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William Alderman (1798–1864)

William Alderman, husband of Sarah Edmundson, belongs to the antebellum Lowndes and Brooks County Alderman family. He must not be confused with the later William Alderman who married Catherine Wells and fathered James Carlton Alderman.

What the records show

Lowndes Superior Court grand-jury presentments printed in 1833 include William Alderman. The name, county, and date strongly fit Sarah Edmundson's husband, although the notice gives no age, wife, land, or exact residence. It establishes a William Alderman in Lowndes County by 1833, not the family's reported move about 1828.

The Brooks County deed index also records a November 21, 1859 conveyance from George Alderman to William Alderman: six acres in Land Lot 491, District 9, recorded in Deed Book C, page 786. The deed itself has not yet been read, so its terms and the relationship between the two men remain open.

Later histories say William served as a road reviewer and as clerk and treasurer of Bethel Church in 1859. Those underlying road and church records have not been inspected. Aldermans in America supplies the detailed family account, including the Bulloch County marriage, the move about 1828, eight children, and burial at Bethel. Those claims remain secondary until the original records are checked.

Connection to Barney

Later Alderman families lived in and around Barney, and several proposed descendant paths run through William's children. The first-generation links still depend partly on compiled genealogy. A Daniel-versus-David conflict in one branch also remains unresolved. No inspected record establishes that William lived at the later Barney townsite.

Evidence status

  • Strong probable: the 1833 juror was William Alderman, husband of Sarah Edmundson.
  • Verified at the record level: a William Alderman appears in the 1833 presentments; the 1859 deed transaction is recorded in the official index.
  • Secondary-supported: the move about 1828, Bethel offices, marriage details, and burial.
  • Unresolved: exact early residence, the full deed terms, probate record, and Daniel-versus-David lineage conflict.

Sources

  1. Georgia Times and State Right's Advocate (Milledgeville), June 19, 1833, p. 3, Lowndes Superior Court grand-jury presentments, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  2. Brooks County deed index, George Alderman to William Alderman, November 21, 1859, Deed Book C, page 786, Land Lot 491, District 9.
  3. Folks Huxford, History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858–1948, road and Bethel Church sections.
  4. J. P. Alderman, Aldermans in America, pp. 403–404.