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Below is a family biography included in the book, The History of Tipton County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1886.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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James A. Billings, farmer and merchant of the Third District, is a son of David and Susan Ann (McCoy) Billings. He was born in Lincoln County in 1830, and is the sixth child of a family of fifteen children—seven sons and eight daughters; four sons and three daughters living. The father was of German ancestry, born in North Carolina in 1794. He was raised in his native State, and married when about twenty-five years old, and moved to Lincoln County in 1825, farming there until 1837, when he moved to Tipton County and located near what is now the Twelfth District, where he died in 1851, being one of the early settlers. The mother was born in North Carolina in 1802 and died in 1858. Our subject was raised and educated in Tipton County. November, 1855, he married Nancy E., daughter of John and Sallie Roe. They had sixteen children—four sons and four daughters living: Lucy Ann (wife of M. A. Phillips), Margaret, Elizabeth Jennie, Mary Matilda, James Henry, Spruce, Holmes Cummings and Pink. Mr. Billings spent a year after his marriage in the Twelfth District, then moved to his present farm, owning about 400 acres of land in different tracts; 124 acres in the home tract is well cultivated and is nine miles west of Covington, near Walnut Grove Church. In 1874 he purchased a stock of goods and since then has been engaged in the mercantile business in connection with his farming. He is a good business man, and was elected magistrate in 1876, holding the office for six years. He is a firm Democrat. Mrs. Billings was born in Lincoln County in 1838, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

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This family biography is one of 91 biographies included in the book,  The History of Tipton County, Tennessee published in 1886 by Goodspeed.  The History of Tipton County was included within The History of Lauderdale, Tipton, Haywood, and Crockett Counties of Tennessee. For the complete description, click here: History of Lauderdale, Tipton, Haywood, and Crockett Counties, Tennessee

View additional Tipton County, Tennessee family biographies here: Tipton County, Tennessee

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