Meredith Collins Origin Line Addendum

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Meredith Collins Origin Line Addendum

READ THIS FIRST: where the research stands (23 September 2026; Reed passages revised 27 September 2026)

This block was written after the September 2026 rewrite of the book (Molata, 1st ed., v1.3 rewrite) and its line-by-line source audit. It is the current position. Where anything later in this file disagrees with it, this block wins: the older passages have been corrected in place or marked [Superseded 2026-09-23], and the changelog at the end lists what changed. The master family tree (Collins_Reed_Master_Family_Tree.md) was brought into line on the same day. On 27 September 2026 the Reed passages were brought into line with the Reed investigation (claude/Reed_Family_Investigation_Addendum.md) and the revised master tree (Collins_Reed_Master_Family_Tree-op5.5update.md): the block "James Reed, Mary's father" below gives the current reading, and later passages are corrected in place or marked [Revised 2026-09-27].

The line

Thomas Collins "Molata" (c. 1700 - c. 1770) > John Collins [or Samuel] > Meredith Collins (c. 1760 - 1841) > Jesse Collins (c. 1804 - 1847) = Mary Reed (1804 - c. 1852) > Mary Elizabeth "Polly" Collins (1827 - 1887) = Eli Woodruff Bruner > Mariah Emma Bruner = John Marshall Clifford > Jessie Lorene Clifford = Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr. > Richard Clifford Holbrook = Lucille McMillan > Frances Fairchild Holbrook

Reed side: William Read (c. 1673) [?] > [generations missing] > Hugh Reed Sr. (d. bef. end of 1786, Rowan Co NC) [?] > James Reed/Read (b. c. 1766-75; d. c. 1841, Clay Co KY [or bef. 6 Jan 1845, Morgan Co IN]) > Mary Reed

Meredith's father is still open between two of Thomas's sons, John and Samuel. The book leans to John. Lewis Collins, recorded as John's son, stands beside Meredith on musters, tax lists, and land entries for twenty years (on McDaniel's company list their names are on consecutive lines), and a daughter of Moses Riddle born c. 1740 would be the right age to have married John. Heinegg places most of the New River men under Samuel. A John and a Samuel both took the oath of allegiance with the Riddles in Captain Cox's company in 1777 (Kegley, Militia, p. 51), so these lists don't decide it. The deciding record would be a Montgomery County tithable list of the late 1770s showing a teenage Meredith in somebody's household.
Jesse was Meredith's son by Polly Holloway, not Bradley's. Bradley was about seventeen when Jesse was born, and Jesse fits the run of Polly's children. The chain "Meredith > Bradley > Jesse" in older passages (and in some online trees) is withdrawn. Bradley and Jesse were half-brothers.
Thomas's wife was not a daughter of Moses Riddle. Moses was the only taxable man in his 1755 household, and his son John Riddle was born c. 1750 (pension S9069), so Moses was born c. 1715-25, too young to be the father of the woman who bore Thomas's sons in the 1720s and 1730s. The old tradition has the right families and the wrong generation: the Riddle link most likely belongs to a daughter of Moses, born c. 1740, marrying one of Thomas's younger sons, possibly Meredith's father.

Meredith's wives and children (current reading)

First wife, unnamed in every record, m. c. 1782-85: Bradley (b. 1787, on the North Carolina side of the mountains) and probably a daughter (the female aged 16-25 in the 1810 household).
Polly (Margaret?) Holloway, b. c. 1780, m. c. 1799 (Eula Conley's DAR application, national no. 562294), d. bef. 1840, probably c. 1812: Archibald (c. 1800), James, Jesse (c. 1804; strong evidence, no birth record), William (13 Apr 1806, Russell Co VA), Hiram (c. 1804-06). Edward "Ned," John W., and Reuben rest on the Conley list alone [?].
Milly Johnson, his companion in later life: a son b. c. 1818, "aged about eleven" when the Pike County court bound him out in June 1829 (summons March 1829).

Cautions: the DAR's Bradley-line papers name Polly as Bradley's mother, which can't be right, since she was about seven in 1787. In the DAR GRS listing, "BRADLEY, spouse [1] X X" is Bradley's own first wife, not Meredith's. The FamilySearch profile "Margaret Holloway 1765-1812" came in with the demolished Hampshire graft; don't use it. Older passages giving Polly's marriage as c. 1790-95 or her birth as c. 1765 are superseded.

Bradley: married at least four times, to Jane Ray in 1817 (Conley list only; county uncertain, given as Clay in the main file and Floyd in the addendum; not yet seen in a register), and in Clay County to Catherine Barney (1831), Betsy Griffin (1833), and Elizabeth Lunsford (1836); a daughter, Nancy (c. 1822), with Sarah Reid (Nancy Williams's 1909 Iowa death certificate). West in 1839 (by flatboat, per Eula Conley); 1840 in Chariton Co, Missouri (the census page's margin; "Callaway" was an indexing slip); Appanoose Co, Iowa, 1844; 1850 in son Andrew's household, Center Township, counted white (sheet dated 29 Nov 1850).

