Household #70: Ryall, William R.

See also the Ryall family connections for Isaiah Ryall and Rachel Ann Folsom’s descendants and their marriages into other Barney families.

Back to the 1900 Census & Household Index

In the 1900 Barney census, William H Ryall headed a 10-person household. The table below preserves the exact names, relationships, ages, birthplaces, and occupations recorded for the household.

Household Snapshot

William H Ryall headed a 10-person household in the 1900 Barney census with 1 spouse or marital partner and 8 children.

William H Ryall's listed occupation was Farmer.

All listed household members were reported as born in Georgia.

1900 Census Household

Children and Later Trails

This section is reserved for later-life child evidence. No later spouse, death, burial, obituary, probate, separate household, or descendant-line identification has been added here yet from direct records.

Family Narrative

William R. Ryall of the 1900 Barney census is the same man who appears across an extended census chain in Lowndes and Brooks counties from 1850 through 1930. The records support identifying him as William Raiford, or Raford, Ryall, though the exact middle-name spelling varies in later derivative material. In 1850 he appears as a four-year-old in Lowndes County in the household of Isaiah B. Ryall and Rachel Ann Ryall. In 1860 he was fourteen and still in that parental household, now in Brooks County. Those two censuses give the clearest documentary base for placing him in the Isaiah and Rachel family.

By 1870 William had formed his own household in Brooks County. He was a farmer, age twenty-three, living with wife Edna and infant son Isaiah. The 1880 census shows the family at Morven with a larger group of children, including John H., Annie E., Hardy V., and Minnie Lee. By 1900 William and Edna were still in Brooks County, heading one of the larger Ryall households in the Barney area. The household links directly to several later encyclopedia entries, especially Hardy Ryall in HH#69 and Annie Elizabeth Ryall Jones in HH#71.

The later census trail is steady. In 1910 William was still farming in the Barney district with Edna and younger children at home. In 1920 he appears again in Barney as W. R. Ryall, with wife Edna indexed as Eva and son D. W. Ryall in the household. In 1930 William and Edna were elderly parents in the household of son Drew W. Ryall on the Adel Road. Taken together, those records show long residence in the same local part of Brooks County and a family network that remained closely settled.

A Brooks County property tax digest for Morven District 660 associates William R. Ryall with 1,080 acres between 1883 and 1887. He therefore held substantial land in the Morven area during his middle years, a fact that helps explain the size and continuity of the family household in later censuses.

Edna's identity is now on firmer ground than it was in the earlier draft. A likely pre-marriage appearance is the 1860 Lowndes County census entry for eight-year-old Edney Vicker in the household of Malinda Vicker. More important, Edna Ryall's 1938 death certificate states that she was born in Lowndes County, Georgia, identifies her parents as Henry Vickers and Linnie Bradford, and records burial at Camp Ground Cemetery. That death certificate strongly supports the conclusion that William's wife was Edna Vickers Ryall and that the 1860 Edney Vicker entry belongs in her background.

William's own 1933 death certificate is equally important. It states that W. R. Ryall died at Barney on 11 November 1933, identifies him as a farmer born in Georgia, names his parents as Isaiah Ryall and Rachel Anne Folsom, and records burial at Camp Ground Cemetery. That record does not stand alone, but read together with the 1850 and 1860 censuses it strongly supports the identification of his parents and ties the older Barney farmer back to the earlier Lowndes and Brooks County Ryall households.

The Confederate service claim appears plausible but should stay tied to the records that support it. William's Find a Grave memorial says he had a Confederate pension application in the Georgia Archives virtual vault, states that he enlisted in 1864 at Madison, Florida, with the 1st Florida Battalion Cavalry, and notes that within the pension paperwork Edna said they married on 1 January 1881. That marriage date conflicts with the census evidence, since William and Edna were already together with a child in 1870. The safest reading for now is that either the pension statement referred to a later formalization, or one of the records contains an error. Until the original pension file is checked closely, the conflict should remain visible rather than smoothed away.

The present evidence supports several things with confidence: William was the Brooks County farmer seen in the long census chain from 1850 to 1930; he was husband of Edna Vickers Ryall; he was father of Hardy Ryall and Annie Elizabeth Ryall Jones; he held substantial land in Morven District during the 1880s; and he was buried at Camp Ground Cemetery after his death in 1933. The broader Folsom and Vickers lineage significance may prove correct, but the older version of this entry leaned too hard on status language and on conclusions better handled as documented family connections rather than as claims of special rank.

