Tag Archives: marriage

Treasure Chest Thursday — Gillespie Marriages from Amherst Virgina

Here are couple of the images I pulled from the Amherst, Virginia Register.

I’ll transcribe underneath.  Page 8. 1

William Gillespie and Ann Hudson and Sherrod Moore Gillespie and Sally Horsley

  • 1777 Dec 23; Gillaspie, William; Hudson, Ann;Security and Witnesses: Joshua Hudson; Edm Wilcox
  • 1777 Dec 28; Ware, William; Davis, Patty (Patta); Security and Witnesses: Thos. Waugh; Jno Ware, James Franklin
  • 1778 Jan 4; Fitzhugh, Thomas of Stafford Co., Rose Ann (Anne); Parents or Guardian of Wife: Rose, John, father of Anne; Security and Witnesses: Patrick Rose; Edumund Wilcox, Charles Rose, Jo. Alen
  • 1778 Jan 5; Stovall, George (minor); Mitchell, Ann (Anna); Parents or Guardian of Wife: Mitchell, Archelaus, father of Anna; Security and Witnesses: Joseph Cooper; James Franklin, Thomas Stovall
  • 1778 Feb 12; Galespey (ie), Sherod Moore; Horsley, Salley; Security and Witnesses: John Thurmond; Roland Horsley, William Loving
  • 1778 May 4; Shepherd, David; Penn, Betsey; Parents or Guardian of Wife: Penn, Gabriel; Security and Witnesses: Patrick Rose; Wm. Loving, Richard Alcock
  • 1778 July 6; Oglesbey, Richard (widower); Cash, ? (widow); Security  and Witnesses: Richard Ballinger; Wm. Loving
  • 1778 July 8; Herd, John (Heard); Montgomery, Mary; Security and Witnesses: David Montgomery, jr., Wm. Loving, Jean Montgomery, Wm. Reid, Jr
  • 1778 Nov 11; Vaughn, Cornelius; Carter, Nancy; Parent or Guardian of Husband: Edward, Joseph (guardian); Parent or Guardian of Wife: Carter, Job; Security and Witnesses: William Carter, John Vaughan, William Loving

Page 11.2

Marriage Register for Robert Hudson and Lucy Gillespie

  • 1779 Oct 23; Hudson, Robert; Galaspie, Lucey; Parent or Guardian of Wife: Galaspie, George; Security and Witnesses: Sherred More Glaspie (Sherod Moore Galaspie), William Glaspie
  • 1779 Nov 12; Perkins, Richard jr., 21 years of age; Moore, Betsey; Parent or Guardian of Husband: Perkins, Rich’d; Parent or Guardian of Wife: Moore, Benjamin; Security and Witnesses: George Purvis; Charles Martin, William Pearce, William Oglesby, John Morric
  • 1779 Nov 19; Davis, Moses; Carter, Millacent; Parents or Guardian of Wife: Carter, Soloman, Carter, Mary; Security and Witnesses: John Ware, William Ware, Peter Carter, John Eubank
  • 1779 Dec 25; Woods, Samuel (widower); Rise, Sarah; Security and Witnesses: John Loving jr; Neonemo Loving
  • 1779 Dec 29; Massey, John; Tucker, Lucretia Edee; Parents or Guardian of Wife: Tucker, Matthew; Security or Witnesses: Christopher Irwin, Louisa Irwin
  • 1780 Jan 17; Bell, Samuel; Mitchell, Sally; Security and Witnesses: David Shepherd
  • 1780 Jan 28; Fortune, Williamson of Albemarle Co. born 4 Dec 1758; Henderson, Sarah; Parents or Guardian of Husband: Fortune, John of Albemarle Co.; Parents or Guardian of Wife: Henderson, William, jr; Security and Witnesses: William Henderson, Josh. Taliaferro, William Loving, (?)orge Purvis
  • 1780 Feb 1; Powell, Richd; Muffitt, Elizabeth (widow); Security and Witnesses: Thomas Powell; John Walker, John Buchanan
Footnotes

1. Amherst County, Virginia, “Register of marriages, Amherst County, Virginia, 1763-1853,” index and images, Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, p. 8; FHL microfilm 30273
2. Amherst County, Virginia, “Register of marriages,” p. 11.

Wisdom Wednesday — Review Your Work and Why Sources are Important When You Have Conflicting Evidence

I’ve probably been at this about 10 years, give or take, and I’ve been a lot more serious about it in the last couple of years.   I made a vow to go back and review and fix all of my sources and I started with my paternal grandfather’s line.  Slow work, but I am making progress.

I’m so glad I’ve done this.  This is the first line I started working on, and my lack of experience and my willingness to jump to conclusion and accept them as fact is quite stunning.

Last night I had a few free hours before my plane left  and I stopped by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  I looked up microfilm for Amherst, Virginia and came across Register of marriages, Amherst County, Virginia, 1763-1853.

Now, I will admit, that I’ve looked at many a microfilm, and gone back to it thinking that I hadn’t seen it only to find that I had.  But this was not the case.

From reading the description, I expected to find the actual marriage bonds, and for the most part, the film seemed to be a typewritten index (for which I was very grateful) and a hand written register of all of the marriage bonds that they had seen.  The register was recorded in chronological order, so the index, that was alphabetical was quite useful, as I decided to do a Surname survey for the name Gillespie.

I found 20 records most of which matched people in my tree.

The record for my great great grandparents Jeremiah Gillespie and Mary E Gillespie was there on page 408. 1

Register Entry for Jeremiah and Mary E Gillespie, Bond Date: 21 Nov 1848

Jeremiah is listed as under age and his parent or guardian is Talton Gillaspie.  (This is actually Tarlton who is his father.)

