The Leitch Family in Augusta County, VA

One of the brick walls I mentioned in my first post is my maternal grandmother's father, Austin W. Leitch...at least, I think that's his name. You see, in the documents where I've found records for Austin, he uses several different names. In the 1880, 1900 and 1920 U.S. Censuses, for example, his name was listed as "Austin W. Leitch". In the 1910 census, it was "Auston W. Leitch". His World War I draft registration states his name as "Auston Wilford Leitch", and his marriage record that I found years ago (and forgot to include the source citation) had his name as "Williamsford Austin Leitch". To top it all off, when he married his second wife sometime in the 1920's or 30's, he supposedly changed his name to the maiden name of his new wife. I say "supposedly" because it is a family rumor told by my grandmother, who refused to ever talk much about him. He and her mother divorced when she was a teenager.

Austin's not alone in being difficult to find information about. I've tried to find clues to where he was by looking up his siblings - 4 sisters and 2 brothers - in the U.S. censuses. Other than one brother, I have not found any record for any of his siblings in any census. I know his parents died when he was a teenager in 1893 from typhoid fever (another undocumented source) and that supposedly an older brother took care of the surviving family for a few years - information from a distant cousin in the Leitch line years ago. I can understand not finding the sisters in the censuses, particularly if they married and changed their names. But, the older brother - the one who took care of his brothers and sisters after their parents' death - seems to have disappeared as well.

Recently, I started corresponding with Lee, a friend of one of Austin's grandchildren now living in Michigan. I heard from Lee when he replied to a post I had put in the Leitch mailing list on Rootsweb back in 2002. Lee has found a couple of possible leads. Austin's grandson also doesn't remember if Austin changed his name or when he remarried, but he did remember a family tale that Austin moved with his second wife to Lynchburg, VA to start an orphanage. My grandmother's side of the family, as far as I know, had never heard that rumor. But, at least it's a new place to start looking. Also, Lee has been contacting another of Austin's grandchildren to see if she remembers anything about her grandfather. Hopefully, some new information or leads will come out of that.

One of the Geanealogy Guys, Drew Smith, offered to help out with finding more information about Austin. Drew found his World War I draft registration that I mentioned above with the new name variant. Drew also suggested I contact the Virginia Vital Records office and obtain a copy of Austin's birth certificate. I sent in the form with $12 and heard back after 6 weeks that they could find no birth record for Austin in the 1867-1879 time range.

My next steps will be to try and locate the source for the unusual name on the marriage certificate, and search Google Books to see if there are any Augusta County books that might help. Hopefully, Lee's interviewing of Austin's two grandchildren that he is contact with will yield some interesting information.

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!