The Revolution and the militia records

1776: the family's record (Blackburn, Conley) has Meredith enlisting at sixteen with George, David, and Lewis. No record gives the place. Montgomery County wasn't formed until 1777 and Christiansburg wasn't founded until 1792, so "enlisted at Christiansburg, Montgomery County" in older notes is an anachronism; drop it. Lewis was living in South Carolina that year and served with the South Carolina forces; John Riddle went with the Virginians to the Long Island of the Holston (Christian's campaign) under Capt. John Cox.
Kegley, Militia of Montgomery County, Virginia, 1777-1790 (Dublin, Va., 1975; FamilySearch Digital Library, book 1033071; pages viewed by the user 23 Sept 2026):
- pp. 23-24 (images 34-35), "A List of Capt. James McDaniell Company": "Mendaby Collens" (Meredith) and "Lewies Collens" on consecutive lines; David Collens; George Collens; a deleted "---- Collens"; Benjamin Sexton; Charles Sexton (deleted on p. 23, re-entered on p. 24); John Sexton; James Cox. No date on the page. Kegley's note: "This list is very poorly spelled, and very difficult to read. Many names were deleted and are impossible to decipher." This is the page the DAR cites for Meredith's service. There are no Riddles on it, no William Bowlin, and no Elisha, Samuel, or John Collins.
- p. 50 (image 61), Kegley's introduction to the oath lists: Montgomery County kept lists of the men who took the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth, 1777-1779 (originals at the courthouse in Christiansburg). One was kept by James McCorkle, assigned "to record the names of the men who swore allegiance to the State from several companies"; its entries begin 30 September 1777, and McCorkle signed and dated it 5 December 1777. At its end he listed the refusers: "Those that refused in Capt. Ozburns Compy. Joseph Caldwell, Robert Ozburn, James Sturgill, an old innofencive Ignorant man, Elisha Collins, Coxes Compy. Solomon Reddick, Do. (Ditto), William Reddick, Do." So Elisha's refusal is now seen in Kegley: he refused before McCorkle as a man of Cox's company (the Collins Timeline's "30 Sept 1777" is the list's opening date). The two Reddicks are probably a different family, but note that a William Reddick refused in the same company where a "William Ridel" swore.
- p. 51 (image 62), McCorkle's oath list itself. Under "Capt. Coxs Compy.": David Cox, "Jno. (his mark) Riddle," John Cox, James McDaniell (swearing as one of Cox's men, before he had a company of his own), Geo. Reves, Daniel and Jno. Blevins, "William Ridel," Harman and Samwill Cox, "Jno. Collens," and "Samuel Collens"; then men "of Thompson's Compy.," "of Draper's Co.," "of Stephens Co.," "a traveller," one from "Surry Co., Car.," and "Peter Hutcheson, of my own" (McCorkle's own company); "Capt. Ozburn's Compy." heads the right-hand column. So John and Samuel Collins and William and John Riddle took the oath of allegiance together in the fall of 1777, John Riddle making his mark. This is an oath list, not a muster roll. Meredith, Lewis, David, and George aren't on it.
- p. 52 (image 63): a separate "List of persons who took state oath before James McGavock, September to December, 1777," with no Collinses or Riddles.
- Riddles in the whole book: the user searched every spelling on 23 Sept 2026. John and William on p. 51 are the only Riddles, and there is no Moses. The index (image 88) gives "Riddle, John, 51" and "Ridel, William, 51"; the entry just above them in the index is a different surname.
- [Superseded 2026-09-23] the single roster in Blackburn and in the saponitown "Collins Timeline," labeled "Osborn Company," "Osburn & Cox," or "McDaniel's Company," that puts Meredith, Lewis, David, George, Elisha, Samuel, and John Collins with Benjamin, Charles, and John Sexton, William Bowlin, and William and John Riddle. It runs together McDaniel's militia list (p. 23), McCorkle's 1777 oath list (p. 51, whose two company headings are Cox and Ozburn), and McCorkle's note of refusers (p. 50, Elisha). William Bowlin's source is still unlocated. The Riddles were Cox's men, and no list puts them beside Meredith.
Court martial of 23 April 1783, at Patrick Campbell's house (Kegley, Early Adventurers, vol. 2, p. 218): Meredith in McDaniel's company among the men "under similar orders," just after James Cox; John Saxton also; Ozburn's refusers ordered aboard "the armed vessels for the defence of Chesapeake Bay." The older dating of this page to "c. 1780-81" is wrong.
Elisha Collins refused the oath of allegiance before James McCorkle in the fall of 1777, as a man of Cox's company (Kegley, Militia, p. 50; see above).
Lewis Collins, pension S21142 (Will Graves transcription): aged 80, Grainger Co TN, August 1834. In August 1776 he was living in South Carolina, on the waters of Broad River, was drafted (Capt. James Steen), and "marched against the Cherokee Indians that were doing mischief on the frontiers of South Carolina." In 1778 he hired out to make a crop with Charles Tompson, "not then a man of a family," was drafted again, and was dismissed. He then went "to my father's house in Montgomery County," Virginia; drafted a third time in June 1781 (Capt. Gordon), he joined Greene at the High Hills of Santee, fought at Eutaw Springs in September 1781 ("a severe battle"), marched prisoners to near Salisbury, and was discharged there (Col. Locke). Older summaries that leave out Eutaw Springs, or say he saw no battle, are wrong.
Joseph Collins's affidavit, 27 Jan 1849, Grainger Co TN, in Salathiel Martin's pension W1044 (NARA M804, roll 1642, frame 0730; transcribed at joepayne.org): in 1780 a party of Tories was taken at a "Rock House" on the New River, and "Two of said company of tories escaped the night after their capture. One of them was by the name of David Gibson the other was named Lewis Collins." The "stone fort" of older notes is a paraphrase; use "Rock House."
War of 1812: the NARA index card for a Meredith Collins, 2nd Regiment of Mounted Gunmen (Williamson's), Tennessee Volunteers, belongs to a namesake. Our Meredith was about fifty-two and living in Floyd County, Kentucky. Don't use it.

Dates and citations corrected in the audit

The Orange County, Virginia court that described eleven men as Indians (John Collins, John Bowling, and Charles Griffin among them) sat on Thursday, 27 January 1742/43, which is 1743 by the modern calendar (Order Book 3, 1741-1743, p. 309; Virginia DeMarce's transcription marks it "[1743 NS]"). Not 1742.
The 1729 sale by William Read and his wife Mary of 100 acres on both sides of Sappony Creek is a Surry County record (Deeds, Wills &c. 8:22). The "Brunswick County" of older notes isn't supported (Brunswick had no court of its own until 1732); leave the county unstated unless the deed itself gives one.
The 1755 Orange County NC tax list: Thomas and Samuel on p. 19, John on p. 15.
The 1813 Stony Creek minute ("harboring them Melungins"): cite Estes et al. 2011, Table 1.
Moses Riddle's supposed parents, Margaret Ridley and Edward Buss, come from WikiTree (profiles Riddle-158 and "Margaret (Redley) Buss," Redley-1), not from the Empty Branches post. The court records they cite haven't been found.
Estes et al., Journal of Genetic Genealogy 7(1), Fall 2011: of the paternal lines assigned, 12 European, 8 African, and 1 Native American (a Sizemore line, Q1a3a); every maternal line European. Vardy Collins's Y line is R1a1, European (Table 11), not African. "Predominantly African paternal lines" in older notes is wrong.
Heinegg, Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina, 6th ed., 3 vols. (Clearfield, 2021).
Kegley, Early Adventurers on the Western Waters, vol. 2 is subtitled The New River of Virginia in Pioneer Days, 1745-1800 (1982; reprinted 2003).

