Saturday, June 28, 2014

Goins' and Ailstocks of Virginia

Recently I recovered the obituary for my 1st cousin 3x removed Rev. Elwood R. Goins. it
mentions "one sister, Lillian Webster of Steubenville, Ohio." This little bit of information is
all I had to go on. So I started looking for Lillian Webster's marriage record because Lydia V. Goins, the last time I checked, was married to a man named Norris. I looked through census schedules for Lillian Webster and I can't find her (so  far?). I went to various genealogical sites to look for a possible death record. Aha! There is a death certificate.

This is where it gets complicated. The death certificate has Lillian V. Webster b.
1881 in Mount Pleasant, Ohio d. 20 July, 1948 in Steubenville, Ohio. The birthdate
for Lillian V. Webster on her death certificate is five years different than on her
marriage record but I guess that's okay. The month and day are the same in both
records. I read farther down the death certificate to see who the parents are:
Michael Ailstock and Evangeline Henderson. I was asking myself: did Lillian's
daughter, Gertrude not know her grandfather's surname Goins but knew his middle
name Ailstock? He did die well before she was born. Furthermore, why is her
grandmother's named spelled Evangeline instead Angeline? The maiden name
Henderson checks out. I hope the Steubenville Herald has an obituary for her?

This death certificate just might be the key to finding the connection back to
colonial Virginia. If this "Michael Ailstock" is really Michael Ailstock Goins,
his full name helps me figure out the middle name of his father Michael A. Goins
 who migrated from Virginia. I was never 100% sure that Michael's (the father's)
middle name was Ailstock or Absalom. I have been guessing that is
what it was after reading some records from Louisa County Historical Society
in Virginia where the Ailstocks and Goins' intermarried. Michael A. (the father)
migrated from Virginia to Ohio circa 1835. He appears in an 1828 Order Book
in Albemarle County. He is in the 1840 Guernsey County Census living near a
William Aelstock. Both are from Virginia.

Going back to the Louisa County (reading from Free African American website)
record, it notes that Absalom Ailstock's daughters Becky and Jenny marry two
Goings; Jenny married Jesse Going and Becky may have had a bond to marry
James Going in 1799. I see that Michael Ailstock, who I believe is Becky's uncle
Michael ( and her grandfather's name is Michael too) was the bondsman for her
marriage. Did Becky and James Going name one of their children after her uncle
and grandfather Michael Ailstock or did she use Michael Absalom the combined
names of her father Absalom and  uncle and grandfather Michael for one of her
children? I wonder if this Michael Ailstock or Michael Absalom really exist? Is he
the same person Michael born circa 1805 who is listed in the 1828 Albemarle
County Order book? Michael is enumerated with Sherrod's son Henderson and if
they are related they are cousins but there is no direct line to Sherrod's Goings' family.
I have Sherrod's will and it mentions Henderson but not Michael.

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