Rountree appears in Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia, age 32, with wife R. H. Rountree, age 32.
• That 1880 household identifies Ella Rountree, age 15, and Jincy Rountree, age 13, as stepdaughters, and John Willis Rountree, age 9, as a stepson.
• In the 1900 census Jerry Roundtree appears in Barney, Brooks County, Georgia, as a Black farmer born in Georgia in Mar 1845.
• The same 1900 census identifies wife Rebecca Roundtree in the household and labels Charley Surmans, age 15, as grandson and Ada Surmans, age 13, as granddaughter.
• In the 1910 census Jerry and Rebecca Roundtree are still together in Brooks County, showing continuity of the household after 1900.
• Taken together, the current census trail supports a stepfamily household in 1880 and a multigenerational household in 1900.
• Later family claims in the surviving trail still depend in part on derivative material and should remain secondary unless tied back to direct records.

Research Notes

• The parentage of Jerry Roundtree should remain unproven here unless a direct post-emancipation record chain can be assembled.
• The claim that Jerry was a son of Green Roundtree and Rose Roundtree should remain provisional at this stage.
• Rebecca's full name in 1880 appears as initials only in the summary view now in hand and should be preserved cautiously until the line image or a fuller extract is pulled again.
• The 1880 stepchildren and 1900 Surmans grandchildren strongly support household structure across the marriage, but the exact child-to-grandchild bridge still needs direct record work.
• Claims about Jerry and Rebecca's wider child list beyond the census-supported household structure should not be stated strongly without exact supporting extracts.
• The current negative Brooks County FindAGrave result should not be stretched into a wider burial conclusion without broader cemetery or county-level checking.

Open Research Questions

• Parentage audit: confirm both parents of the household head for HH#35 through direct or near-direct records where possible; mark derivative-only parent links as unresolved until supported.
• Child census audit: confirm every child named in the 1900 household against later census, marriage, death, obituary, cemetery, probate, or draft records; separate proven child links from same-name candidates.
• Other household member audit: verify boarders, servants, in-laws, stepchildren, grandchildren, and unrelated residents in HH#35; document the exact relationship instead of assuming kinship.
• Spouse and marriage audit: locate marriage records, death records, divorce records, or later census records for spouses or absent spouses tied to this household.
• Direct image review: re-check the 1900 census image and any cited index-only sources before treating ages, relationships, birthplaces, or name spellings as final.

Research Status

• Status: Materially strengthened; not yet source-exhausted.
• Strengths: The household is now anchored by the 1879 marriage record plus the 1880, 1900, and 1910 census trail. The 1880 census directly identifies stepchildren, and the 1900 census directly identifies Charley and Ada Surmans as grandchildren.
• Remaining cautions: Parentage remains uncertain, Rebecca's fuller identity still needs tighter extraction from the records, and the exact bridge from the 1880 stepchildren to the 1900 Surmans grandchildren still needs direct-record reconstruction.

Sources

• Brooks County marriage license and return for Jerry Rountree and Becky Jones, 4 Jul 1879.
• 1880 U.S. census, Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia.
• 1900 U.S. census, Barney, Brooks County, Georgia, page 3, lines 49-52.
• 1910 U.S. census, Morven, Brooks County, Georgia.
• Ancestry family trees cited in the prior research trail.
• Negative FindAGrave search in Brooks County, Georgia cemeteries, verified May 2026.

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