James Reed, Mary's father (revised 27 September 2026)

The detail, the sources and the ranked next steps are in claude/Reed_Family_Investigation_Addendum.md (the Reed addendum; main file S66). The master tree's Part Two follows the same reading.

James Reed (Read) was Mary's father. His note of 25 November 1827 asking the Clay County clerk to license Jesse Collins to marry "Mary Red" (OL22; main file S60) is still the only record that names her as his daughter.
Born c. 1766-1775, by his census ages: 26-44 in 1810, 45 or over in 1820, 55-100 in 1830. The Attride compilation's "born about 1765" (main file S51) sits at the edge of that range.
His parents are unproven [?]. Only the Attride compilation makes him a son of Hugh Reed Sr. of Rowan County, North Carolina (d. bef. the end of 1786), and a James named at the 1786 sale of Hugh's estate is not thereby shown to be a son. The 1783 Rowan grant of 130 acres on Dutchmans Creek needs a man born by about 1762, so it, and perhaps the other Rowan entries, may belong to another James Reed. William Read "Malatta" (b. c. 1673) is likewise unproven as the root of this Reed family: Heinegg lists James and Stephen Reed of Ashe County only among the "other members of the Reed family" and does not trace their parents.
In the censuses: head of a free colored ("other free") household of six in Ashe Co NC, 1800; a household of eleven counted white there in 1810; a free colored man 45 or over in Clay Co KY, 1820. In 1830 (Clay Co KY, p. 172, re-read from the image on 26 September 2026; main file S65), James is the man aged 55-100 entered in the slave column, four young men of his household aged 10-24 are also in the slave columns, the one free colored man in the house is aged 24-36, and his wife, aged 50-60, is the one person counted white. Earlier versions of this file and of the main research file had James as the free colored man, which was a misreading. On the same page Hiram Collins and his wife Elizabeth are also entered in the slave columns, with their small son in the white column.
Where and when he died is open between two readings.
- (A) He stayed in Clay County and died there c. 1841. This rests only on the Attride compilation's account of an 1841 Clay estate, appraised at about $800, with parts sold to "Mrs Reid," Samuel Reid and William Reid. Its source record has not been seen.
- (B) He is the James Reed who moved from Clay to Morgan County, Indiana, in 1831 and bought the SW quarter of Section 17, Township 11 North, Range 1 East, near Martinsville (the purchase deed has not been seen). His will, signed on 19 July 1836, leaves 103 acres of that quarter, his home farm, to "my two sons," Elisha and John (James in one transcription), and refers to land conveyed to "my other sons." It was recorded on 6 January 1845 (Deed Book J, p. 522), so he had died by then (JoEllen Reed's notes give December 1845; the recording date is the better evidence). He is buried in Reed's Chapel Cemetery. In 1840 he heads a free colored household of seven there, and Hiram Collins heads a free colored household on the page after his (main file S67).
- The Reed addendum leans to (B). It is not proven.
His wife was born c. 1770-80 and is the one person in the 1830 household counted white. Under (A) she is the "Mrs Reid" who bought part of his estate in 1841. Under (B) she is Susannah (a Morgan County land transfer names Naaman Reed as "son of James and Susannah"), alive in 1846, and the free colored woman aged 55-100 in the 1840 household fits her age. Her maiden name is unknown; the Hollingsworth name in online trees is unsupported.
His children, as the master tree now has them: Mary (proven by the consent note); Stephen, who married Nancy Powell on the day of Mary's wedding and witnessed her consent note (probable); Elizabeth, Hiram Collins's wife (probable); Benjamin, Tilford and Randolph (possible); Naaman, Elisha and John [or James] (reading B); Samuel and William (reading A); Sarah Reid, the mother of Bradley Collins's daughter Nancy [?]. Patsy Reed (m. James Hollinsworth 1822), listed in older passages as a daughter or candidate daughter, is more likely a daughter of Stephen Reed Jr.

The Reeds in Iowa

Tilford Reed was the first to reach Iowa, by about 1836. His son Harman was born in Iowa c. 1836 (1856 Appanoose County census, age about twenty). The residence figures the brothers gave in 1856 (Tilford 14 years, Benjamin 18) were round numbers from men asked how long they'd lived in a territory whose borders were still unsettled, and they understate Tilford's time. Older notes placing Tilford's arrival c. 1842, or saying Benjamin came first, are superseded. The 1840 census of Iowa Territory has "Tifford" Reed under "Van Buren, Iowa Territory," p. 282 (NARA M704, roll 102), with Benjamin two pages away (FamilySearch indexes them under other counties).

