2009 Change Log

5 Jan 2010I did not do the best job keeping the Change Log up to date these last few months and as a result several of you sent me information that is included in this update but not listed below. I apologize - the last few months were hectic!

Thank you to Martha Keys for an obit for Martha Belle Edmondson, additional information on Louise (Keys) Hickok, and an obituary for Andrew Edmondson Keys.
Added additional descriptive information for Clinton Powell Anderson and his brothers Edward, Isaac and George from their WWI draft registration forms. Added burial location for Charles Rufus Barnes and his brother James.

Updated the "Found" and "Not Found" files for Jack Hockett's 1850 Washington Co. census project. If you have not carefully looked over this page, please do so.
Added additional data from the research of Tom Colley for: Andrew G. Blankenbeckler, David M. Campbell, Alfred Moore Carter (identified first wife), Rachel B. Clark (cause of death), Richard N. Anderson (wife's name), William R. Anderson (cause of death), Callie I. (Maiden) Crabtree (date of death), Nancy (Smith) Davis (alternate date of death).
Added 3 new slide shows to the Washington Co. page:
1. Fall photos (thank you Don Smith, Martha Keys and Katherine Clark)
2. Formation of Washington Co. (a series of small maps showing how the county boundaries changed)
3. Glade Spring Presbyterian Church (photos of the recent windstorm damage)

With help from Carolyn Ryburn I added the William Ryburn home to the Washington Co. homes map. And with assistance from Bob Ford a map showing the size and location of William's land was added to his homepage.
Added a page titled Draper Manuscript to the Scrapbook Section. At present there are transcriptions of 5 items pertaining to individuals from Washington County; more will be added as I find the time to transcribe them (or as anyone else contributes transcriptions).

Created a page for Moore Cemetery under the Washington Co. page. Ric Sheets visited the cemetery and photographed over 20 of the old stones. As an aside, Ric's efforts these last two years to photograph the old stones behind Glade Spring Presbyterian Church may prove to have been especially fortunate as some of the stones were damaged in the recent wind storm.
I had originally entered infant Clark as "Infant son Clark" but on further review of his headstone, I dropped the "son" (added close up view of stone to his page and Old Glade Spring Cemetery page). Located date and location of marriage for Madison Beattie and Martha A. Cunningham. Added, thanks to the Washington Co. death register research of Tom Colley, a previously unidentified infant to the family of Wiley Carmack and Hannah Eliza (Carmack) Carmack.

Removed May Virginia (Ryburn) O'Brien, her husband and children from the "What happened to?" list thanks to the research of Roger Ryburn. Their pages now contain updated data. Added headstone photo of Isabella (Breckenridge) Clark to her page; also added photo showing the location of her stone relative to that of her husband, James Clark. Thanks to Carol Lockas and Ric Sheets for their work on this project.
Carolyn Ryburn shared a list of Robert Buchanan and Nancy Beattie's children written by Mary Elizabeth Beattie Edmondson (list confirm's Nancy's middle name as Dysart). It also provides the full names and dates of birth for the children of William Bourn Dickenson and Mary E.B. Edmondson. In addition, she shared a list of the children of Col. Wm Edmondson believed to have been copied from his Bible. I will scan this as soon as I figure out why my scanner is not working.

Posted transcript of 1826 letter from Josiah Beattie (son of William Beattie) to his brother Samuel to both the Scrapbook Text page and the Any Beattie page.
Added map showing the approximate location of land owned by William Moore. Thanks to Roger Ryburn for a new photo of Allice Gertrude (Ryburn) Erwin.

