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(2) The birth date of Peggy Allred is not known for certain, as she died
before 1850 and is not listed by name in any census; and the claimed birth
date of Balaan Allred did not come from birth records and does not match his
original gravestone or the 1850 census records. Thus we do not know that
any of Joseph’s children were born between 1801 and 1807. (3) The claim of
consistency in the census records overstates the case, because prior to 1850
the census listed age brackets, not exact ages. The age of Joseph’s wife is
listed as 16-25 in 1800, 26-44 in 1810, 50-59 in 1830, 60-69 in 1840, and 74
in 1850. (The 1820 census for Randolph County is lost). If these records
are correct, and if all refer to the same woman, she was born between 1775
and 1780. If Rachael was 83 years old when she died on 3 March 1856, as her
gravestone inscription states, she was born in 1772 or 1773, and could not
have been the first wife of Joseph Allred who was 16-25 years old in 1800.
Even Larry W. Cates does not deny that Joseph and Rachael were first cousins;
in fact, he says so in his own words in a statement he placed on file with
the Joseph Allred papers (Collection #88) in the Perkins Library Special
Collections at Duke University. There is no evidence of any other Rachel
Allred who was a first cousin to Joseph Allred. Without proof to the
contrary, I have no reason to discard the family tradition.
However, if Rachael Allred was the second wife of Joseph Allred, and his
first wife was alive in 1800, it follows that if Delilah Allred was born
c. 1801, Rachael was not her mother, and that the oldest four children,
at least, were not the progeny of a first cousin marriage.
Larry W. Cates presents “internal evidence within the family” that the
children of Joseph and Rachel Allred “did prove to have some problems that
may be attributable to first cousin marriage. Two of the daughters seem to
have met an early death – one by suicide (Peggy). The other (Elvina) was
described as ‘afflicted’ by a friend of the family and appears to have died
within a few years. Two of the sons (Balaam and James) remained unmarried,
and one of the daughters (Anna) did not take a husband until after she came
into her inheritance, well into middle age. The one photograph I have of
a child of Joseph and Rachel, (that of Jonathan Allred), shows the face of
a man who may have suffered from some congenital defects resulting from
consanguineous marriage (a husband and wife of common ancestry).” It is
interesting that these were six of the last seven children. No similar
evidence is given of the first four.
Joseph Allred, the father of Delilah Allred, was the son of John Allred of
Randolph County, North Carolina. He is named in his father’s will, which was
dated 15 September 1792 and probated December 1792. The will is on file in
the Research Room of the North Carolina State Archives in Raleigh, and is
posted online at http://www.allredfamily.org/johnstranscribedwill.htm John’s
will names twelve children, in the following order: John Allred, Joseph
Allred, Jonathan Allred, Elizabeth Horner, Catherine Julian, Susannah Guren,
Lidy Allred, Rebecca Allred, Margaret Allred, Barbara York, Sarah Allred, and
Mary Allred. The executors were Renny Julien (husband of Catherine Allred,
see below) and Isaac Julien. The following list of birth dates and spouses
is taken from “The Allred Family in America,” by Dr. Rulon C. Allred, and
buttressed by careful examination of court, census, and cemetery records.
No marriage records were found for any of the twelve children.
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