Later generations

Eli Woodruff Bruner d. 27 July 1879, Colorado City, Colorado, of rheumatic fever (1880 mortality schedule, Benton Co, Arkansas); buried with Masonic honors (Colorado Springs Gazette, 29 July 1879) in Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, Potters Field (Find a Grave 176564833).
1880, Gothic, Gunnison Co, Colorado (28 June 1880, pp. 247-248): Emma Clifford, 26, housekeeper, with Orlando, Eli, and Jessie; E. G. Bruner, 20, blacksmith, enumerated alongside them. Older notes disagree on the line numbers and on which page ("same page, line 11" against "page 248, line 11"); settle it from the image if it ever matters.
Emma's Clifford children: Orlando Hines, b. 20 Oct 1873; Eli Woodrie, b. 25 Mar 1875; Jessie Lorene, b. 6 May 1876 (not c. 1874 and c. 1877).
1920: Jessie heads her own household in Grays Harbor County, Washington, with her two sons, her mother Emma, and roomers, and is marked married, not widowed (file Mariah-Emma-Dunlap-Bruner-Census-1920.pdf). Not Seattle.
Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr. d. 23 Sep 1923, Bismarck, Burleigh Co, North Dakota; cause unknown.
Richard Clifford Holbrook: 1940 census, associate engineer, U.S. Navy (a civilian post); at Pearl Harbor by 1941 (his line is struck through on the June 1941 USS Wharton manifest, so the family didn't sail); in the Seabees after the attack, a lieutenant by the family's account, remembered on Midway and later Guam; June 1949, Lucille and Frances to Guam on USS General George M. Randall; April 1950 census on Guam; the Navy's Fena dam, the likeliest "first dam on Guam," was completed in 1951 (Guampedia); family left Guam December 1951 on USNS General D. I. Sultan for the Naval Ammunition Depot at Shumaker, Arkansas; d. 30 Nov 1955, Hot Springs.
Harriet L. Holbrook, Frances's sister: b. Honolulu, 1941 or early 1942 (age eight on the USNS General Edwin D. Patrick manifest, arriving San Francisco 26 April 1950).
Spencer Collins is the soldier of Co. H, 46th Missouri Infantry, enlisted at Springfield 17 Aug 1864, killed in action 3 Nov 1864 at Vera Cruz, Missouri, and buried at Parsons Cemetery, Ozark Co. The muster card's age of 44 is a slip for 24, and no later record of any Spencer who could be ours turns up. Working hypothesis: he had joined distant Collins kin in that region (Parsons Cemetery is also the burial place of Isaiah "Cuppy" Collins, son of David Collins and Thompsey Posting, the Branch A family).
DNA (23andMe, Sub-Saharan African): Frances 2.1%; John Ellingwood 1.5% (older notes say 1.7%); John's sister 1.3%; Jordan's sister 1.2%; Jordan 0.5%. No Native American assignment in any test.

Statements in the book that still need a source

Adam Peter Bruner's service as a private in the Revolution.
"The county's marriage book for that year didn't survive to be filmed" (Appanoose County, 1850).
The obituary of Capt. Richard B. Holbrook Sr. (d. 1898) calling him "a man of absolute integrity."
Bradley's 1817 marriage to Jane Ray (see above).

Open leads, roughly in order of payoff

Kegley's Militia: search Bowlin/Bolin/Bowling (the one name from the compilers' merged roster still unaccounted for), and Collins/Collens across the other oath lists of 1777-1779, where Meredith, George, David, or Lewis may have sworn before another justice.
Montgomery County tithable and personal property lists, late 1770s to 1782: the household where a teenage Meredith first appears.
Eula Conley's 1971 DAR application (no. 562294) and its twenty-five supporting documents, in the DAR archive.
Court records of Margaret Ridley and Edward Buss (Bass?) in the Southside Virginia order books.
The 1756 Granville grant to a William Reed on the Eno River: is he one of ours?
Raw DNA from Grandmommie and John Ellingwood, phased, to see which side the eastern traces came from; an mtDNA test on a cousin descended in an unbroken female line from one of the Reed sisters; Y-DNA from a male-line descendant of Kalaska or Lloyd, or of Edward "Ned."
For the living witness: whether the family stayed in Hawaii through the war; the sukiyaki dinner photograph (who and where); Richard's Seabee battalion book (unit and rank); Harriet's exact birth date.
Jesse's and Mary Reed's graves (Appanoose County); Eli Bruner's Masonic lodge; Mr. Dunlap's first name; the cause of Richard Holbrook Jr.'s death at Bismarck.
Carlson's dissertation (Dr. Richard Allen Carlson; title not yet identified).
The Reed side (ranked in the Reed addendum, section 12): the 1850 Morgan County, Indiana, census pages around Naaman Reed's household, for James's widow Susannah, whose age would test reading (B) against the 1830 Clay wife; a letter to JoEllen Reed (Ancestry: joellenreed), who has a copy of the will; and one Morgan County records request for Deed Book J, p. 522 (the will as recorded) and the deed by which James bought the SW quarter of Section 17, which may say where he was living when he bought. The Morgan County deeds and probate for those years are on microfilm, not online.

Created: September 15, 2026 Companion to: meredith_collins_research.md (the main file, which follows the line from Meredith to Jesse to Mary Elizabeth and forward; its older Meredith → Bradley → Jesse chain is WITHDRAWN, since Jesse was Meredith's son by Polly Holloway and Bradley's half-brother) and collins_reed_addendum_2026-09-15.md (the Collins-Reed session work). Scope of this file: everything UPSTREAM of Jesse Collins. The colonial Louisa County community, Thomas Collins "Molata," the Flat River and New River periods, the Revolutionary generation, the Samuel-versus-John paternity question for Meredith, Meredith's own arc, Bradley's westward lead, and the point where Jesse enters the story. Primary source for the New River material: Frankie A. Blackburn et al., "One More Mountain to Cross: The Collins Story" (1998, Searching for Saponitown), saved in the project as HTML [OL1]. This file exists so the deep-origin material does not get lost inside the files that focus on the later generations.

Evidence tiers used throughout:

DOCUMENTED: a primary record exists (court order, deed, tax list, census, will).
CONTEXT: established history and law of the period, applied to our people.
TRADITION: family story, recorded as story.
INFERENCE: our reasoning; confidence stated.

1. The legal architecture that produced our records (CONTEXT)

The colonial records of this family only make sense against four pieces of Virginia law. These are the machinery that generated nearly every document we have.

1662, partus sequitur ventrem. A child's status (free or enslaved) followed the mother. A child of an enslaved or free African man and a free white woman was born FREE. Paul Heinegg's central thesis [OL2] is that most free mixed-race families of colonial Virginia and North Carolina, including ours, originate from unions of African men and white servant women in the 1600s and early 1700s, made free by this law.

