Review, Re-Do, and Rethink Todd Ancestry: James Todd, Junior

James Todd, Jun., was most likely born in Virginia about 1785. He married Catherine Siple Sept. 13, 1812, in Augusta County, Virginia. After twenty-two years of marriage and eight children, 4^th Great Grandfather died in 1834.

Review, Re-Do, and Rethink Todd Ancestry:

Lieutenant James Todd, Jun., 93^rd Regiment, War of 1812

Katherine Bushman writes “James Todd, Jr. was the Lieutenant James Todd of the War of 1812” and cites Annals of Augusta County, Virginia From 1726 to 1871, Jos. A. Waddell; page 394 as a source.

Review:

Mrs. Bushman steered me in the right direction once again. I located Joseph A. Wadell’s Augusta County history online in the Google Books collection. About a year after the United States declared War on Great Britain, four Augusta Co., VA companies were called for duty:

            Captain Baldwin’s Company

            Captain Baskin’s Company

            Captain Stuart’s Company

            Lieutenant Todd’s Company

Captain Baldwin and Captain Stuart’s Companies served from July 6, 1813 until Sept. 28, 1813. While Captain Baskin’s and Lieutenant Todd’s Companies also began duty on July 6, 1813, their units were broken up August 16, 1813, and most men enlisted with other groups. 4^th Great Grandfather James Todd Jun. became a Lieutenant with the “Flying Camp” commanded by Col. James McDowell.

Annals of Augusta County, Virginia From 1726 to 1871, Jos. A. Waddell; page 394

Annals of Augusta County, Virginia From 1726 to 1871, Jos. A. Waddell; page 395

Re-Do:

The Library of Virginia has an index to the War of 1812 Pay Rolls on their website for Virginia soldiers appearing in Pay Rolls of Militia Entitled to Land Bounty under the Act of Congress of Sept. 28, 1850, and Muster Rolls of the Virginia Militia in the War of 1812.

I found Lieutenant James Todd listed in the pay rolls on page 40. Great Grandfather James died by the time the Land Bounty Act was created in 1850. Even though he was among those entitled to a land bounty, that doesn’t mean his widow or children applied or received land. Ancestry’s database, U.S. War Bounty Land Warrants, 1789-1858, didn’t contain any Todd kin that I recognized.

Next, I turned to familysearch.org and was pleasantly surprised when I found a database named “United States War of 1812 Service Records, 1812-1815”. Here’s the general index card for Grandfather James Todd. Just as Mr. Waddell stated in his book, Lieutenant Todd became a member of the Flying Camp Militia.

  

Ancestry’s War of 1812 Pension Application Files Index, 1812-1815 produced zero results. That’s not surprising as legislation wasn’t enacted until the 1870’s to provide pensions for surviving soldiers. The earliest pensions were granted to the surviving widow if the soldier died during their term of service. Neither scenario applies to Great Grandfather.

Rethink:

Searching the service, bounty land, or pensions at the National Archives would be expensive.

Some time ago the Federation of Genealogical Societies helped spearhead a digitization project called “Preserve the Pensions, 1812” and raised $3 million. War of 1812 Pensions and Bounty Warrants became available free of charge on Fold3.com for surnames beginning with A through M. The project stalled for quite some time but the Federation of Genealogical Societies reports work is to begin again this month. I think I’ll wait!