Also added photo of memorial headstone for Noah Lewis Maiden and his wife Emma, erected by the teachers of Barry Co., MO. I'd like to extend a particular thank you to Phyllis Long who brought this stone to my attention and who during a follow up email exchange about New York research solved the mystery of what happened to my long "lost" great grandfather.
11 Oct 2009Added an Any Beattie page to the Surname Notes section of the website. Over the last several months Mike McPharlin and I, with an assist from Tyler Beattie, have transcribed the Beattie related contents of the Redmond and Mary S. Cole Collection. Please visit the table of contents to see what these records are all about. I have also digitized the contents of the Dysart and Edmiston/Edmondson folders. If anyone is interested in transcribing a portion of those records please contact me.
Thank you too Carol Lockas for contributing Clark and Montgomery photos from Rock Spring Cemetery. They include headstone photos for the children of James Peter Clark and Ann Eliza (Blunt) Clark; also photos of replacement stones for Richard Montgomery, Elizabeth (McCall) Montgomery and several of their children.
Added more great photos: Carolyn Ryburn contributed photos of Mattie May (Gookin) Dunn and of Emma Leta Dunn. She also included a photo of Carter White Ryburn and Emma later in life. And courtesy of the Washington County Historical Society I've added photos of Arthur Henderson Byars and his wife Mary Jane Edmondson (Ryburn) Dorsey Byars.
Added page for Thomas McConnell. Added narrative pages for all the children of John Lowry Glenn Edmondson and his wife Margaret Jane Beaty (Buchanan) Edmondson. Thank you to Mr. Paul Edmondson for his assistance with this family and for sharing the research of his father, William Brockway Edmondson.
Chief Warrant Officer Edward Fox, USN and his mother Anna (Arnold) Fox shared additional information on the children of Ryburn Buchanan Clark and his wife, Caddie Susan Irene Kid. This included a photo of the couple's twin daughters (Nannie Lillian Clark and Annie Clark). They also shared that Nannie was herself the grandmother of twins (living). These two young ladies are 5th great granddaughters of John Buchanan and Ann Ryburn. There are now 18 sets, or 36 documented twins among John and Ann's descendants. I'm sure there are more.
Thank you to Roger Ryburn and his wife for locating the marriage dates for Patrick Ryburn and Mittie A. Nunley as well as the marriage data for 3 of their 4 daughters (which removes 3 names from the "What Happened To?" list); they also identified the marriage dates for William Armstrong Ryburn and Louise Sturgeon; and for John David George Ryburn and Phoebe Emmaline (Larimer) Ryburn.
Clarified the burial location of William Clark and Harriet Shugart; also Lilburn Logan Clark. Many thanks to Joann Tortarolo who contributed this research. She has researched this family extensively; more of her work will be added in the near future. At present I have updated the pages for Rebecca Mary (Clark) Roe and Isabel Jane Clark.

Added photos of Dr. William Logan Dunn, Harry Buchanan Dunn and his wife Mattie May Gookin; also one of Mattie later in life; and one of their son Thomas Edmiston Dunn II; the above shared by Ray Dunn via his daughter-in-law Jennie Dunn.
28 Jul 2009Added 2 files to the 1850 Washington Co. Census Surname Project page containing 8 years worth of research conducted by Jack Hockett with Tom Colley and others. These files contain identifying information on over 600 females whose maiden names were not previously known. This file is in addition to the previously shared data on those females whose surnames remain to be solved.
Expanded the number of "house" narrative pages to include data and photos for 2 additional homes gifted by Col. William Byars to his sons: Ft. Kilmackronen and Woodburn; also for Morningside built by Madison Beattie on land settled by his grandfather, John Beattie. Also for the Robert Edmondson home built on land originally owned by Margaret (Buchanan) Edmiston and for the Samuel Dunn home (also built on part of the same tract). All of these pages are linked to the Washington County Homes, Land and Buildings page. Note: I redesigned the Cave Springs and "Second" Brook Hall pages so that the embedded images now serve as links to full size photos.