1691 and 1705, punishing the mothers, binding the children. A white woman bearing a mixed-race child faced fines or extended servitude, and the child, though free, could be bound out as a servant until age 30 or 31. The 1705 act also DEFINED "mulatto" broadly: the child of an Indian counted, as did the child, grandchild, or great-grandchild of a "negro." So the "Molata"/"Malatta"/"mulatto" labels on our ancestors are compatible with African ancestry, Indian ancestry, or both. The word does not decide the question.

1723, the tithable act. Free Black and mulatto women became tithable (head-taxed as laborers) while white women were not. A free family of color paid tax on its wives and daughters over sixteen that white neighbors never paid. This is a tax on visible non-whiteness, and it created a standing incentive to leave those women off the lists. "Concealing tithables" presentments are one of the most common ways free families of color appear in colonial court records at all.

Binding out. County courts could order the children of parents deemed too poor to support them apprenticed out. Used against poor white families too, but applied disproportionately to free families of color in Appalachia. This law reaches all the way down our line to Pike County, Kentucky in 1829 (Section 8 below).

1.1 The family's own proof case: William Reed's freedom suit, 1694 (DOCUMENTED; Reed side)

Reed lineage detail belongs to the main file, but the origin story is recorded here because it is the family's clearest illustration of the 1662 law working. Per Heinegg's Reed entry [OL3, page scans in project as REED_FAMILY.pdf]:

William Reed, born about 1673, was a mixed-race child born to a white servant woman in the Charles City County household of Robert Jones. Jones bequeathed him a cow, a gun, and his freedom from indenture at age twenty-one. Jones's executors refused to comply. William sued them in Charles City County court and WON, 3 September 1694 [Charles City Orders 1687-95, p. 522]. He was a taxable in James Ellis's household, Southwarke Parish, Surry County, 1699-1703, called "Wm Read a Malatta" in 1699. In May 1708 he began a second suit, against William Edwards in Surry County, and was awarded 1,285 pounds of tobacco on 21 September 1715.

His mother is unrecorded: name, origin, everything. CONTEXT: servant women in 1670s Charles City County were overwhelmingly young English (sometimes Irish) indentured immigrants on four-to-seven-year terms, barred from marrying without the master's consent. She will almost certainly remain anonymous.

Lead (flagged "may have been" in Heinegg, UNVERIFIED): William may be the William Read who, with wife Mary, sold 100 acres in 1729, north side of the Nottoway River and both sides of SAPPONY CREEK [Surry DW&c 8:22; a Surry County record, county of the land not stated]. Sappony Creek is named for the Saponi, in the same Southside country as Fort Christanna (Section 2.1). If the identification holds, the Reed line physically touches the Saponi geography. Keep as a lead.

2. The Louisa County / Orange County community, 1742-1747 (DOCUMENTED)

The earliest cluster of records places one interconnected community in the Virginia Piedmont: Collins, Gibson, Bunch, Bowling, Riddle, Branham, Hall, Donathan, and (per the wider Saponitown research) Griffin and Goins. The surnames travel together for the next century.

27 January 1742/43 (1743 by the modern calendar), Orange County, VA court [OL1, citing Orange Order Book 3, 1741-43, p. 309; Virginia DeMarce's transcription marks it "[1743 NS]", OL48]. Eleven named men, described by the court as INDIANS, were brought in under a precept from William Russell and Edward Spencer for terrifying one Lawrence Strother and on suspicion of stealing hogs. Among the names: John Bowling, Charles Griffin, JOHN COLLINS, plus men recorded as Alexander Machartoon, Manicassa, Capt. Tom, Isaac, Harry, Blind Tom, Foolish Jack, and Little Jack. Each put up security. The court ordered their guns held until departure, they having declared to the court their intention to leave the colony within a week.

Notes for the narrative:

A John Collins is IN the group the court calls Indians. This is the single strongest record tying the Collins surname to Indian identity, and it comes from the exact community our line descends from.
Charles GRIFFIN is in the group. The Griffin name recurs in the family for a century (Griffin Collins Sr. b. c. 1773; Griffin Collins Jr.; Betsy Griffin who married Bradley Collins in 1833). Also of note: the schoolteacher hired to instruct Saponi children at Fort Christanna in the 1710s was named Charles Griffin. Whether the 1743 man carries that name from the teacher, or is kin, is unknown; log the coincidence, claim nothing.
Hog-stealing accusations were chronic frontier friction (hogs ranged free; both Indians and colonists claimed them). What "terrifying" Strother consisted of is not recorded.
Where they went is not recorded. But see Section 3: within a decade the same surnames are acquiring land on the Flat River in North Carolina. INFERENCE (moderate confidence, shared by the Saponitown researchers): the community ordered out of Virginia in 1743 reassembled in the North Carolina Piedmont by the early 1750s.

NOTE ON THE TWO ORANGE COUNTIES (added Sept 16 for timeline clarity). Orange County, VIRGINIA (formed 1734, seat Orange, VA Piedmont) is the county of the January 1742/43 (1743 NS) court above. Orange County, NORTH CAROLINA (formed 1752 from Granville and neighbors, seat Hillsborough) is the county of the Flat River, the 1755 Molata tax list, and the 1761 grant. Two different counties; the shared name is colonial naming fashion (House of Orange), nothing more. Related correction: the June 1745 concealed-tithable presentments of Thomas and Samuel sat in LOUISA County, VA court (Louisa, formed 1742, was the community's Virginia base), not Orange VA. TIMELINE SHAPE: the 1743 order bound the ELEVEN NAMED MEN (John Collins among them), who declared they would leave the colony within a week; the broader kin network was not under the order and wound down its Virginia affairs in stages: Louisa presentments 1745, Thomas selling the Turkey Run land 1747, Thomas on the Granville NC tax list 1750, the 1752 grant. Per Carlson (OL10) a remnant stayed in the Louisa mountains to the Revolution. Expulsion for some, staged migration over ~8 years for the rest.

12 May 1742, Orange County, VA [OL1, citing the Wes White papers]. Reference to about twenty-six Saponi Indians inhabiting Colonel Spotswood's land. A snapshot of the Saponi remnant community two years after Spotswood's death.

