It seems that there were no Sauls families living in Colleton County in 1820 or 1830. Several familiar names once again appear in the records for neighboring Beaufort County. I think I know what my next project will be...
The 1840 census is a different story. Here are the Sauls families I found:
- Jno Sauls
- Free white persons - males under 5: 3
- Free white persons - males 20-29: 1
- Free white persons - females 5-9: 2
- Free white persons - females 30-39: 1
- No slaves are listed for this family
- Isaac Sauls
- Free white persons - males 5-9: 1
- Free white persons - males 10-14: 3
- Free white persons - males 15-19: 1
- Free white persons - males 20-29: 2
- Free white persons - males 40-49: 1
- Free white persons - females under 5: 2
- Free white persons - females 5-9: 1
- Free white persons - females 40-49: 1
- Free white persons - females 80-89: 1
- Slaves - females 10-23: 2
- James Sauls
- Free white persons - males under 5: 2
- Free white persons - males 20-29: 1
- Free white persons - females under 5: 1
- Free white persons - females 15-19: 1
- No slaves are listed for this family
- Shadrach Sauls
- Free white persons - males 40-49: 1
- Free white persons - females 40-49: 1
- No slaves are listed for this family
Note that only the heads of household are named. We have to analyze the numbers and figure out which number represents which member of the household, an imprecise science at best. We can figure out some things, but other things will require additional documentation to put everything together.
John Sauls, listed here as Jno Sauls, is the person who originally sparked my interest in this effort. We'll look at his family as an example of what I mean. In his household, only 2 of the 7 people are adults. The oldest child is 9 at most, so there is a significant age gap between the adults and the children. Since there is only one adult male, we can assume that this is John. John was between the ages of 20-29 at the time of this census. Most likely, since this is a house full of children, the adult female is his wife.
We can do something similar for the other families listed here. James Sauls and his wife (we assume) are the only two adults in their household. Shadrach Sauls and his wife (we assume) are the only two people in their household, making this exercise particularly easy. Isaac Sauls's household is more complicated, containing 6 white adults. My assumption in this case is that Isaac is the oldest male adults, and that his wife is most likely to be the younger of the two female adults. However, these are assumptions and require further verification. The identities of the slaves in the household present further complications.
Some of these names are the same as ones that were in Beaufort County in previous censuses, so it may be worth returning to investigate the Sauls surname in Beaufort County, South Carolina, at a future date.
I will return to John Sauls and the other Sauls families in Colleton County when I look at the 1850 census.