Sylvia “Zelpha” Bailey

Sylvia “Zelpha” Mooney Bailey
BIRTH unknown
North Carolina, USA
DEATH unknown
Mercer County, West Virginia, USA
BURIAL
Hunsucker Cemetery
Wenonah, Mercer County, West Virginia

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60792719/sylvia-bailey

Children
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Sarah Ann Jestin Bailey Shrewsbury
1845–1906

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Augustus Isaiah Bailey
1850–1919

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Nancy Elizabeth Bailey Walker
1856–1919

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Charles Whitlock Calfee Bailey
1859–1931

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Leroy Floyd Bailey
1863–1943

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Jamison Bailey
1865–1950
Daughter of John William Mooney and Sarah Stoneman.

Please see more about her name, below.

Born about 1827, in North Carolina.

Parents believed born in NC (1880 MCC, Rock District, gives her birth place as North Carolina.)

{Additional information of dates, birth & death places, and nickname contributed by Walter Henderson Pack Family, December 2012 - nickname: Zilphas, born 1827 Grayson, Virginia, died 1865 in Mercer, West Virginia.}
I have found no WV death record for her. The death record of her son Jamison gives his birth as November 1865, which would indicate the 1865 date of death for his mother is questionable. *

Additionally, she is enumerated in the 1900 census as still with her husband, and married for 56 years (this is noted on Floyd's memorial).

I would say she died post-1900.

Wife of Floyd Richard Bailey, and mother of nine.
An unnamed female infant was recorded in death register, 18 Feb. 1869, 1 day old.

Her son may have served alongside his father at the age of 13, at Gettysburg. This surely had to be difficult for her. Augustus Isaiah Bailey.

The roster of her husband's unit includes the name of her relative : Stynax L. Mooney, a Private. This is possibly an abbreviation of a longer name (Austinex).
SEE memorial 154142910.
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Entries from census vary in spelling (Zilphia, Celphia, etc.)
Funeral home marker: Zelpha.
Family data, Zylphia or Zilphia.
The death record of her son Jamison lists her name as Sylvia, as does his published obituary.
The marriage record of her daughter Polly, to Wilson Lee Bailey, also gives her name as Sylvia.
It was spelled Sulpha on the entry for the unnamed baby girl.

There is no way to prove which is correct - the marriage records of her children seem to be the best guess.

Zelpha might have been her nickname.

Some listings or transcriptions have her middle name as "Sulfrany or Sulfrana" / I wonder if it might have been Sussanna, which would have been a much more common name to that time, and transcriptions often mistake previous styles of letters (just my own thought, that).

If any bible records come to light with her name,or an obituary, will be happy to add those, too.

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The unreadable or unmarked stones of the "unknowns" in this cemetery listing are most likely her children and grandchildren; some of these died during the epidemics.
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Photo of marker by Tina Shrewsbury-Harrel.
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WRITTEN BY AYE AIN'T, MEMBER 47409320* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 19 2022, 18:38:20 UTC