Brick Walls

All who do genealogical research eventually reach the point where they think they can go no farther in their research. I've reached that point, called a brick wall, in at least a couple of my family lines.

One of my ggg-grandfathers, Elias Todd, Sr., is a good example of a brick wall. I cannot find any information about the parents of Elias. According to U.S. Census information, he was born in Virginia in 1807 and died in Virginia, probably the Wythe District of Elizabeth City County, sometime in 1884. I don't know if he had any siblings, and I haven't been able to find any birth record or death record. Family legend has it that he was a "sea captain" before he became a farmer and was possibly related to the Todd family from Smithfield, VA. I have a lot more information about Elias that I will put in a future post.

Another brick wall is one of my great-grandfathers, Austin W. Leitch. He was born in 1877 in Augusta County, VA and died sometime in 1954. My grandmother never talked about her father, other than to say he divorced her mother when she was a teenager and later remarried. I have a picture of him with his second wife that has the date 1940 written on the back. I've been able to trace him through the 1920 U.S. Census in Warwick County, VA, but have been unable to find him in the 1930 U.S. Census. I haven't done an exhaustive search yet, just the indexes on Footnote.com, HeritageQuest Online, and Ancestry.com. One thing that makes this brick wall even more difficult is that family legend has it that he changed his surname when he remarried to the surname of his new wife. I'll put more information about Austin in a future post also.

I've tried some of the usual approaches to get around these brick walls - variations on spelling the surname, looking at the records of family members and neighbors, searching less obvious records like tax records - but so far, no luck. I don't plan to stop trying anytime soon, though!