DY Header CLOSE WINDOW

The Reivers
Explanations follow image.
Ms Genealogical Charts
William Faulkner Foundation Collection, 1918-1959, Accession #6074 to 6074-d, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections,
University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.   [Item Metadata: IA:13 GO DOWN, MOSES Chart 1 p. (1 R, 0 V) on 1 l.]

Explanations: "Carothers McCaslin" and "L Q C McC" are the same person, Lucius Quintus Carothers McCaslin. The bottom table notes that he was born in "Carolina" in 1770 and died in 1840.
His children are the twin sons, "Buck" and "Buddy," and a "daughter," given the name "Julia" on the bottom table. (She is not named in any of Faulkner's published texts, not even The Reivers.)
This daughter "m"arries an "Edmonds," and begins that branch of the family. Buck marries Sophonsiba Beauchamp, and they have one child, called "Isaac" in the top chart and "Ike" in the bottom one.
The bottom chart adds another detail that never appears elsewhere: that when "Mc[Caslin]. E[dmonds]. I" - the son of Julia and Edmonds - was "killed in war," i.e. the Civil War, Buck and Buddy "sent for" and "raised" his son, "Mc.E. II." In the top chart there is only one "Mc[Caslin] E[dmonds]." This person's son is named "C[arothers] E[dmonds]" on both tables, and on both tables he has a son with the same name.
In the center of both charts Faulkner lists the three generations of the Priest family - "Lucius I" to "Maury" to "Lucius II" - who appear in The Reivers. On the bottom chart Julia's daughter is given the name "Mary," and Maury's wife is called "Vosden" or "Varden Lesseps." Whichever name Faulkner gives her here, it never appears in print; in The Reivers she is "Grandmother Lesseps."

It's certainly worth noting that all these women's names are erased in the published text. It should also be pointed out that these tables do not include the Beauchamp family, the mixed race descendants of Old Carothers' sexual relationships with two of his slaves, even though that strand of the family is prominent in The Reivers. And it's interesting to watch Faulkner working hard to get birthdates right. There is a great deal of indeterminancy in Faulkner's imaginative world, but there is also a side to his artistic temperament that strives for specificity and order. On the other hand, most of the dates and details and even some of the names on these charts are not consistent with either Go Down, Moses or The Reivers. For example, in "Was" McCaslin Edmonds is already living with Buck and Buddy in 1859; no mention is made there of what happened to his parents, but the story makes it clear that they were dead at least a year before the War.