Merging Margarets (Margaret J. Ramey Osborne Wheatley)

It's been a while since I have had a chance to work on genealogy, but I hope to ramp up my old pastime this year and get a new website online. I've added quite a few tidbits here and there during the years since my last major update and I think it's time to get the new stuff out there.

This week, though, I had a pressing genealogical matter to attend to. Oddly enough, while Tom and I were in Italy earlier this month, we met a couple with the surname of Wheatley (this was an American couple, not an Italian couple). I mentioned that my great-great grandmother's sister, Margaret J. Ramey, had married a Wheatley, and since this couple was from Maryland, I wondered if there was a connection. Mr. Wheatley said he guessed probably not since he was originally from Wise County, Virginia.

Well faint, and fall over dead. Small world, indeed.

Although he wasn't familiar with my GGG Aunt's husband, John W. Wheatley, the Wheatleys are a relatively small family, so I thought I'd have another look at GGG Aunt Margaret's file and see if I could find out more.

A lot of new information has come online since the last time I worked on her documents, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that she was not the "late bloomer" I had assumed when she married John Wheatley at 38 - she was a widow with four children! And just to make the story even better, I had unknowingly duplicated her in my database. She was the Margaret Ramey ("parents unknown") who married my GG-grandfather Jonathan Corder's double-first cousin, Hiram Osborne, in 1854. How is that for a tangled web?

So in other words, double first cousins (Hiram Osborne and Jonathan Corder) married sisters (Margaret J. Ramey and Emily A. Ramey, daughters of Henry Ramey and Prudence Robinette Ramey).

Hello! "Merge documents!"

Hiram Osborne died in the fall of 1865. Although he was a confederate soldier, it is unclear to me whether his death was war-related since it came several months after the end of the war. Relatively little is known of their four children, Andrew J., Emaline, Winfield and Savannah. Savannah was living with her Ramey grandparents in Gladeville in 1880, and later she married Patrick Wells and had one daughter that I can find. Other than that, I have very little on these double-and-triple cousins of mine. If any of their descendants see this post, please provide what information you can.

The upshot of the pressing genealogical matter was that I got distracted from my original Wheatley mission, but I learned that my GGG Aunt Margaret was left a widow with three small children and an infant during the year the unpleasantness between the states came to a close. She remained a widow for nearly 10 years before remarrying to John W. Wheatley on 19 January 1875 in Wise County.

I will be updating a combined Person Sheet for Margaret J. Ramey Osborne Wheatley with additional details this year.

Ruth Henderson m. David Ramey 1700 Frederick County VA. Or not.

Since I am a Henderson (on my father's side, obviously), I am intrigued by the possibility that I might descend from Hendersons through my maternal line as well.  Years ago I came across a post online that named the wife of David Ramey (s/o James and Elizabeth Ramey) as "Ruth Henderson."  Since much of the other information the poster provided on the Ramey line seemed generally correct, I went with it, making a note to verify the name and connection.  Easier said than done.

The Ruth Henderson in question was supposedly born in about 1750, and married David Ramey in "1770, Frederick County, VA."  I'm reasonably familiar with the inhabitants of 18th century Frederick County, VA and Henderson is not a name that shows up to any great degree, but still, I made a trip to the library to put my hands on a copy of Frederick County, Virginia Marriages 1771-1825 by Eliza Timberlake Davis.  I realize that my method is Old School since you can search and browse the book online using Google, but I'm in a tactile mood.  I realize too that we're looking for a marriage that happened in 1770, but if Hendersons were in Frederick County getting married in 1770, then they were probably still there, getting married in 1771 and years following so I might get some idea of the family group they belong to.

The results weren't encouraging.  Only one entry - 27th May 1788, Mary Henderson to Henry Louder (possibly Souder).  No additional details.  This couple may have died childless because no one seems to be looking for them, and there is almost nothing about them online.  Well, at least there was a Henderson living in Frederick County 18 years after our target date.  Can't rule the Hendersons entirely out of Frederick.

There is supposedly another book that covers 1738-1850 (Frederick County Marriages 1738-1850 by Vogt and Kethley), but the library doesn't seem to have the more comprehensive volume and I can't find it online.  I should go up to the Handley Library in Frederick County, but I don't have time today so I try the next best thing - Ancestry.com.

I try searching for any Ruth Henderson marrying anywhere in Virginia in 1770.  Nothing.  Absolutely nada in Virginia.  I try any Henderson marriage in Virginia in 1770 looking for contemporary Hendersons - bound to find something - and I do.  James Henderson m. Mary Booker in 1767.  These are the Amelia County VA Hendersons.  Gut says "no."  The Genealogists Gut Instinct (GGI) is a powerful -- and frequently fallible-- thing.  I have learned to distrust mine, but still, I move on.


A Mary Henderson m. James Finley in Virginia in 1778, but no county is given.  I do a little more poking around and find that Mary and James were from Augusta County.  That's about as precise as saying they were from "Virginia."  Perhaps less so.  The boundaries of Augusta originally stretched from the Blue Ridge to the Great Lakes to the Mississippi, so it doesn't help us nail much down, but Augusta and Frederick counties were both formed from Orange County in 1738, and part of Augusta later was combined with Frederick, so again, we can't rule out this Augusta County family of Hendersons.  I find a Finley genealogy online and it seems that these Finleys mixed  with Hendersons down through the generations. Capt. James Finley's 1800 will, made in Wythe County VA (where he received land for his revolutionary war service) mentions a nephew, Jonathan Henderson.  Hmmm...this family is moving in the same geographical direction the Rameys (and most of the rest of the colony) moved.  I'll keep them in the hopper and do some more looking.


The internet connection at the library is slow so I decide to go home and keep looking from the comfort of the sofa.  I have Genealogical Attention Deficit Disorder (GADD!) and tend to get easily distracted, heading off on ancestral tangents.  This time I'm going to try to stick to the mystery of Ruth Henderson Ramey until I either solve it or disprove it...Oh look!  There's a squirrel!  I wonder who it's ancestors were...?