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.

Virginia Is For Me

Nearly all of my ancestors - more than 99% that I've found so far - come from Virginia. I have one line in my family from Pennsylvania, and although I have researched this line, I've concentrated on Virginia. I was born in Virginia, in fact, and most of my relatives live there. Of me and my three brothers, however, only one still lives in Virginia. I and one brother live in Florida, while my other brother lives in Tennessee. So, we're all pretty much Southern to the core!

I've traced several family lines back to 18th century Virginia, but in most cases have not gone back far enough to find those ancestors who braved the extreme conditions and traveled to the New World. I hope to eventually get to that point, but records get more sparse the further back you go, and I'm not sure the information is there.

When I started doing genealogical research in the mid-80's, I was living in northern Virginia and was fortunate enough to be able to take full advantage of the National Archives and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. I had a researcher card at the Archives and spent many hours there going through the microfilm reels. I even requested and reviewed additional material for things like Civil War records. After moving to Florida, I used the resources of the nearest LDS Family History Center to continue my research. It seemed so much slower than viewing the records at the Archives - having to place orders for microfiche and waiting weeks for the fiche to arrive. I was able to continue doing some research, but in the mid-90's I pretty much stopped and concentrated on other things.

A few years ago, the genealogy bug bit again. Online sources were becoming more available, in fact, I found out my local library had access to HeritageQuest Online, and even better, I could access it from home! I got an iPod for Christmas one year and discovered the world of genealogical podcasts, from great experts such as the Genealogy Guys. The Genealogy Guys podcasts really got me going again in my research; it was as if all of the sudden I had a lot of catching up to do and I couldn't wait to get started!

I've worked for an electronics communications company here in central Florida for over 30 years. Some weeks I have time to work on genealogical pursuits, other weeks (the worse weeks) I don't have time. With the economy the way it is now, I'll be working for a few more years before retirement comes along. Until then, I hope to continue this research...but you can guess what I'll be doing more of when I retire!