My Quest to Find John Jones - part IV - Marriage and More Questions

When the evidence isn't found for an ancestor where we hoped to locate it, a common strategy is to search records in increasingly large concentric circles from the starting point. Therefore, when I couldn't locate information on my Grandfather John Jones in Franklin County, Virginia where he was married, I expanded my search to neighboring counties. 

I spent years looking for John in Franklin County. After all, he was married there - or at least that was the county of the marriage bond - so it seemed logical he lived there. While there are records of a John Jones and other Jones families in Franklin County, the information on those people doesn't correspond to other known facts about John Jones and his immediate family. The will and probate records of those Jones families don't list names of people we believe to have been John's siblings, for example. In addition those Jones families were quite prominent and have had printed family histories written about them which don't reference our Jones family.

To make the research more complicated, that region of Virginia was growing in the time period around 1790 when John and Sarah Sumpter were married. Political boundaries were changing as new counties were formed so the records of neighboring counties have to be checked because a specific place may have been in different counties at different times.

I use maps frequently when researching. It helps me find adjacent locales to consider and keeps me from jumping to incorrect genealogical conclusions that aren't likely because of geographic distance or natural barriers. 

The Family Search Library in Salt Lake City has an extensive map collection. When I research in that library, I use my digital camera to take photos of information from books or maps that may shed light on my research questions, but I usually evaluate the information after I return home. That way I can access as many records as possible during my limited time at the library. 

Montgomery County was adjacent to Franklin County in 1790. In 1831 Floyd County was formed as a wedge between the two counties. Therefore, in my searching of records in counties adjacent to Franklin County, I was looking at Montgomery County which then was on the western border of Franklin County. I took pictures of parts of a map that showed early landowners in the county because one was a John Jones. I didn't (and still don't) know if it referenced my John Jones but thought it worth the photo. It was after I returned home that I noticed something that might be important.

We know that in American pioneer times, migrations of families to new territories were often done with extended families or even neighbors traveling together or joining each other in new lands as circumstances allowed. So another research strategy is to watch for surnames that tie to the ancestor for whom we are searching. 

I need to backtrack a bit here. One of the documents I had received from my grandmother is a copy of the will of John Jones. John died in 1847 in Randolph County, Indiana. 

The blue arrow points to John's signature by "his mark." The yellow points to the names of the witnesses James Simmons, Israel Lorton, and Henry Warrick. (It was by noting the proximity of the names of the witnesses that I was able to ascertain which of three John Joneses listed in the Randolph County, Indiana 1840 census was "mine.")

Now look at this excerpt from the map of early settlers of Montgomery County, Virginia. The names of John Jones and Israel Lorton are highlighted in yellow.

I had photographed only a section of the large map that showed John Jones' name. I hadn't noticed the Israel Lorton listed further west until I was looking at the photos at home. I didn't know the scale of the map nor how close this was to Franklin County either. Had the witness to John's will in 1847 in Indiana been his neighbor decades earlier in Virginia? I couldn't wait to make a return trip to the Family Search Library to pursue this lead. (I have since purchased my own copy of the map.) 

I discovered that Israel Lorton was a Revolutionary War veteran of some renown in the region. He owned other properties in Montgomery county also that don't appear in this excerpt photo. However he had some sort of financial reversals and ended up in jail for unpaid debts. He became ill from his time in the cold unheated jail through a winter and died long before John Jones left Virginia. However, he had a son who was also named Israel Lorton who ended up in Randolph County, Indiana. I believe this son was the witness to John's will. I do not know the exact connection between my John Jones and the Israel Lorton who was in Virginia. I don't know if the families were close acquaintances in Virginia, but John and Israel were at least of good enough acquaintance for John to choose him to be a witness to his will. All this does give some credence to the possibility that my John Jones was in Montgomery County, but it doesn't give definite proof.

The book Marriages in the New River Valley, Virginia: Montgomery, Floyd, Pulaski, and Giles Counties by Therese A Fisher gives additional clues on the John Jones and Sarah Sumpter marriage. It explains that the bond was issued in the county of the bride's residence. Therefore John Jones may not have been living in Franklin County. Sarah's father, however, was a landowner there as well as in Montgomery County where he died in 1806. (Quite a bit is known about George Sumpter which will be discussed in a future blog.) 

Also from the book: "The scarcity of ministers in the New River Valley accounts for the relatively large lapses of time that occasionally occurred between the issuance of the bond and the actual marriage." Ministers went to Montgomery County as itinerants to perform marriages since there were no established churches in the early days of the county because the population was too small and scattered to support churches. In searching marriage bonds over the years, I have noticed that usually the bond is noted within a day or two of the actual marriage. I had wondered about the month gap between the bond date and the marriage date of John's and Sarah's marriage. After performing the marriage, the minister was required by law to report the marriage information to the county clerk of the county where the marriage bond had been issued. Some ministers were more conscientious than others in doing so. I discovered that Randolph Hall, the minister who married John and Sarah, also performed marriages in Montgomery County even though he was associated with the Pigg River church in Franklin County. 

It is a possibility that John and Sarah were not married in Franklin County even though that is the county from which the marriage bond was issued. It is also possible that John was living in the adjacent county of Montgomery. The region was not heavily populated at that time. John and Sarah had to have had some commonality that allowed them to meet and wish to marry - possibly proximity of location at least at some point in time or a common acquaintance who introduced them. This is all circumstantial evidence but it does open the possibility that the search for John Jones might well need to be extended to Montgomery County.

Franklin and Montgomery Counties are in the Blue Ridge Mountain region and the mountains form part of the eastern boundary of present-day Montgomery County. As my research was expanding to include the two counties, I wondered exactly what the topography was. Did the difficulty of mountain travel in pioneer times make the likelihood of a connection between Sarah in Franklin County and John who was possibly in Montgomery county too improbable? Was there anything else to indicate my John Jones may have been in Montgomery County? That is the subject of the next blog post.