25 June 1745, Louisa County, VA [OL1; also in Heinegg]. George Gibson, Thomas Gibson, SAMUEL COLLINS, WILLIAM COLLINS, and others presented in court for CONCEALING TITHABLES. They pled not guilty. CONTEXT: under the 1723 act, this charge against families of this community is very often a racial-tax offense, an accusation of hiding wives and daughters who were legally taxed as nonwhite. The not-guilty plea is either ordinary tax-dodging denial or a contested claim about what their women legally were. Thomas Collins appeared in Louisa court the same year (main file, Purpose section).

1747, Louisa County, VA. Thomas Collins sold 184-186 acres on Turkey Run/Turkey Creek, south side of the South Anna River, to John Powell; the land lay near Gilbert Gibson, Thomas Gibson, and Sam Bunch land [OL1; main file]. Same year: Gilbert Gibson's will names sons Jordan, George, and Gideon. The community held adjacent land.

2.1 Fort Christanna and the Saponi (CONTEXT)

Alexander Spotswood, lieutenant governor of Virginia 1710-1722, established Fort Christanna in 1714 in what became Brunswick County, gathering the Saponi and allied small Siouan-speaking tribes (Occaneechi, Tutelo, Stukanox) for trade, schooling, and as a frontier buffer. Official operation ended in 1718, but the Indian community remained on and around the lands for decades; the May 1742 note above shows about twenty-six still there. Afterward the documented Saponi went mostly two directions: north (adopted with the Tutelo among the Cayuga in Iroquois country) or south (merging with the Catawba). The Saponitown project's animating hypothesis, HYPOTHESIS not proven fact, is that an undocumented remainder dissolved into the free-colored neighborhoods of the Piedmont, i.e., into exactly the Louisa/Orange community above.

2.2 African ancestry in the same community (CONTEXT + DOCUMENTED)

Africans had been in Virginia since 1619, more than a century before these records, and the 1600s were the window of relative legal fluidity in which free mixed families originated (Section 1). Heinegg documents the Collins, Gibson, Bunch, and Reed families as free African American families by paper trail [OL2, OL3]. The Bunch anchor in our source: Henry Bunch, b. c. 1690, described as a "Free Mulatto" in the 1763 Bertie County, NC tax list, whose daughter Rachel married a JOSEPH COLLINS [OL1].

The file's standing position (carried over from the main file): the Saponi explanation and the African explanation MAY BOTH BE TRUE of the same community. A free mixed-race population and a detribalizing Saponi remnant sharing the same neighborhoods and intermarrying would produce exactly the record we have: African DNA in the descendants, Indian identification in some records, and clerks who could not categorize anyone consistently.

3. Thomas Collins, born c. 1700: the documented head of the line (DOCUMENTED)

The earliest secure ancestor. Everything above him is dark.

Date	Record
1745	Louisa County, VA court appearance (with Samuel; the 1745 presentment community)
1747	Sold 184-186 acres on Turkey Run/Turkey Creek, Louisa Co, near Gibson and Bunch land
1751	(Community context) Thomas Gibson received 640 acres, south side Flat River, Granville Co NC, adjoining JOHN COLLINS on the Rocky Branch
1752	Thomas Collins received a Granville Co NC land grant on the Flat River at Dial's Creek; witnesses Paul Collins, George Gibson, Moses Riddle
1755	Taxed in Orange County, NC as a "Molata" on 3 Black tithes; Samuel Collins likewise "Molata" on 2
1760-61	Gv579: warrant c. 29 Dec 1760 (three days after John Brown's warrant over the community's improvements), surveyed 13 Apr 1761 by Wm Churton, GRANTED 13 Oct 1761: 700 acres on Dial's Creek of Flat River; sworn chain carriers GEORGE GIBSON and PAUL COLLINS per the survey plat [OL13; corrected Sept 16 from the earlier "patented 1760" reading; see 14.10]

The 1752 witness Moses Riddle was believed by the New River researchers to be Thomas's father-in-law [OL1]. RULED OUT on age: Moses was the only taxable man in his 1755 household and his son John was b. c. 1750 (S9069), so Moses was b. c. 1715-25, too young to be the father of the woman who bore Thomas's sons in the 1720s and 1730s. The Riddle link more likely belongs to a daughter of Moses, b. c. 1740, who married one of Thomas's younger sons, possibly Meredith's father. Thomas's wife is unknown.

The 1755 Orange County tax record is the family's foundational racial classification: "Molata," taxed on Black tithes, meaning the household's own members were being counted under the nonwhite tithe rules of Section 1. The migration Louisa VA → Flat River NC (1747 → 1751-52) tracks the 1743 expulsion inference in Section 2.

4. The New River and the Indian Lands period, 1767-1776 (DOCUMENTED)

The next move: from the North Carolina Piedmont up into the New River country, the high corner where Virginia and North Carolina meet, in present Grayson/Ashe/Wilkes counties. This is the "New River Collins" homeland from which every later branch (Meredith's, Griffin's, David's, Vardy's) descends.

1767. George Collins later testified (1809, in a Grayson County land dispute over Peach Bottom Creek, a New River branch) that he had settled on the land in 1767 [OL1, citing Chalkley's Chronicles, Vol. 2 p. 143]. The earliest fixed settlement date on the New River.

1771, Botetourt County, VA tithables. Charles Collins 1 tithe, SAMUEL COLLINS 2 tithes, JOHN COLLINS 4 TITHES [OL1]. A tithe is a male over sixteen. John's four tithes make his the largest Collins household: himself plus three grown sons or dependent men. This number matters for the paternity question (Section 7).

1773, Botetourt County delinquent tax list. David, Elisha, Ambrose, Samuel, John, Lewis, John Jr., George, and Charles Collins, plus Micajah Bunch, nearly all with the notation "INDIAN LANDS" after their names [OL1]. They were on the New River, outside the line marking the western boundary of the Virginia colony. This is the record behind the phrase "living on Indian land": they were delinquent precisely because they lived beyond the colony's boundary, where the treaty line with the Cherokee (Proclamation of 1763, adjusted by the Hard Labour and Lochaber treaties) placed the land outside white settlement. CONTEXT: for a family taxed as "Molata" inside the colony, settling beyond the line meant weaker courts, weaker tax enforcement, and no tithable prosecutions. Whether that was the motive is INFERENCE, but the incentive structure is documented on both sides of the line.

