About two years ago I found an abstract of the death of H. Costly in the Washington Post. I really didn't know how to retrieve the death certificate in order to get an approximate date of the obituary. It was so complicated because Washington is the national city and I didn't know how it dealt with death records since it is a federal city.

Through sheer determination I secured the death record and wrote the Washington to request the obituary. After receiving the obituary I used the Internet to try to locate any remaining living relatives. I found one. She lived in Washington. I sent a letter explaining what I was doing and ask if she had any information. I didn't hear from her so I decided to call.

Someone, perhaps a care-giver, answered the phone and said she would give her the message. I didn't hear from her. I wondered if I had crossed some sort line? I was hoping that she could help me fill in some of the questions I have about that part of the family which moved from Ohio to Maryland.

That was about two years ago. Today, 19 October, 2008, I received a call from one of the relatives of the woman I wanted to speak with in Washington. I was so excited and learned that two years of patience paid off. They say they have information they want to share and I am so excited.

In my continued diligence searching (from quite a distance) for the GOINS/GOING connection in and between Albemarle and Louisa Counties in Virginia, I wrote the Louisa County Historical Society to ask about Agnes of Louisa who has been suggested to be Michael of Albemarle's grandmother. I believe I found this on the Louisa Historical Society page:

Goin, Agnes --- Legal Note 11/2/32 11/2/33 11/2/34
Goin, Amis --- Legal Note 11/1/42 11/1/44
Going, Becky Ailstock --- V26:43
Going, James --- V26:43
Going, Jenny --- V26:43
Going, Jesse --- V26:43
Going, Moses --- V22:14
Going, Moses --- Census 5/1/20
Going, Sherwood --- Rev. Soldier 8/32
Goings, Moses --- V26:48

I received this reply from the Louisa Historical Society:

"The references in Vol 11 are from abstracts of a law order records

Vol 26- from an article "Last Will & Testament of Michael Ailstock"

Michael Jr. was head of a household of four free"blacks" in the Commonwealth Census of 1782 for Louisa, which counted women and children. In 1799 he made surety in Albemarle for Jenny and Becky Ailstock, which young ladies married the Going brothers, Jesse and James respectively, in December of that year. As no other father is named on the record, the best guess is that these were daughters of Michael Jr. born before 1782.

Vol 26, p 48 "Michael sold his farm (which was an economically marginal operation) to Moses Goings."

Where to go with this information I don't know? There looks like some sort of connection. The Michael GOIN/GOINGS I am looking for has an "A" as a middlename. I am really guessing when I say that the middlename could have been Ailstock? It looks like the GOINS/GOING family and the Ailstocks of Louisa County family became united through marriage and moved to Albemarle County as the wives and their husbands show up in records for Albemarle. One of the men in the family was Michael Ailstock. He was the grandfather of Betsy and Jenny Ailstock. Could Michael GOINS/GOING possibly received his name from this person? There was a Michael, Jr. and so I am guessing they wanted to keep the name going in the family.