Connections to Other Barney Families

• HH#70 to HH#69 Hardy Ryall: Hardy Vickers Ryall in HH#69 is directly tied to this household as the son of William R. Ryall and Edna Ryall.
• HH#70 to HH#71 Edgar Jones: Annie Elizabeth Ryall Jones in HH#71 is directly tied to this household as daughter Annie E. Ryall in 1880 and later as Edgar Jones's wife.
• HH#70 to HH#65 Charles Wesley Ryall: Charles Wesley Ryall of HH#65 fits the same Isaiah B. Ryall and Rachel Ann Ryall sibling group and is best read as William's brother, making HH#65 the uncle-generation Ryall branch for this household's children.
• Broader Ryall-Vickers-Folsom context: William's death certificate names his parents as Isaiah Ryall and Rachel Anne Folsom, and Edna's death certificate names her parents as Henry Vickers and Linnie Bradford. Those records place this household at an important junction of several Barney-area family lines, though each generational step should still be stated only as far as the direct evidence allows.

Military Service

The Confederate-service claim for William H. Ryall is plausible but not yet source-exhausted. His Find a Grave memorial reports a Georgia Archives Confederate pension application and says he enlisted in 1864 at Madison, Florida, with the 1st Florida Battalion Cavalry. Because the same summary creates a marriage-date conflict with census evidence, the page should keep the service claim tied to the memorial/pension-summary evidence until the original pension file is reviewed.

Open Research Questions

• Parentage audit: Keep head-of-household and spouse parentage as unresolved unless a cited direct record names the parents or the entry explains the census chain supporting the identification.
• Child census audit: Continue direct-record tracking for each child named in the 1900 household where later census, marriage, death, burial, obituary, or other parent-link proof is not already cited above.
• The exact middle-name spelling, Raiford versus Raford, should be treated cautiously until a direct-life record settles it.
• The full Confederate service and pension file should be reviewed directly rather than relying on memorial summary text.
• The marriage-date conflict between the census record and the pension-related statement still needs resolution.
• Edna's mother appears on her death certificate as Linnie Bradford, while the 1860 household is headed by Malinda Vicker; that relationship likely fits but should be mapped carefully.
• The broader Folsom and Vickers lineage claims should be stated generation by generation only where the supporting records are in hand.

Research Status

Well documented. The household rests on a strong census chain from 1850 through 1930, reinforced by William's 1933 death certificate, Edna's 1938 death certificate, Brooks County property tax evidence, and cemetery memorials. A few lineage details and the marriage-date conflict still need direct-record cleanup.

Sources

• 1850 U.S. census, Lowndes County, Georgia, household of Isaiah B. Ryall and Rachel Ann Ryall, including William R. Ryall, age 4.
• 1860 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, household of Isaiah B. Ryals and Rachel Ryals, including William, age 14.
• 1860 U.S. census, Georgia Militia District 1200, Lowndes County, Georgia, household including Edney Vicker, age 8.
• 1870 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, household of William Ryalls, age 23, farmer, with wife Edna and son Isaiah.
• 1880 U.S. census, Morven, Brooks County, Georgia, household of William and Edna Ryall, including children Isaiah F., John H., Annie E., Hardy V., Minnie Lee, and others.
• Georgia, U.S., Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892, William R. Ryall, residence 1883-1887, Morven District 660, Brooks County, Georgia; showing 1,080 acres.
• 1900 U.S. census, Barney, Brooks County, Georgia, household of William R. Ryall.
• The Valdosta Times (Valdosta, Georgia), 14 October 1899, item naming William Ryall among Barney-area farmers.
• 1910 U.S. census, Barney district, Brooks County, Georgia, household of William and Edna Ryall.
• 1920 U.S. census, Barney district, Brooks County, Georgia, household of W. R. Ryall, wife indexed as Eva, and son D. W. Ryall.
• 1930 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, household of Drew W. Ryall, including William and Edna Ryall as elderly parents.
• Georgia death certificate, W. R. Ryall, died 11 November 1933, Barney, Brooks County, Georgia; farmer; parents Isaiah Ryall and Rachel Anne Folsom; buried Camp Ground Cemetery.
• Georgia death certificate, Mrs. Edna Ryall, died 29 October 1938, Brooks County, Georgia; born in Lowndes County, Georgia; parents Henry Vickers and Linnie Bradford; buried Camp Ground Cemetery.
• Find a Grave memorial no. 111495357, William Raford Ryall, Camp Ground Cemetery Mount Zion Church, Morven, Brooks County, Georgia.
• Find a Grave memorial no. 111454240, Edna Vickers Ryall, Camp Ground Cemetery Mount Zion Church, Morven, Brooks County, Georgia.

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