Land network, 1779-1803 (selected). The Wilkes and Ashe entry and deed books [OL1] show the community rooted on the New River: Samuel Collins living on the South Fork (1779 entry by Cleveland mentions improvements where Reubin Stringer and Samuel Collins "now lives"); George Collins's old cabins on Dogg Creek (1779); coordinated 50-acre entries by George, Elisha, Joshua, Lewis, and David all on 9 July 1791 (possibly military-service grants); Vardy Collins granted 100 acres on the South Fork in 1796; Griffin Collins entries on Elk Creek and along the Virginia line 1797-1803; Elisha's twenty-plus deeds, signed with a SIGNATURE rather than a mark (he could write; where he learned is unknown). Adjacencies to Stephen Reed and James Reed on the Laurel Fork and North Fork (Elisha's 1802-03 entries) put REED land against COLLINS land on the New River a generation before the Clay County, Kentucky intermarriages.

5. The Revolutionary generation, 1776-1783 (DOCUMENTED + CONTEXT)

The enlistment, 1776. Per the family's record (Blackburn, Conley), Meredith Collins enlisted in 1776, age 16, alongside GEORGE, DAVID, and LEWIS Collins [OL1; main file S1, S2]. No record gives the place (Montgomery County was formed in 1777, Christiansburg founded in 1792), and Lewis was then living in South Carolina and served with the South Carolina forces. The four remained in close contact until 1797 in Wilkes County. Whatever their exact kinship, they moved as a unit for twenty years.

CONTEXT on what they likely did: a New River man raised in late 1776 (Montgomery County was not formed until 1777) was almost certainly part of the mobilization for the Cherokee campaign of that autumn, when Col. William Christian's expedition marched from the Holston against the Overhill Cherokee towns, coordinated with the South Carolina thrust under Williamson. Lewis's pension puts him on the South Carolina side of that operation: living on the waters of Broad River, he was drafted (Capt. James Steen) and "marched against the Cherokee Indians that were doing mischief on the frontiers of South Carolina," 1776 [OL51]. John Riddle went with the Virginians to the Long Island of the Holston under Capt. John Cox; which column Meredith went with, no record says. The campaign burned towns and crops; pitched battle was limited. NOTE THE IRONY for the narrative, stated plainly: men from a community taxed as "Molata" and associated with Saponi remnants were mobilized against the Cherokee.

No document places Meredith in a specific battle. His service evidence is the family's record of the 1776 enlistment, the undated McDaniel's Company list (Kegley, Militia, pp. 23-24, OL46), the court martial of 23 April 1783 (Kegley, Early Adventurers, vol. 2, p. 218), and the DAR recognition. No pension application by Meredith has been found, despite his living until 1841, past the 1832 act that opened pensions to militia veterans. OPEN TASK: search Revolutionary pension/bounty files (NARA, Fold3) for Meredith Collins, Virginia; a rejected or unclaimed file would be gold.

Lewis Collins's pension, S21142 [OL1; OL51] is the family's one first-person Revolutionary narrative: living in South Carolina on the waters of Broad River, drafted August 1776 (Capt. James Steen, Col. Williamson) and "marched against the Cherokee Indians that were doing mischief on the frontiers of South Carolina"; in 1778 hired out to make a crop with Charles Tompson, "not then a man of a family"; drafted again (Capt. James Roan); at his father's house in Montgomery Co VA in 1781 when drafted a third time (June 1781; Capt. Gordon, Col. Malbury), joined General Greene at the High Hills of Santee, fought at EUTAW SPRINGS in September 1781 ("a severe battle"), marched prisoners to near Salisbury, and was discharged there (Col. Locke). Born 1754 in Virginia. Pension drawn in Grainger Co TN, 1834, age 80; Blackburn notes his statements at that age may be shaky.

The divided family. The southern backcountry was the most internally divided theater of the war, effectively a civil war between neighbors, with Tory conspiracies against the Patriot lead mines near Fort Chiswell (Montgomery Co) in 1779-80 and brutal militia suppression under Campbell and Crockett. Within our one kin group:

Meredith, George, David, Lewis: enlisted Patriots (1776).
ELISHA: REFUSED the Oath of Allegiance, 1777 [OL1], before James McCorkle, as a man of Cox's company (Kegley, Militia, p. 50) [OL46]. Not a casual opinion; oath refusers faced multiplied taxes and loss of legal standing. An official, costly stance.
LEWIS and DAVID GIBSON: captured c. 1780 by Capt. Salathiel Martin as suspected TORIES at a "Rock House" on the New River; escaped the same night [OL1, Joseph Collins's affidavit in Salathiel Martin's pension]. Blackburn raises the obvious eyebrow: the same Lewis later drew a Federal pension. One family, three postures. Whether split conviction, deliberate hedging, or individuals reading their own risks, the records do not say. CONTEXT: for a marginalized free family of color, either side's militia could be a threat, and enlistment could also be strategic (pay, land-bounty eligibility, proof of belonging).

The militia and oath lists. Capt. James McDaniel's Company (Montgomery Co militia): Meredith ("Mendaby Collens") and Lewis ("Lewies Collens") on consecutive lines, David, George, a deleted Collens entry, Benjamin, Charles, and John Sexton, and James Cox (Kegley, Militia, pp. 23-24, undated) [OL46]. NO Riddles, no William Bowlin, no Elisha, Samuel, or John Collins. "Jno. Collens," "Samuel Collens," John Riddle (by his mark), and "William Ridel" took the oath of allegiance with Capt. Cox's company in the fall of 1777 (James McCorkle's list of men who took the oath, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777, Kegley, Militia, pp. 50-51), and Elisha refused the oath there as a man of Cox's company (p. 50). The single merged roster in OL1 runs these lists together and is SUPERSEDED; William Bowlin's source is not yet located. The 1782 Montgomery personal property tax list adds Aaron, Ambros, Daniel, Martin, and Melinton Collins, each one tithe [OL1]. The community's male roster, in effect.

