Finding Sarah part 2

Sarah’s mother worked for Devil Anse Hatfield for many years.  There has been a family story of Sarah and her mother Elizabeth and her older brother Moses Mounts witnessing Elizabeth’s father Charlie Mounts being shot in the chest, by Devil Anse and him falling into the fire, as Devil Anse said: “Let him burn!”  They pulled him out of the fire but his feet were burned.  We may never know why Devil Anse shot Charlie but what we do know is Elizabeth, Sarah and Moses all worked for Devil Anse, for many years after that incident.   

You may wonder why would a woman and her young children continue working for someone who shot their father?  Well there are a few theories one is she was not married and had several small children to take care of, also there is one I tend to think is possible and that is she was more than just an employee to Devil Anse. 

For years in some parts of the family there was a rumor that Devil Anse was in fact the father of both Moses and Sarah.  In our part of the family we had never heard that because Sarah’s youngest child was my husband’s grandmother and she was only 13 when her mother passed away.  Also things like out of wedlock children were not discussed in his family. 

It has taken many hours and a dna test to finally unravel this whole story.  Betty Howard and Andrea Coleman who are amazing genealogists and a distant cousin who had heard the rumor from her grandfather who was one of Sarah’s oldest children, that took the dna test, we know for sure that my husband’s great, great grandfather is Devil Anse Hatfield. It has taken a lot of time and thought to finally come to terms with the results. 

I know a lot of people would be excited to be related to someone who was infamous in history.  Honestly, we have had many emotions most are disbelief and worry.  Why would we be worried?  Well, for one Devil Anse was not the one known in the family to have out of wedlock children that would be his older brother Wall and his son Johnse.  Also a lot of people hold Devil Anse up on a bit of a pedestal, and was thought to be the ultimate family man and leader of his family and community.  As we have gone down this road we have found out that Moses and Sarah may not be the only out of wedlock children that Devil Anse had.