The Paper Trail
The Genealogy Research of William "Bill" Reed 
of Tate County, Mississippi

Tracking Grandpa Bill Reed's Ancestry Through Oral History and Data Collected
From Federal Census Records, Court Records, and Other Public Records
By Melvin J. Collier
 

I would like to start this "paper trail journey" by paying tribute to a very special person, Cousin Isaac Deberry, Sr.  Without him, this journey to uncover the roots of my great grandfather would have been met with more bumps and stops.
 

Cousin Isaac Deberry, Sr. of Senatobia, Mississippi celebrated his 92nd Birthday in October 2006.  He has been a "genealogical goldmine" in the research of Grandpa Bill Reed.  Grandpa Bill helped raised him, and Cousin Ike was 23 years old when he died.  When Cousin Ike's father, Ollie Deberry, died in 1927, he left Aunt Martha Reed Deberry with 11 young children to raise.  Aunt Martha moved back on her father's land, and Grandpa Bill Reed and my grandfather, Simpson Reed, helped Aunt Martha in rearing her children.  While living as a teenager on Grandpa Bill's place, Cousin Ike listened and remembered a lot of things his grandfather told him.  Cousin Ike stated, "Grandpa Bill would love to talk about his life as a slave underneath his sycamore tree.  He would like to talk about those days with me for some reason, but I sat and listened because I was fascinated by his stories."

Cousin Isaac Deberry and his first cousin, Armintha Reed Puryear, the daughter of Pleas Reed, took us to the spot where their grandfather's house was located.  Cousin Ike was overjoyed to find the remnants of that sycamore tree, where he sat and listened to his grandfather's stories of his life as a slave in South Carolina.