My name is Hubert Thomas Chandler and you can find information about me at Family Tree Makers Genealogy Site: Home Pages - http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/c/h/a/Hubert-T-Chandler/ There has been a lot of traffic on the [email protected] address in recent days, so I thought I would ask again about Thompson Chandler. Thompson Chandler was born February 22, 1811 and died December 28, 1877 in Kanawha County, W. Va. He married Margaret Smith July 25, in Giles County, VA (she was born March 31, 1809). A copy of his marriage certificate is available, but does not show either of their parents. The bondsman was Joel Sartain and the minister was Elijah Beller. Almost everything is known about where Thompson lived (after his marriage) and who were his descendants. At this time, the Thompson Chandler portion of my data base has over 500 names to include spouses. One of my cousins was an avid genealogist and much of the information she passed on was gathered without the aid of a computer. She is now over 80 and has not researched in the past 10 - 15 years. Computer research has been invaluable since I took up the hobby in April. I have made many advances in other family lines for both my family and my wife's family, but no luck with Thompson Chandler. I have hired a genealogist from Franklin County (near Giles Co.) to help research local libraries and a lot of Chandler information has been uncovered, but no Thompson - YET. Even negative information is helpful and I feel like I may be getting closer. I recently joined the Chandler Family Association. They have an indexed file of over 60,000 descendants of John Chandler of 1610 Jamestown, but no Thompson listed. I am sure their files will be of great help once I discover Thompson and Margaret's parents. If you have read this far in what has to be a lengthy message, stick with me for seven more paragraphs and I will tell you what I know about Thompson's possible ancestors at this point in time. Perhaps you have some related information or can make a suggestion for a research direction. The first information I have on Thompson is the marriage data listed above. One of his sons, Ransom Kiles Chandler, left a family bible with all the children's names and birth dates and it includes Thompson and Margaret's birth and marriage data. No birth place or parents are listed for either. Many have assumed that he was born in Giles Co. (some have speculated on a nearby counties of Franklin and Monroe). Thompson appears in the 1840 Giles Co. census, but only one Chandler appears before this (1830 Giles - Moses Chandler, b. 1805) who was close to Thompson's age. Moses has been researched and he appears to be a child of Jesse and Sally Chandler of nearby Franklin Co. Research has not shown a connection, but I would be surprised if Moses was not a cousin. There are a number of Chandlers in this western area of VA (Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountain area) and a search of computer census records show a number of Chandlers in the nearby NC area. The individuals mentioned (this area) date from 1790 and before. Complicating research is the fact that the VA 1790, 1800 and parts of the 1810 census records were destroyed in the war of 1812. Although there is some reconstruction of the census records from tax data, etc., they are not complete. There were Chandlers listed in census and marriage and tax documents for the area of Halifax, Orange, Franklin and Rockbridge Counties prior to 1800 which may eventually connect to Thompson. I found that in that area, there were only 4 Chandlers listed in 1810. Recently, I become aware that I had ignored a possibility. There was a Polly Chandler listed in the 1810 Boutetourt County VA census. What I did not know, was that at that time Botetourt County was contiguous with Giles Co. - now there is a Craig Co. between them. At first glance, I did not think she was a possibility since she was single and lived two counties away (I thought) - i.e., Craig Co. did not exist in the time of Thompson's birth. Polly Chandler was the only Chandler head of household in Botetourt in 1810, a year before Thompson's birth. Does this mean that Polly could not be Thompson's mother? Perhaps. Polly Chandler was listed as a head of household. (census listing was 20100-10110-00). I had a very difficult time finding an initial connection to Polly Chandler (did not know maiden name) in other documents of that area and time. I finally started checking the computer for all marriage records for women with the first name Polly and married to a Chandler near that time and place. I found a few candidates some distance away, but did find one close by. A Polly Darst married a John Chandler July 14, 1802 in Rockbridge Co. which is the county on Botetourt's east. I surmised that this is the same Polly and that John died before the 1810 census. The 1810 census shows her with two boys and one girl under 10. This could not have been Thompson unless we have his birth year (1811) wrong, and that is a possibility. However, the census shows one female 26-45 (probably Polly) and one male and one female between 16-26 in her household. I wonder if this may have been another Chandler couple living with Polly. If so, they might have been Thompson's parents. Another possibility (maybe remote) was that Polly became pregnant in the summer of 1810 and then John died, the census was taken and Thompson was born in February of 1811. Of interest only, I found a Polly Chandler's marriage to James Hopkins in Rockbridge Co. Nov. 17, 1817. I would guess this was Polly's second marriage. Her father appears to be a Benjamin Darst. It has been suggested that the name Thompson was his mother's family name, since it does not appear anywhere in Chandler records before this time. A clue to be followed - there were a number of Thompson families in Rockbridge Co. at this point in time. Anybody out there want to help me play detective? Genealogy is fun. Tom Chandler