Jeanette i have found thomas and mary in the census.ive even found thomas with his parents champ and esther.and im pretty sure that ive found mary hudson with her dad william hudson in the census.thomas was born in 1838 and mary in 1840.what i can not find is a marriage record or date for thomas hayton and mary hudson.ive looked in smyth county and washington county virginia and they have no such record on them.i can find no one that knows anything about them as far as marriage.they had a son named william and he married ellen johnson in 1888 in johnson county tennessee.ive searched several counties in tennessee thinking maybe thomas and mary could have been married in tennessee also but found nothing yet.in the census of 1880 it list thomas and mary along with a daughter named harrett a and a son william.ive asked several of williams grandkids and they know nothing about their grand dad's sister.these grand kids say their parents never spoke of their grand dad thomas or grand mother mary.im starting to wonder if there is something they are trying to hide in this matter that they dont want me to know.ive found that a lot of the older people dont like to tell stuff that happened back then.i do believe that somebody in the saltville area or some of these great grand kids of thomas know something about this thomas and mary.ive talked to several haytons in the saltville area and they know all kinds of stuff on thomas's brother harvey litchfield hayton but the only thing they know on thomas is that he married mary hudson.i wish there was a index of marriages for the state of virginia that had ever county in it.and the same for all states.i do know that mary died september 1 1892 . and this was reported by husband thomas with no parents given.i can find all kinds of information and marriages on thomas's parents and back and from their son william forward but no marriage on thomas and mary.this is the only link i need to find and prove.any help or ideas on this problem would be very appreciated.thanks for your time . Thanks Paul Pendergrass