Review, Re-Do, and Rethink Todd Ancestry

Starting today I’m beginning a new project: Review, Re-do, and Rethink my Todd ancestry.

In July 1991, I asked the late Mrs. Katherine G. Bushman, a knowledgeable and respected Augusta Co., Virginia Genealogist, to help me with my McFall family.

While digging out information about my McFall line, Mrs. Bushman found my 3^rd Great Grandfather David McFall married Miss Catherine Todd of Augusta County, VA July 28, 1842. The Todd surname was well known to her. Back in 1964, Katherine Bushman accepted the task of finding ‘James H. Todd’ who lived in 1860 Augusta County. She found four James H. Todd’s and no doubt this research resulted in her compilation ‘‘The Todd Family of Mossy Creek, Augusta County, Virginia” compiled in1966. She sent me copies for my branch of the family which I’ll be discussing in Project Review, Re-do, and Rethink.

This became the backbone of my research leading me to 5^th Great Grandfather James Todd Sr. and 4^th Great Grandfather James Todd Jr. My line of descent continues with Miss Catherine Todd, daughter of James Todd Jr. and wife of David McFall.

CATHERINE TODD MARRIED DAVID MCFALL

Review:

File 211, Consent by Catherine Todd for daughter Catharine to marry David

McFall, 7-22-1842; Bond, dated 7-23-1742 [must have meant 1842]; married 7-28-1842 by J. A. Van Lear (Marriage Book 2, page 61, Ministers returns). Also found in Staunton Spectator of August 11, 1842. David McFall died March 22, 1854 (Staunton Spectator of same year)           Source: Katherine G. Bushman’s Research

Re-Do:

Ancestry.com cites July 23, 1842 as the marriage date and states the record was originally published in "Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, 1745-1800; extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County" by Lyman Chalkley. I viewed Volume 1, 2, and 3 online but didn’t find the 1842 marriage.

A marriage date of July 28, 1842 is also cited by Ancestry.com utilizing their Virginia, Select Marriages, 1785-1940 databases. They note their database was originally part of Virginia, Marriages, 1785-1940. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.

Rethink:

I find it odd that Ancestry.com cited Lyman Chalkley’s Chronicles as a source when I couldn’t locate the McFall-Todd marriage in the 3-volume set. Are there more volumes to this work?

Before Catherine married David McFall, her mother was required to give her permission as she was only 19 years old.  I would dearly love to see the consent and bond Mrs. Bushman referred to but couldn’t find any catalog listings for either at familysearch.org or the interlibrary loan service of the Library of VA.  I might be able to view the minister’s returns from the Library of VA. It’s worth pursuing.

I don’t doubt Mrs. Bushman’s findings for a moment and hope I can verify her work with a document or two to add to my Todd collection.