Our Roots Run Deep
“We are because they were.”
A Story Still Unfolding
Louis C. Spencer Sr. (1854–1943) married Emmaline Harriet “Emma” Williams (1860–1954) on December 17, 1877, in Copiah County, Mississippi. Emma was the daughter of Lloyd S. Williams and Cynthia Fortenberry. Louis and Emma built the family foundation from which today’s Spencer branches descend.
Louis’ Mother
Daughter of Aaron and Elizabeth Carter, Martha lived on or near the Millsaps plantation where Uriah lived. The Spencer surname came from a family friend and physician who delivered Louis.
What the records show
Martha later married Edward Carter and had Mary M., Sally, William “Willie,” Ora, Thomas “Tommy,” Mattie, and Homer Carter. The 1870 census recorded Martha and Louis as “Mulatto,” while Edward and the other children were recorded as “Black.” By 1880, Louis and Emma were married with Ellis and Dorah in their household.
A Landmark Discovery
AncestryProGen reports that analysis of the Millsaps and Spencer direct male lines confirms Judge Uriah Millsaps (1828–1897) as the biological father of Louis Spencer. The research compared Y-DNA from five Millsaps men and three Spencer men.
The paternal line
1799–1882
Louis’ paternal grandfather
1804–1847
Louis’ paternal grandmother · a twin
1828–1897
Louis’ biological father
1854–1943
Our Spencer ancestor
Eight men, two family lines
Twins were prevalent in Uriah’s immediate family and in Elizabeth Holliday’s family. Elizabeth was herself a twin; Uriah had twin siblings and later had twins with his wife.
Uriah served the Confederacy during the Civil War. After the war, he changed his political affiliation from Democrat to Republican. During Reconstruction, he was appointed Judge of the Circuit Court of the South. More research is underway into Uriah’s life and his connection to Martha Carter.
Across Centuries & Oceans
New Amsterdam · 1660
Through Elizabeth Holliday, research traces Louis’ ancestry to Kings County, Brooklyn, and Long Island in the 1600s. Titus Syrachs de Vries and his wife, Jannetje Theunis Nyssen, arrived from Vries, Netherlands, in New Amsterdam, New Netherland—present-day New York City—in 1660, likely aboard the ships The Faith and Love.
Their descendants lived for three generations across metropolitan New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Titus was a captain in the Dutch army and fought the British off New York during the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
Virginia · 1600s
The same line extends into Westmoreland and Fairfax Counties and to Jamestown, Virginia. Among these ancestors is William Ball, identified in the family research as President George Washington’s great-grandfather—making Washington a distant Spencer family cousin.
One family story, reaching far beyond Mississippi.
The First Full Generation
Louis and Emma’s eight children are the first full generation of Spencer children from whom our family descends.
1879–1946
1880–
1881–1971
1888–
1889–1963
1890–
1893–1981
1896–1966
Preserving the Record
AncestryProGen is compiling a formal Y-DNA proof of Louis’ paternal line through Judge Uriah Millsaps. Brian Gant—son of Betty Spencer Gant, grandson of Robert “Bobby” Spencer, and great-grandson of Ernest Louis Spencer—led the research, collection, and communication behind these findings.
The proof will support a Sons of the American Revolution application through four confirmed Revolutionary War ancestors. The purpose is to place Louis and Emma in more historical records, gain access to extensive SAR and DAR archives, and deepen the search for Louis’ African ancestry through every documented branch of the family.
This is a living family history. The Ancestry family tree includes Uriah Millsaps, Titus Syrachs de Vries, Jannetje Theunis Nyssen, and the connected lines. Hope holds the family’s Ancestry login credentials.
Help Preserve Our Story
Share names, dates, memories, corrections, photographs, records, or other information that can help grow the Spencer family archive.