I would especially like to thank Carolyn Ryburn for her research assistance on all of the house pages; also Steven Mark for information and wonderful photos of the Keys family (see pages for Samuel William Keys and descendants; also the Scrapbook - Group Photo page) and for information and photos for the Woodburn page. In particular, I encourage you to read the pages about Woodburn's hidden "treasure" - they are linked at the bottom of the Woodburn house page. Thanks also to the family of Ray Thomas Dunn for photos and additional information.
Added a photo of Col. William Byars to his page. Thank you to Carolyn Ryburn, Troy Taylor and Robert Vejnar (Emory and Henry College Archivist) for facilitating this addition. Added narrative pages for 3 of Col Byars children: Eliza (Byars) McEwen, William B. Byars and Amanda Jane (Byars) Ernest. Added alternative date of death from the 1860 Federal Census Mortality Schedule for David Larimer, Ann Larimer and Margaret A. Larimer; clarified the date and cause of death for Mary Fullen Moore and James Campbell Larimer from the 1880 mortality schedule. Identified the last of William Buchanan and Mary (Perkins) Buchanan's 3 children who died young as Willie Perkins Buchanan.
Removed spouses from the Chart pages. This makes the charts less cluttered and removes back links to the charts from spouse pages (eg. previously there might be a link on John Jones page to a chart titled "Descendants of Robert Smith" but John Jones really wasn't a descendant of Robert Smith; he was the spouse of the descendant).
Tom Colley located the death entry for Mary Ann Porter (Buchanan) Snodgrass in the Washington County death register. He also identified James N. Clark as a likely additional child of James Clark and Ann Eliza (Campbell) Clark. Identified Nancy Rebecca Lester as the wife of William J. Clark; added their children from census records and removed William from the "What Happened To?" list. I was also able (again thanks to Tom C.) to add cause of death data for Martha (Orr) Ryburn Lea, Charles Porterfield, Joanna (Buchanan) Buchanan, Jane Beattie (Clark) Smyth and Sarah Elizabeth "Betty" Shugart. In addition, his ongoing research into the Washington County Death Registers (viewed as Library of Virginia microfilm reel #30) identified the existance of a child for Mary Jane Edmondson (Ryburn) Dorsey Byars and her first husband, John Dorsey; also a child for Mary Ann Stewart and her first husband Andrew J. Richards. Also a correction: several well known books state that Hannah (Gray) Carmack died in 1866, however she was identified on the 1878 death register as well as the 1870 census.
Added pages with photos for Fredonia Elizabeth (Wedding) Wilson Mahaffey and her daughter Lewie Edith Wilson. The latter photo also includes Elizabeth Keppler, second wife of Fredonia's father, John Wesley Wedding. I thought the photo of Elizabeth was so wonderful I also added it to the Scrapbook - Group Photo page. Be sure to click on the camera icon to see the full size image. Thanks to Martha Keys for sharing these.
I have long been perplexed by the inconsistencies in children listed for Robert E.B. Clark and Caledonia McNew over a series of 3 census enumerations. After researching other records, including WW I draft registrations, I have revised the children listed for them.
Ric Sheets photographed over 30 additional stones from Old Glade Spring Cemetery. Many of these will not be readable within a few years. Thank you again, Ric! The stones may be viewed by visiting the personal narratives below and looking for the camera icon on the Exhibit Section towards the bottom of each page. They can also be located by following the cemetery link above and then looking for these names: Peter G. Clark, Peter Cunningham Clark, his wife Sarah M. (Horne) Clark and their son Peter C. Clark Jr.. Also William Beattie Clark and Elizabeth M. H. (Hutton) Cheek; also a cluster including David Campbell Carmack, his wife Sarah Frances Adelaid (Ryburn) Carmack and their daughter Janie D. Carmack (updated photos).
Rics's photographs also include these stones: William Armstrong Clark, Mary Jane Clark, Minerva Harriet Shugart and her father Claiborne Lewis Shugart. Also a 4 sided monument to James Harvey Clark, his wife Sarah Ann (Horne) Clark and two of their children: David B. Clark and Henry Marvin Clark. A separate stone was located and photographed for son Chester L. Clark; also stone photos for Rev. Edward Crawford, Rebecca (Byars) Logan and her husband Robert Logan.
Also a stone for John Harvey Clark. A nearby monument carries the names of his first wife Rosa Miriam (Edmondson) Clark, their son Hastell Clark and their twin daughters Mary Clark and Martha Clark. Other photos include siblings Mary B. McCall, John McCall and William McCall; William Dixon Clark and his wife Nancy Caroline (Williams) Clark; also Charles Beattie Clark, wife Emily V (Clark) Clark and her brother John Montgomery Clark.
Added date of death and burial location for Caledonia McNew; also burial date and location for John Patrick Ryburn.
Added will of Susannah Hayter to her page and to Washington Co. Virginia (Probate Records) page. Corrected the middle name for Samuel William Keys (previously had Wilham). Many thanks to Samuel's great grandson Steven Mark for bringing this to my attention. Added burial location for Martha R. (Buchanan) Zimmerman Keys and for her second husband John Keys; corrected year of death for James Clark Edmondson, thanks to Tom Colley for providing the correct date from the Washington County death register - also for providing the marriage dates for the following: Kenneth Gerald Ryburn, John Clark Ryburn, and Amanda O. Ryburn (which also removes her from the "what happened to" list).
1 Jun 2009No, your eyes are not fooling you. RamblingRoots has spread a little around the middle. As the vast majority of visitors now use a monitor resolution greater than 800 pixels, I widened the site and used the extra space for a brand new Site Map menu item. This gives a quick overview of the site layout.

