I’m trying to get some of my research and findings in a more readable and easy to navigate format. I think it might also be a good time to sort of start back at the beginning and work my way back into the past again.

So I’ll start on my paternal grandparents and sort of work my way back up both their trees, one generation at a time.

So I’ll try and get my pages for my grandfather, Gilbert McClung GILLESPIE and my grandmother, Ann Irene FEAZELL a little more up to date.

And I’ll also try and be a little more dilegent about posting in my blog!

I’ve finally updated the deed records for Henry FRANKLIN, Duncan CAMRON, Pierce WADE and Elizabeth WADE. I’ve been away for far too long!

You can find the index to everything I’ve recorded at History Index of Genealogy by Anne

I also have some records for William SMITH, Jacob SMITH and a bunch of GILLESPIE records.

I believe I’ve posted about the SMITH and GILLESPIE information here before.

So more digging turns up that William SMITH, husband of Philadelphia FRANKLIN, is the father of Harriet SMITH, and thanks to information from the VA AMHERST rootsweb message board, I discover that Jacob SMITH is his father. And I believe that Millicent POWELL is his mother.

So, I compiled all the deeds for William Smith in Amherst County from the Deeds of Amherst County, 1748-1807 and published them. Obviously not all of these are my William SMITH because he died around Sep 1798. But I list them all because it may jog someone else’s memory or give them that ah ha moment they’ve been looking for.

I also found an abstract of a Revolutionary War Application for William Smith that I’ve posted. I’m not sure if this is my William or not. Interesting reading; he entered the war around the age of 14. It’s not very clear in this abstract who is applying.

So as I’m digging around trying to make some more sense of the my whole Smith and Franklin finds for Harriet SMITH, I stumble across some more information for the possible mother of Mahala REYNOLDS, wife of Tarlton GILLESPIE.

I am reasonably sure that John REYNOLDS was Mahala’s father, and I’ve read in multiple places that Abigal Hardwick WADE was her mother. I’ve now found the actual date and place for John and Abigal’s marriage in Amherst, 24 Aug 1788. Given that John REYNOLDS married Nancy MILAM on 18 Mar 1800, and that Mahala was born about 1796, I think it is reasonable to think that Abigal was Mahala’s mother. Again, a little more proof would be a lovely thing.

I found a snippet in Amherst in the Revolutionary War where it talks about her chosing a guardian when her father Pearce WADE died. I’ve got to get it all recorded, but it looks like some interesting stuff to say the least.

It appears that genealogy finds are going to be more on maternal sides of my lines this year!

So if you wander up my tree, you find Jeremiah and Mary E GILLESPIE who were first cousins. Jeremiah’s parents were Tarlton GILLESPIE and Mahala REYNOLDS and Mary’s were Willis GILLESPIE and Harriet SMITH.

I have never been able to find much about Harriet, other than on an abstract for Willis and Harriet’s marriage were listed a Philadelphia SMITH and a Phillip SMITH.

This weekend, I was looking through some microfilmed records of the Virginia DAR, and ran across a marriage record for a William SMITH and a Philadelphia FRANKLIN on 17 Nov 1784 in Amherst, VA.
Could this be Harriet’s parents? Or some relation? Or just one of those fun wild goose chases!

I got tired of building all of these pages by hand, so I geeked out, and built some backend scripts to generate pages. I’m going to rebuild the Gillespie index, and update the Donald index, so that you can easily find people. Also, I’ve added a few new people pages to the Wallace index.

My great great grandparents, James Calvin Donald and Elizabeth Jane Wallace are such an interesting pair to me. They married before the Civil War, and Elizabeth was only 16. Then James went and fought for the Confederacy, which must have been a very long 4 years for both of them. They did manage to spend some time together as evidenced by their son James born in 1864. He was born after James, the elder, had been captured by Yankees and put into Camp Chase, an Ohio Yankee prisoner of war camp. I can’t even begin to imagine what my g-g-grandmother must of gone through at that point. Fortunately, James came back, and other children were born, including my great-grandmother, Laura Cecile.

I have yet to document much about their lives after that; I have yet to find the 1870 census for them. But I’ll find it.

I’m in the process of updating some of my Cash ancestors. You can see the meager index I have for Stephen Cash to what I’ve started.

I’ve filled out much of what I have on Ready Cash. I really wonder if Ready was actually his real name. The last census I have for him shows his name as Redding. Who knows, every where else it is Ready. Strange name to say the least. His year of birth is also a great mystery. Many people list it as being 1807, but given that he was married in 1823, I really doubt this. He would have been 16. Possible, but not probable. I suspect that 1799 is probably much closer to the truth.

I’ve also updated the info I have for Thomas Cash, but it is not completed yet. His children appear to be a mystery as does his first wife Jamina Peachy. I’m hoping if anyone has more information or good theories, they’ll post here.

I hope to update a few more Cash’s over the next few days.

I’ve got a bit of information on my g-g-g-grandfather, Tarlton Gillespie. No one, probably even Tarlton, could spell his name, first or last. I’ve seen it as Tarlton, Tarleton, and Tatton. I believe the prefered spelling is indeed Tarlton.

I know his wife was Mahala Reynolds, and I’ve documented quite a few of his children, including of course, my g-g-grandfather, Jeremiah Gillespie.

I know that Tarlton lived most of his life in Amherst, Virginia, and that he died there. He was married in Bedford, VA, but that was most probably where Mahala was from which is why it was recorded there. I know he owned property there.

What I don’t know, and it is one of my brick wall’s, is who were his parents. If he was indeed born in Amherst County around the year 1787, then it would have probably been one of George Gillespie’s sons that was his father. William was Kentucky, George and Lewis were most probably too young. That leaves Alexander and Sherod as the likely candidates. I’ve seen two marriage possibilities for Alexander, in 1792 and in 1798, so I think he is not a good candidate, so that lives Sherod.

One thing is curious about the man, and that is his name. Amherst, VA was full of men who fought for America’s freedom in the Revolutionary War, and that included Sherod and William. Their father, George, performed Patriotic Service. Tarlton’s Raiders, a group of British soldiers were known for wreaking havoc upon the Virginia’s in the area. In fact, they burned a lot of records, earning the scorn of many modern genealogists as well! Why would someone like Sherod name his son Tarlton? Especially in 1787, which was well after the War. Maybe he wasn’t Sherod’s son.

But he is my best theory right now. And the search goes on.

I’ve been working on my genealogy for about six months now. I’ve been lucky enough to have research done by my father to build on, and a subscription to ancestry.com to fill in a lot of holes. Though I suspect some of the information is not always accurate.

As I’ve built out my various trees, and ran into different brick walls, I’m constantly looking for new sources on the internet where people have published information about their relatives. And when I’ve found a nugget or two in various places I’ve often wished that the researcher had published all that they knew, or left easy ways to contact them.

So, I’ve decided to publish as much as I can about the research I’m doing, and by creating a blog along with the website, I’m hoping people dropping by can contact me and ask questions, give suggestions, or correct some invalid assumption I’ve made along the way.

This should be fun!