Close up of names for Jeremiah and Mary

And the Security and Witnesses are listed as James Gillaspie, J Powell Jr, and Richd Waugh.

Witnesses for Jeremiah and Mary

I do not know who these men are.  I suspect that James is a relative.  A cousin or an uncle.  Jeremiah’s older sister Editha marries a Roderick Waugh 2, maybe Richard is related to Roderick.

I’ve also have in my tree that Jeremiah is born on March 4th, 1826.3 This information comes from my interpretation of a family bible that was handed down to me.

Jeremiah Gillespie’s birth date which appears to be March the 4th 1826

But if this date is true, then he would have been 22 on November 21, 1848, and he would not have been under the age he could be married without consent.

The dates in the bible appear to have been written in 1860.  Jeremiah was married in 1848.  It is hard to imagine that he would state that he was not 21 when he got married if he wasn’t.  It would just complicate matters more.  Given these two sources and what we know about when they were recorded and the legal situation implied by the marriage bond, I believe that he was not born in 1826.  I would suggest 1828 and that he was twenty.

It is probably reasonable to think that his birthday was March 4th.  And it is hard to imagine that whoever did the entries in the bible subtracted wrong, or just didn’t know.

So until I get better information, I’m going to assume that he was born in 1828 or later.  Just because it was written in a bible doesn’t make it true.  When it was written and by who are important. Sources are important!

And now that I’ve been cleaning up my sources and I’m about half done with this line, well, it is a lot faster to write a blog post.  More to come on the marriage register.

Footnotes

1. Amherst County, Virginia, “Register of marriages, Amherst County, Virginia, 1763-1853,” index and images, Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, p. 408, entry for Jeremiah Gillaspie and Mary E Gillespie, bond date 21 Nov 1848; FHL microfilm 30273. Parents or Guardian of Husband: Talton Gillaspie; Security and Witnesses: James Gillaspie; J Powell Jr; Richd Waugh.
2. Amherst County, Virginia, “Register of marriages, Amherst County, Virginia, 1763-1853”, index and images, Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, p. 391, entry for Rodk Waugh and Editha Ann Gillaspie, bond date 28 Mar 1845; FHL microfilm 30273. Security and Witnesses: Taillor A Gillaspie (most likely Tarlton).
3. Gillespie Family Bibile, The Holy Bible, (New York, American Bible Society, 1857), “Family Records, Births”, p840; privately held by Anne Gillespie Mitchell, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] California, 2012. The sons of Tarlton and Mahala Gillespie are listed with their birth dates; it appears that they were all written at one time and are date April 20 1860.

Returned not used: How I Almost Wasn’t

Wyatt Paul GILLESPIE was born at the end of the Civil War; his wife to be, Laura Cecile DONALD was born 11 years later.  He grew up during Reconstruction and they lived their married life in Lexington, Virginia in the Jim Crow south. In 1907, for $400, they bought a home at 108 Houston Street from which you could see Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery and they were buried there, Wyatt in 1941 and Laura in 1964.

My father’s paternal grandparents were married on January 24th, 1894 in Lexington, Virginia.

Wyatt was 28, single, born in Amherst County, Virginia, son of Jerry (Jeremiah) and Mary E GILLESPIE. (Jeremiah and Mary E were first cousins. My family tree twists twice.  Don’t judge. 1)

Laura was 17, single, born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, daughter of James Calvin DONALD and Elizabeth WALLACE.2

Two people, single, get married and lived, happily or some variation of that, ever after. But, and isn’t there always a but, those who are truly experienced in the art of genealogy know to do an exhaustive search to find the entire story.  Wyatt actually has two marriage licenses.  One was used, one was not.

The mystery of Lillian M Hatcher

On January 16, 1893, in Buena Vista, Virginia which is an independent city in Virginia right outside of Lexington, Wyatt and Lillian M Hatcher, ages 27 and 21, respectively, he born in Amherst Co, she born in Bedford Co., applied for a marriage license.  It is marked as being returned on January 16, 1893.   But way over there on the right hand side of the page, it states “Returned not used.”  Why?  I will probably never know.3

Marriage application for Wyatt Gillespie and Lillian Hatcher; Returned not used.

Lillian gets married on November 7, 1898 in Bedford County, Virginia to Paul G Tankersley who was a widower. 4 So there was no tragic accident that prevented Lillian from marrying Wyatt. Why they didn’t marry is probably a mystery for the ages.

But what I do know is this, if Wyatt had married Lillian, he wouldn’t have married Laura. And then there would not have been a Gilbert Gillespie to marry Ann Feazell and my father would not have been born. And I would not be.

So whatever happened, I have to say I’m glad it did. And now we know another forgotten story.

Footnotes

1. Eva Gillespie, daughter of Wyatt Paul and Laura Cecile Donald Gillespie, deceased, interview by Gilbert Gillespie, 2000; notes privately held by Anne Gillespie [address withheld], California, 2009.
2. Rockbridge County, Virginia, page 364, line 10 (1894), Wyatt Paul Gillespie, Laura Cecile Donald; Virginia Department of Health, Richmond.
3. Buena Vista, Virginia, Register of Marriages (1939), p. 6-A (penned), Wyatt P Gillespie; “Marriage register v. 1-2 1854-1909”, FHL, microfilm 30597.
4. “Virginia Marriages, 1785-1940,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XRJ1-GG4 : accessed 14 June 2012), Lillie Maude Hatcher, 1898.