Hello, WikiTree friends
I'm having a productive evening chipping at a brick wall by searching the treasure trove of scanned newspapers hosted online for free by the Library of Virginia here: https://virginiachronicle.com/
The trail of the maternal ancestry of my ggg-grandmother Ella Goddin Sands of Richmond, Virginia, runs to speculation beyond her grandmother Maria Sutton (Lipscombe) Young (also of Richmond, VA). There are online trees asserting Maria's first marriage to Frederick Augustus Winston, who is supposed to be a cousin of Patrick Henry, but I haven't been able to find evidence of the marriage or of Frederick Augustus's parentage or, frankly, his existence.
Maria had 1-3 children with Mr. Winston, who died? and then, in 1832, married Grover M. Young. And they had a child or two who I'm not concerned with.
The next year, Maria's daughter Eliza Winston married the Richmond real estate mogul Wellington Goddin, they are my gggg-grandparents. Now, the Goddins are easy to find in the records and newspapers of the time. And Wellington was a business associate of a Charles H Winston, and named one of his sons "Charles Winston Goddin". So it feels like it should be easy to connect Eliza to her paternal Winston line, but so far I have been stumped.
So this evening I tried working on Maria's immediate family. Again, there are online trees without much support connecting her as a child to a "Nathaniel Claiborne Lipscombe". So I worked on proving that this man existed (he did!) and that he is related in some way to Maria (I think he is!).
The strongest piece of evidence I found was the list of pallbearers at the funeral of his daughter Mrs. Frances James "Fannie" Franklin. Mrs. Franklin was laid to rest by a whole regiment of Goddins, Winstons, and an "N Claiborne Lipscombe." So it would appear that Maria's Goddin and Winston people showed up for the funeral of her sister.
But also I am puzzled that the online trees don't include the younger N C Lipscombe(s), who I believe are a brother of Maria and perhaps then a nephew. A "N C Lipscombe Jr" sells "Merry Oaks", the Hanover property Maria's father is associated with about 3 years before Senior's death in 1847. Junior is all over the local papers advertising his horse-trading business. But I have been unable to find much of anything about him in traditional genealogical sources.
Anyhoodle, I just wanted to share how this wall is coming down. You can see links to the articles I found on the relevant profiles. But I still have questions, maybe you have thoughts or suggestions.
1. How many children did Nathaniel Claiborne Lipscombe of Hanover, Virginia, have?
2. Is the apparent relationship between Fannie and Maria well-supported enough to connect them as siblings and daughters of N C Lipscombe Sr on WikiTree?
3. Was Maria's mother really Maria Bledsoe Sutton, and if so, what evidence can be found of that to support the online trees saying that?
4. How can Maria's marriage to F A. Winston or any Winston be proven?
5. I sure would like to know how are Povalls are related to my people, if possible.
Edit to Add: Searching for this family in the Library of Virginia catalog was extremely productive! Virginia historian R. A. Brock deposited the account books and family papers of the Lipscombe family and their Merry Oaks tavern business with research libraries, and the LVA catalog entries for them provide a brief and tantalizing bio/genealogical sketch of NC Senior AND they confirm that he had a son NC Junior.
Edit2 to Add: And then I hit the jackpot, thanks to a WikiTree-er who cited this book in the sources for Nathaniel's ancestor's profiles. Family historian Dorothy Helmer wrote the book Lipscomb, 300 Years in America in 1979, and a copy has made it to BYU's online library, here: https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/p15999coll9/id/2403 !
Whew. That's what I'm working on. I welcome suggestions and insights. And for all of your brick walls, happy hunting!
