Etheldred Brett

Etheldred Brett and the missing records

Etheldred Brett, whom most records spell Britt, lived in Hertford County, North Carolina, and left very little behind. He was born about 1784, married Elizabeth 'Betsey' Goodman about 1804, and died in 1828. No estate papers survive, probably because of courthouse fires in the county.

The census gives us the outline. In 1820 a household headed by Etheldred Britt includes a boy aged ten to fifteen. In 1830 Elizabeth Britt is a widow with a young man of twenty to twenty-nine in the house. In 1850 Eliza Britt, aged 60, is living with Henry Thomas Brett, who was born on 5 May 1806.

A marriage bond ties it together. On 27 December 1836 Henry Britt took out a bond at Northampton, North Carolina, to marry Martha Benthall, and the bondsman was William H. Goodman, a name that matches Elizabeth's maiden name. We think Henry was Etheldred and Betsey's son, but nothing names the three of them together.

Henry died in August 1852. His daughter Martha Ann Brett, born in 1848, married John Wesley Railey, and their son Eddie was the father of Granville, who moved to Florida.

How we know

• Census records for 1820, 1830 and 1850, Hertford County
• Marriage bond of Henry Britt and Martha Benthall, Northampton County, North Carolina, 27 December 1836
• Searches of Hertford County wills and estate indexes, which turn up no estate for Etheldred

Confidence: probable – about three chances in four; the link from Henry back to Etheldred rests on census households and a bond, not on a document that names the family

Timeline

1. 1784Born
2. 1810Lived in Hertford, North Carolina
3. 1820Lived in Hertford, North Carolina
4. 1828Died in Hertford, North Carolina