A little over six months ago I was offered a job at Ancestry.com as the product manager for Search. Of course I happily accepted and have loved every day of it. I stop writing on this blog as I try to reconcile my personal searching and my new job. Now that I’ve been there a while and I’ve settled in, and we are at the beginning of new year, it seems like a good time to start back up with my writing on this blog.

My great-great-great grandfather was Charlton Wallace. And he has been my biggest brick wall. I’ve never been able to connect him with any other Wallace. Until yesterday. I spent 9 hours at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, which if you love genealogy is the place for you. I was scanning through a microfilm of Rockbridge Marriage Bonds and found on roll 2025355, the bond for Charlton Wallace and Martha Jane Cash. And low and behold, it had another Wallace on it. (I almost shouted when I found it!)

Transcription:

Know all men by these presents that we Charlton Wallace, William Wallace & Ready Cash are held and firmly bount unot John M Gregory Lieutenant acting Governor of the commonwealth of Virgina in the just and full sum of one hundred and fifty dolloars to which payment will and truly to be made to the said Governor and his successors for the use of the commonwealth, we bind ourselves our heirs escecutors and administrators jointly and severally firmly by these presents. witness our hands and seals this 6th day of June 1842. The condition of the aobve obligation is such that where as a marriage is shortly intended to be had and solemnized between the above bound Charlton Wallace and Martha Jane Cash daughter of Ready Cash.

Now if there is no lawful cause to obstruct the said marriage then this obligation to be void otherwise to remain in full force and virtue.

Teste David Hutcheson(sp?) Do

Charlton x(his mark) Wallace

William x(his mark) Wallace

Ready Cash (actual signature)

This is the first time I’ve seen an actual document that linked Charlton to any other Wallace directly. Scanning through about 50 other of these type of documents, I only saw two that listed another witness that appeared related to the prospective groom. We do know that Charlton was just about 19 when he married Martha Jane, and therefor not of legal age, so I’m guessing that William was his witness.

Now was William his father? His older brother? His uncle? Some unrelated Wallace? We do know on the 1860 census, two households away is a William Wallace that is listed as the same age as Charlton. I feel it is a bit of a stretch to that this is the same William Wallace.

It was also really interesting to see the actual signature of Ready Cash. I’ll get the document scanned in and posted soon.

So the search for who this William Wallace was is on. Sure, it may turn out not to be a relative, but it’s the first lead I’ve come across and it’s pretty darn exciting.

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.

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!