The Irene Day Williams Family

DAY FAMILY MEMBERS

Members of the Day Family can trace their roots back to the late 1700s or early 1800s with the births of Julius and Gerard Day. Both were enslaved by the Carters by 1842 when they were recorded in George Carter’s will. Their connection to one another is not known but it is believed that they were brothers. Gerard and his wife Alanda were documented by their last name of Day, one of only three families to be recognized by surname in the will. An enslaved man by the name of Emanual was also recorded. He was the son of Julius and Virginia Day.

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JULIUS DAY

Julius was referred to frequently in Elizabeth O. Carter’s diary, starting with an entry on April 6, 1861. “Julius brought 4 rolls of butter from Bellefield.”

In March of 1862 when Federal troops were in Leesburg, she wrote, “Julius + Bill came from O. [Oatlands] report the house to have been searched by Yankees.”

Diary entries throughout the Civil War record Julius going back and forth between Oatlands and Bellefield, the Carter’s plantation near Upperville.

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EMANUEL

Emanuel and his wife Virginia had at least seven children. Their son Robert, born about 1856, married Catherine Johnson in 1879. Their daughter Irene Isabel was born in Leesburg in 1886. By this time, Robert had purchased land in the community of Gleedsville, established in the 1870s by several men who had once been enslaved at Oatlands.

Irene Day Williams, Abraham Williams, and their family were recorded in the 1930 census. A nephew and 2 nieces were living with them.

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