This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Dortch Dorch Barefoot Russell Lucas Eaton Pendleton Cobb Martin Martin Bethune Pegues Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/HKB.2ACI/1599 Message Board Post: I am looking for any info on the family of Robert Dortch who settled in Ouachita Parish in West Monroe, La. near Bayou De Siard. Robert Dortch was a member of the Western Star Masonic Lodge 24 in the 1860's. He died near Oxford, Mississippi, on December 4,1869, at age 40. He was born about 1829. He married Mary Bethune Martin, the daughter of John Bethune Martin of Moore County, NC and Nancy Hill Harris of Montgomery County, NC. Robert Dortch and Mary Bethune Martin were married before 1861 in Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi as per LDS Patron Sheets. While in Raleigh at the State Archives, I found a book by Daniel Allan McDonald that said that John Bethune Martin was living with his daughter, Mary Bethune Martin, in Monroe, LA, when he died. The book also stated her husband was "a wealthy planter named Robert Dortch" whose family was from NC. My true quest is to find the location of Robert Dortch's burial and, hopefully, the date of death, will and tombstone of his father-in-law, John Bethune Martin. Any names, dates and places anyone could share on the Dortch Family in Ouchita Parish, LA would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Fredreica [email protected] Notes on the Dortch Family: According to James T. Harris, the children of Robert Dortch and Mary Bethune Dortch were: Dortch, Alexander Martin Birth : 25 May 1852 Death : 21 Jul 1873 Gender: Male Dortch, William Eaton Birth : 24 Jan 1854 Death : 11 Jul 1901 Gender: Male Dortch, John Bethune* Birth : 25 Aug 1862 Gender: Male *John Bethune Dortch married Mary Louis Pegues 30 April 1890. Dortch, Robert Birth : 8 Dec 1864 Death : 1866 Gender: Male Mary Bethune Martin married James Lamme Meigs 23 Dec 1879 in Columbia County, Florida, after the death of Robert Dortch. James L. Meigs was born 25 Feb 1821 or 1827 in Athens, TN. His first wife was Katherine or Catherine Kirkpatrick. I wonder if she married in between these two husbands since Robert Dortch died 10 years before her marriage to James Meigs. I believe she must have moved to Florida to be near her sister, Margaret Harris Martin Finley. According to Hillsborough County, FL 1880 census records for District 61, Precinct 3, pg 12: Meigs, James L. w/m 53 TN TN TN engineer; Mary w/f 47 TN VA TN wife; Dortch, William D. w/m 27 TN VA TN stepson; Meigs, Alexander K. w/m 23 TN TN TN son; (Alexander Kilpatrick Meigs) Meigs, Mildred w/f 15 TN TN TN daughter. (It lists William as not being at home and Alexander as a Machinist.) Note: Two other Meigs sons, Return Jonathan Meigs and James Lamme Meigs were deceased by the 1881 census) Jim Perrin wrote: Robert Dortch, b. 8 Dec. 1829 in NC, is not closely connected with the Dortch family in the Felicianas. I have been studying the Dortch family for almost thirty years, and the ones who came to Feliciana (Spanish West Florida) in the 1790's are my line of this family. By 1981, I had collected enough Dortch information to compile the Dortch Family Reference Book. The information on Robert Dortch is on p. 117. Information on only one of Robert and Mary's children is included, and that is John B. Dortch. As you said Robert was the son of William Eaton Dortch (b. 30 Sept. 1805 in VA.) and Ann Pendleton Cobb, daughter of Rev. John Cobb. William E. Dortch was the son of Noah Dortch (b. 15 March 1781), who married Elizabeth Eaton in 1801. Noah Dortch was the son of Noah and Ann Lucas Dortch. Noah Dortch was the son of David Dortch, who lived in Lunenburg and Mecklenburg counties in VA. B.W. Dortch wrote: John Dortch, who married one Hillica Barefoot in VA around 1715. He had four sons, John, Jr. married but left no family, David, Nathan and William, my line. I think your Robert descended from David + Lucy Russell, through son Noah + Ann Lucas, Noah, Jr. + Elizabeth Eaton, William Eaton Dortch + Ann Pendleton Cobb, Robert Dortch + Mary Bethune Martin and on from there.,