Another new feature is the Slide Show. Don Smith ventured out on a beautiful spring morning and captured a selection of Washington County vistas. I added a map showing the location where the photos were taken. Be sure to check it out; there is a link on the main page and from the Washington Co. page as well.
Updated the List of "Not Found" Female Surnames on the Washington Co. Virginia (1850 Census Surname Project) page and added a new .pdf file containing Jack Hockett's research notes for these remaining unsolved names. A tip of the hat to Bob Ford and Jenny Dunn who each identified one of the missing maiden names on the previous list. Keep up the good work!
Many thanks to Joella Barbour and Carolyn Ryburn for the memorial article on Robert Buchanan. It is attached to the Scrapbook Text page and also to Robert's page. Anyone who descends from Robert's parents, John Buchanan and Ann Ryburn will find it of interest.
Added photos of Robert Clark Allison and Rebecca Jane (Clark) Allison with thanks to Dr. Fred Allison. Dr. Allison wrote a fascinating book about the life of his father, Fred Allison, Sr., who was a brilliant physicist. Using material from the book I expanded the narratives for all of Robert and Rebecca's children, in particular Fred Allison. The book is dedicated to Dr. Allison's mother Elizabeth (Kelly) Allison, who authored Early Southwest Virginia Families in 1960.
Added page for John Kelly and his wife Elizabeth Buchanan and several of their children; also page for Sarah (Buchanan) Kelly Moore; also page for Abednego Wedding.
Expanded the Buchanan entries by 33 narratives: added a page for Samuel Buchanan and his sons Andrew and Moses; also pages for Moses' son Moses Buchanan and several of his children who did not already have active pages.

Added narrative for Andrew's son Mathew Buchanan and his son William Buchanan and his wife Jane Keys and several of their children who did not have active pages - expanded page for their son Benjamin Keys Buchanan.

Added Ellen M. Clark as a child of John Harvey Clark and Rosa Mirian Clark; also added a cause of death for Ellen's sister Margaret. The 2 girls died of typhoid fever within 2 weeks of each other. Also added a third child for John's second marriage. Added a possible son for William Ryburn Kelly and Susan J. Hawthorne.
Added birth and death dates for Sarah Ann (Buchanan) Mitchel, James Nelson Buchanan; connected Sarah Jane Larimer, daughter of Samuel and Phoebe Larimer, as the wife of Samuel Randolph Buchanan. Sarah's marriage record incorrectly listed her as Mary Jane; hence I had not made the "connection" before.
29 Apr 2009Added a page for Jack Hockett and Tom Colley's Washington Co. Virginia (1850 Census Surname Project). Please visit this page and see if you can contribute!
Located information suggesting Caleb J. Logan had a previously unidentified wife (in addition to the 2 already known for him) and with her a child who died young. Filled in the names of the children of Martha Jane (Bridges) Schupback who died young - with thanks to Betty Bridges Bower for this research. Also added World War I military registration information for several sons of Martha's brother William Green Bridges. Betty also shared several photos.
Thank you to Ralph Beattie for sharing a great photo of Samuel Hays Beattie. And thanks to Bernie Becker for sharing photos of William Beattie and his sons Robert and Madison Beattie. Bernie has a very nice website at: http://home.comcast.net/~site002/Beattie/ dedicated to Fount Beattie, son of Robert and Pauline Beattie. Several folks are working on actively researching the descendants of William Beattie and Mary Allison. Let me know if you are interested.

Carolyn Ryburn spent considerable time researching the body of information available for Brook Hall, the second of Col. William Byars impressive homes to carry the name. With the gracious permission of Dr. and Mrs. Motley, the present owners, I have added a page which includes comparison photos from the turn of the century and the present day. See: Brook Hall.
Since last August, over 4,000 people have found RamblingRoots via Google or other search engines. Sometimes their search parameters land them on a page that is several levels deep in the website hierachy. To help a visitor better understand the page structure I have added a "page path" in the upper right hand corner of some of the deeper pages. You can see an example on this page: Cave Spring.

I also reorganized a few pages (eg. moved Mary Jane Davis Moffett's journal pages to their own subpage under Scrapbook Text and renamed a few pages. This necessitated rewriting the code for abt 50 links. If you find a link that doesn't work please let me know.
Google maps recently introduced new satellite images for Washington County. They are a huge improvement! As a result I have changed the default map selection for the Cemetery Location map (and others) from Microsoft's Virtual Earth to Google. I also added a page of instructions on how to access Google Map's Street View images for Washington County. If you haven't played with this yet be sure to go to Google Maps Street View Directions and give it a try.

