Eli Staggs and Mary Berry
Eli Staggs (1831-1866) was born in Alabama to Ezekial Staggs (1790-1873) and Elizabeth Childent (1790-1851)1.
Mary Berry (1832-1860) was born in Alabama to Jarrett L. Berry (1805–1865) and Susannah T. Smith (1814–1853) 2.
On April 4, 1852, Eli and Mary Berry were married in Pontotoc County, Mississippi.3 By 1860, they had four children: Nancy (1852), Lewis (1854), Susan (1856), and George (1860)4.Eli Staggs and Nancy Berry
Sometime between 1860 and 1866, Eli married Mary's sister, Nancy (1844-1871). Robert (1866-1880) and Minnie (1866-1935) were the only children born to this couple. I have not yet found a death certificate for Mary, or a marriage record for Eli and Nancy, but Eli's probate documents listing Nancy as an executor with her uncle, Burton Berry 5, correspondence from Minnie's daughter, Beulah,6, and Minnie's death certificate7 support the fact that Eli married Nancy after Mary's death.
References
1"United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4LF-P7Q : 17 May 2020), Eli Staggs in household of Ezekiel Staggs, Pontotoc county, Pontotoc, Mississippi, United States; citing family 1876, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
2"United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4LF-2DK : 17 May 2020), Mary Berry in household of Jarrett Berry, Pontotoc county, Pontotoc, Mississippi, United States; citing family 1710, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
3"Mississippi Marriages, 1800-1911, Eli Staggs and Mary Berry, p. 239." Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 30 April 2020. Index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City.
4"United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8WQ-F6H : 18 March 2020), Eli Stags, 1860.
5“Records of Administrator, Executor & Guardian Bonds; Record of Letters of Guardianship; Record of Administrators and Curators, 1861-1904,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 17 May 2020), entry for Eli Staggs, Nancy J. Staggs, Burton Berry, and George W. Beard, Woodruff County, Arkansas.
6Beaulah Bates Chenault (Quanah, Texas) to "Carol" Carol Chapin], correspondence, n.d. letter, privately held by Carol Chapin, 2020 [Carol is granddaughter of Beaulah Bates Chenault. Beaulah was youngest daughter of William Webster Bates and Florence Arminda<[> Staggs Bates]. 7"California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGP2-K25T : 22 October 2019), Minnie Bates, 1935.