Oldest Story: John Sellman of Maryland

Back in my baby genealogy days, like many newbies, I found books that mentioned my ancestor. I then used the book to record information about that ancestor, their spouse and children, and any parents and grandparents. Even when I first started, I knew to record my sources, so I have the titles and authors of these books found in libraries. I might even have the name of the library that houses the book.

For this theme, I will focus on the person who is the furthest back ancestor, my 8th-great-grandfather, John Sellman. He is not an ancestor of my grandmother, Mam-ma, but of her husband, my grandfather, Tom Johnston. I collected this information from two books: John Sellman of Maryland and Descendants by W. Marshall Sellman, Associate Professor of History, University of Cincinnati, published in 1975.

The other book is Over the Mountain: A Narrative History of the Bean, Selman, and Germany Families by Martha L. Crabb, published in 1990. Both these books were found at the FamilySearch Library in the mid-1990s, possibly during my first research trip there.

Using Books as Clues

The first book does have sources, but as a newbie, I only copied the pages of the story and lineage, so I don’t have the sources. From the text, however, I can deduce what the source might be and do my own searching for them. 

The second book has no footnotes or endnotes, though it quotes text from some sources. The first chapter credits that most of the information came from a book titled John Sellman of Maryland and Descendants by W.W. Sellman, published in 1975. I wonder if she meant the W. Marshall Sellman book. At the end of the book is a bibliography listing mostly books but also original records from Cherokee County, Texas; Marion County, Tennessee; the Territorial Papers of the United States; United States census records; and military records from the National Archives. With books like this, as with online family trees, I must use them as clues to locate the supporting documentation. In doing more research, I might even locate records these two authors didn’t previously find.

My Selman Line

This is my ancestry from the most recent Selman to John Sellman, as documented in these books and what I entered in my RootsMagic database. I still need to locate the original records to document this line. 

My Selman line begins with Sarah Helena “Sallie” Selman (1858-1916), who married Peter H. Hutson in 1879 in Hood County, Texas. This I can document.

Her parents were Greenlee Bean Selman (1820-1888) and Amanda Deborah Oldham (1822-1880). Her death certificate listed him as Green Selman. Her mother’s name was blank. Sarah was in the Cherokee Co, Texas household of Green and Ama A Selman in 1860 as S. H. Selman, age 2. The family has not been found in 1870.  

Greenlee’s parents were Benjamin Franklin Selman (1795-1873) and Sarah Bean (1798-1868). Benjamin is a fifteen-year-old in the 1850 household of Benj. And Sarah Selman in Cherokee County, Texas.

Benjamin’s parents were Thomas Selman (1762-1816) and Jemima Greenlee (1763-1844). Benjamin is listed as a son in Thomas Silmon’s will, recorded in 1816.

For the rest of the line, I have no documentation but record it here as it is in my genealogy database:

Thomas’s parents were Benjamin L. Selman (1710-1775) and Ann Powell.

Benjamin’s parents were John Sellman (1680-1716) and Martha Groce.

John’s parents were John Sellman (1645-1707) and Elizabeth Brashers.

Conclusion

I am not sure I’ll take the time to document further. I have so many other more recent ancestors to research and fill out their stories.

#52Ancestors-Week 16: Oldest Story

This is my eighth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe.

I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family (https://mam-massouthernfamily.blogspot.com/) or My Trails into the Past (https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/). I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.