Remember that you must allow scripts to run on your computer in order to see the maps, the pop-up pedigree charts or to send me an email from within the website. If your computer is set to not allow scripts you can usually override that for a specific website. After doing so you may need to refresh a page from within your browser in order for the map, etc. to load.
Added child Benjamin C. Logan to Jepthae Logan and Elizabeth Wampler family. Updated the page for James S. Logan and added pages for each of his 7 children. Many thanks to Carolyn Ryburn who visited Edgehill Cemetery and photographed the stone of William Andrew Allison and his wife Elizabeth Goode (Buchanan) Allison. The names and dates on this stone had been misread in High On A Windy Hill so the correct data was greatly appreciated. Visit either of the above pages to view the photo.
Added narrative page for Eleanor (Beattie) White (a daughter of William Beattie and Mary Allison) and for her daughter Ellen A. (White) Stuart. Added narrative page for Elizabeth (Vance) Logan, widow of James Logan, Jr; filled in full dates of birth and death for Jane (Kestner) Campbell.
Removed Logan as a middle name for Dr. Samuel Dunn (thought is often reported as his middle name I could not find evidence of it in actual use).
25 Feb 2009Added narrative page for Abednego Wedding; also for William McCall and his wife Elizabeth (Logan) McCall, as well as for their son John McCall and his wife Rebecca Jane (Edmondson) McCall. William's page includes a link to a map showing the location of his land in Washington County.
Added narrative pages for David Beattie Clark and his wife Mary Ann K. (Shugart) Clark, as well as pages for each of their children; also for Mary Ann's sister Elizabeth Luckett (Shugart) Lane and for David's sister Nancy G. (Clark) Breckenridge; updated the narrative page for Benjamin Keys Buchanan and added or updated pages for each of his 6 children (also for some of their children).
Added a narrative page for Nancy (Stewart) Smyth which includes a discussion of her possible parents. I had previously identified her parents as John Stewart and Rosannah Smyth based on a manuscript on the Smyth family. As there does not seem to be any reliable proof for that assertion I have removed any indication of Nancy's parents pending further research.
Ric Sheets contributed many additional headstone photos from Old Glade Spring Cemetery. They can be viewed by browsing this page: Old Glade Spring Cemetery, or by clicking on the narrative page for the individuals below and then looking for the camera icon in the lower part of the page. Headstone photos were added for Barbara (Talbert) Clark, Bazel Talbert, Mary (Logan) Talbert and Margaret L. Talbert; also in the same area is a large monument that includes the names of Samuel Logan, Bethia (Talbert) Logan and their children Thomas Mc Cullock Logan and Mary Elvira Logan.
Additional stones: Armstrong Beattie; Mary Ann K. (Shugart) Clark; also Peter Clark, his wife Margaret (Montgomery) Clark and their daughter Susan Jane Clark. In addition: John Alexander Clark, Isabella Frances "Fannie" (Smyth) Clark and her infant son Clark; also Martha Ann Clark and Mary Elizabeth (Clark) Clark and her husband James Alex Clark; in addition (identified by location): Isabella Louisa (Fullen) Clark; added narrative page and headstone photo for Emma Eliza Clark, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Smyth) Clark.
And more: Mary E. Clark, Isabella Breckenridge Clark; added narrative page and headstone photo for Catharine (Dixon) Clark; also headstone photos for Catharine's husband Robert Clark and their children James B. Clark and Catharine Orr Clark. And a special thanks to Ric for a new photo of the headstone of my 3rd great grandmother Jane (Ryburn) Davis.
Added narrative page for Moses Hutton which includes an abstracted Chancery case filed after Moses's death. Completed narrative pages for the 16 known children of Moses and his two wives; added narrative for Elizabeth C. (Galliher) Lynch Wilson.
Identified date of death and burial location for William White Allison; also for his granddaughter Maryellen Gardner (whose name had not previously been located).
Added narrative page and will for James Hope. Added pages for Samuel Debusk and his wife Dorcas (McClure) Debusk; also for their sons Samuel and James; expanded page for son David and his wife Sarah Jane Larimer. Also added page for William Dixon Hutton; identified mother of Samuel Logan and added additional information about his life. Expanded the narrative for Lou J. (Maiden) Hutton and added a narrative for her husband.
Added parents of Phebe Dryden Wilson - with thanks to Mary Boggs for the pick-up. Added narrative page for Robert Allison, Pleasant Carmack and his wife Hannah (Gray) Carmack; also their daughter Hannah Eliza Carmack and her husband Wiley Carmack.

Added maiden name for Mary, wife of David Edmondson.
4 Jan 2009Added pages for John Wesley Wedding and his wife Elizabeth Ryburn; also headstone photos (courtesy Martha Keys) for John Wedding and his sister Matilda (Wedding) Edmondson, as well as for Martha's parents, George Graham Keys Jr. and Gladys (James) Keys.

Expanded narrative page for John Beattie and activated page for his grandson Madison Beattie; both pages contain a link to a letter written by Madison in 1880 to the historian Lyman Draper. Madison's page also includes a map link showing the location of Madison's home on land John Beattie sold to Madison's father William Beattie. Also expanded the narrative for Francis Beattie.
Last Edited27 May 2012