Military Monday - A military connection comes full circle

My family has deep military roots and many connections to the state of Virginia. In fact, I have found a connection that came full circle at the marriage of my great grandparents.

My great-grandparents, Hazel McGuire and Clifton White were married January 16, 1932. Both of their families came to western Missouri from Virginia. Hazel's line came through Kentucky and Clifton's came straight from Virginia. Both lines were from the western portion of Virginia, mainly Roanoke, Augusta and Botetourt counties.

Alexander and William McClanahan were brothers. William was born in Augusta County, Virginia. I do not know much about his older brother Alexander other than his military service. He fought in the Indian Wars, the Battle of Point Pleasant and was awarded his own regiment during the Revolutionary War: 7th Regiment, Virginia Volunteers. He reached the rank of Colonel.

James McGuire was a private in Col. Alexander McClanahan's regiment. Assigned to Co. D, 7th Regiment, Virginia Volunteers upon his enlistment on March 6, 1776.

Pvt. McGuire and Col. McClanahan shared the same military experiences then 156 years later their descendants would marry. It truly is a small world.

How much evidence provides a conclusive link?

I am a stickler for proof. I do not add individuals to my tree unless I feel I have substantial proof to place them there. I even have a "test" tree where I place individuals that don't have quite the provenance to belong to my family. A bit much, perhaps, but if I don't get it right (or pretty damn close) who will?

Charles M. Webb is one such ancestor...or rather, his parents are. I have conclusive proof that Charles M. Webb is my 5th great-grandfather. I have a copy of his probate documents from Shelby County, Indiana that clearly list his children as Jesse M. Webb, Rene M. Webb, Charles M. Webb (my 4th great-grandfather) and James W. Webb. Charles M. Webb, Sr., died in 1845 and Gerrard Spurrier was named as guardian for his minor children.

One paragraph in Charles Webb's probate documents references monies earned from the sale of four slaves, a woman and three children, in Orange County, Virginia. The slaves were part of the estate of Mary Webb. Charles inherited the monies from the sale of the slaves, but being deceased the money was added to the trust of his minor children. There is no further mention of Mary Webb, except for that she lived in Orange County, Virginia. She is obviously a relative of Charles Webb, but how are they related?

Once they grew to adulthood, the Webb children moved to Ray County, Missouri. I have in my possession a letter to Rene M. Webb in Richmond, Missouri, from William C. Moorson, dated November 16, 1858. The letter is postmarked from Orange, Virginia, and tells Rene Webb that his uncle Jesse has passed away. The letter goes on to state that B.B. Almond was in the process of refuting Uncle Jesse's will on the grounds that he was not in his right mind. The letter's author, William Moorson, lists several witnesses that were willing to state Uncle Jesse was indeed "sane" and indicates that Rene knows the gentlemen:

It states: "I think you and your brother Jesse and Mr. Spurrier were acquainted with William M. Reynolds and James B. Moore." I believe this to be proof that Charles M. Webb, Sr., had a brother Jesse living in Orange County, Virginia.

I was able to find a Jesse M. Webb living with a Mary Webb in Orange County, Virginia on the 1850 census.

This Jesse would be an appropriate age to be a sibling of my Charles M. Webb. Note that Mary would more than likely be his mother and that her property is valued at $990. Quite a large sum for the time.

Are these my Webbs of Orange County, Virginia? I have not yet tried to locate the probate documents for the Mary Webb listed in Charles Webb's estate, so I do not have proof via court documents. But what if there is no proof of her connection? Is the above enough proof? Not for me...what are your thoughts?

Those in favor of Johnston say yay. Those in favor of Johnson...

I am the lucky holder of many rather common surnames among my family lines. Compared to some, my list of "plain" names is not very long, but those I do have still create research conundrums. My most recent run-in with one of these names is the Johnston line...or is it Johnson?

Charles Johnston was born in Ohio on January 6, 1844, and died on January 18, 1917, per his death certificate. This document also mentions that he is a shoemaker, a common enough profession, but also unique enough for me to confidently track Charles through several censuses. Note, that on Charles' death certificate he is listed as a Johnston.

Other than his death certificate and several census records I didn't have much concrete information about Charles. His father's name, Exum, was unique and there was an Exum Johnston living in Logan County, Ohio at the same time as Charles, but I could find no definitive connection that made me comfortable enough to link them. A brick wall.

Recently, I came back to this line to see what I could track down. I decided to focus a little more on Exum Johnston, Charles' father. His unique first name should be easy enough to delineate him from other Johnstons in the area. But in searches for "Exum Johnston" I find nothing. The next step was to try various different spellings and Exum Johnson brings up a hit on the 1860 census, with 16-year-old son Charles. With this spelling success in hand I checked Google Books for Exum Johnson and found a hit: The Johnsons and Johnstons of Corrowaugh in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, Volume 1, by Eddis Johnson and Hugh Buckner Johnston. It was only in a preview view, but there was Exum Johnson with the same birth date as the Exum Johnson I found on the 1860 census. The book was not at my local research center, but I happened to be traveling through a town with a volume in their library and made a quick stop.

Low and behold, Charles Johnson, born on January 6, 1844, is listed in the volume as a son of Exum Johnson. The family line starts in America in Isle of Wight County, Virginia and then a portion of the family immigrates to Logan County, Ohio. The pieces fit...but why the two names? Throughout the documentation I have on Charles I have an equal amount for both names. His children and subsequent generations all use Johnston. I'm not sure what made Charles change his name. He came from Quaker roots, is it possible he changed his name to separate himself from that culture later in life? I will probably never know, but at least I have learned that trying various name spellings when searching for ancestors really does pay off. Thanks Charles Johnston, Johnson!

Ancestor county tracking - Sorting Saturday

My family's roots are very deeply seeded in the state of Virginia. I have always been drawn there and our family took numerous vacations to the area when I was younger. Two years ago I had the opportunity to visit the Virginia Room, a collection of genealogy resources for the state of Virginia and the Roanoke Valley. Located in the Roanoke City Library, the Virginia Room is smack in the middle of where many of my ancestors came from.

I currently live three states away from Virginia and I was only afforded several hours to research, so my visit needed to be organized. I was also aware of the limitations my genealogy ADD would set for me; my visit would be akin to a kid in a candy store...so many great resources, so little time. And to top it all off I have numerous random family lines throughout the state. In order to get prepared I created a spreadsheet of all of my Virginia lines to take with me. That way, if I found a great resource that may pertain to one or more lines, I had a quick sheet that would help me remember which families lived where.

Click to enlarge

The spreadsheet includes a column for the county name, surname, dates of residence in said county, notes, the surname chain and notes on the county itself. The surname chain is a way for me to remember the links between myself and the particular surname.

I still had a massive research high while at the Virginia Room, but once I was able to come down I found this sheet very helpful. I started researching my particularly difficult line, the Whites, but when I could find so solid leads I moved on to other lines. This has also been helpful when digging through GenWeb or historical/genealogical society web sites.