The DAR plaque (DOCUMENTED, verified current as of Sept 2026). The Pikeville Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a bronze plaque on a large stone on the Pike County courthouse grounds in 1929: "Revolutionary War Soldiers Buried In Pike County," sixteen names including MEREDITH COLLINS (the others: Atkinson, Blankenship, Childers, Dailey, Ford, Hall, Jackson, Johnson, Mims, Maynard, May, Potter, Stepp, Stewart, Trout) [OL4]. Current marker listings and the Pike County GenWeb page indicate the plaque remains at the courthouse's Main Street entrance. For the narrative, the juxtaposition is stated without embellishment: bronze in 1929, for a man the same county declared a pauper in 1838, whose son its court bound out in 1829.

6. Samuel Collins and John Collins Sr.: the two candidate fathers (DOCUMENTED dossiers)

6.1 Samuel Collins, b. c. 1724

Date	Record
1745	Louisa Co VA, same court presentment as Thomas (concealing-tithables community)
1755	Orange Co NC, "Molata" taxable on 2 Black tithes
1771	Botetourt Co tithables: 2 tithes (himself + one male over 16)
1773	Botetourt delinquent list, "Indian Lands," New River
1777	"Samuel Collens" (this Samuel or a namesake son) took the oath of allegiance with Capt. Cox's company in the fall of 1777, beside "Jno. Collens" and the Riddles (James McCorkle's list, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777, Kegley, Militia, pp. 50-51); NOT on McDaniel's list
1779	Living on S side S fork New River (Cleveland's land entry mentions his residence)
1787	Probably the Samuel Collins in the Wilkes Co NC state census

Heinegg identifies Thomas as Samuel's probable father and groups the Wilkes/Ashe Collins men (David, George, Martin, Valentine, Vardy, Ambrose, Charles, and others) as Samuel's DESCENDANTS [OL2; main file]. Meredith and Lewis are not in Heinegg's list by name but appear on the same militia and tax lists as David. FamilySearch assigns Griffin Collins Sr. (b. 1773) a father named Samuel Collins. NO DOCUMENT NAMES SAMUEL'S SONS.

6.2 John Collins Sr.

Date	Record
1743	(Possible, UNVERIFIED identity) the John Collins among the "Indians" in Orange Co VA court, 27 Jan 1742/43
1751	John Collins's land on the Rocky Branch adjoining Thomas Gibson's 640-acre Flat River grant, Granville Co NC
1771	Botetourt tithables: 4 TITHES, the largest Collins household (himself + three males over 16)
1773	Botetourt delinquent list, "Indian Lands"
1777	"Jno. Collens" took the oath of allegiance with Capt. Cox's company in the fall of 1777, beside "Samuel Collens" and the Riddles (James McCorkle's list, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777, Kegley, Militia, pp. 50-51); also a 1782 Elk Creek Militia list
1782	Montgomery tax list. NOT on McDaniel's list: the "John Collins (Probably a Jr.)" came from the superseded merged roster (his 1777 oath with Cox's company is the row above)

The New River researchers' claim [OL1]: Meredith was "probably son of John Collins Sr. who was son of old Thomas of Orange Co. NC then to Pittsylvania Co. VA, came from Louisa Co. VA." The same source's militia annotation calls Lewis Collins "son of John."

7. The Meredith paternity question (INFERENCE; both cases stated)

No document names Meredith's father. Both candidacies below are inference. The book presents both and LEANS TO JOHN (see READ THIS FIRST); the question stays OPEN.

The case for Samuel: Heinegg's grouping of the Wilkes/Ashe men as Samuel's descendants; the FamilySearch Samuel assignment for Griffin (Meredith's probable brother, per the main file Section 2); Samuel's documented forty-year presence in every place the line passes through (Louisa 1745, Orange 1755, New River 1771-1787).

The case for John Sr.: the explicit (if unsourced) statement in the New River research; John's FOUR tithes in 1771, the household with the most room for grown sons; "Lewis son of John" on the militia annotation, and Lewis beside Meredith on musters, tax lists, and land entries for twenty years (consecutive lines on McDaniel's list), which fits brothers or first cousins under John; and a daughter of Moses Riddle b. c. 1740 is the right age to have married John.

Naming evidence: a shrug. No militia list puts a Samuel beside Meredith (the "Samuel Collens" of the merged roster took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in the fall of 1777, Kegley, Militia, p. 51, and is not on McDaniel's list), and Meredith named no known son Samuel, and neither did Bradley or Jesse. No patterned John-naming either, and John is too common to test.

Reconciliation hypothesis (INFERENCE, unproven, contradicted by nothing on the table): Samuel and John Sr. were themselves brothers, both sons of Thomas "Molata," and the 1776 enlistment quartet (Meredith, George, David, Lewis) was drawn from both households. Heinegg's list (14.1) makes this the working frame: both men are counted among Thomas's sons, and the open question is which of the two fathered Meredith; the book leans to John (READ THIS FIRST).

Pullable ends (queued):

1787 NC state census, Wilkes County: household composition for Samuel (and any John). Published transcription: Register, State Census of North Carolina 1784-1787; on FamilySearch (catalog: Wilkes, North Carolina > Census) and Ancestry; originals at NC State Archives (archives.ncdcr.gov).
Wilkes and Ashe deed books, full sweep for any conveyance FROM Samuel or John Sr. TO a younger Collins. Father-to-son land transfer is how these relationships usually surface. FamilySearch catalog, each county under "Land and property."
Botetourt/Montgomery tithable lists 1771-1782, year by year: a young Meredith should first appear as a tithe in SOMEONE'S household c. 1776-78. Whose column he first appears in is the closest thing to a paternity document this record set is likely to yield. Library of Virginia (lva.virginia.gov); many transcriptions free at newrivernotes.com.
Meredith's missing pension: NARA catalog (catalog.archives.gov) and Fold3, Revolutionary pension and bounty-land files, Collins, Virginia.
~~Heinegg's full Collins entry (freeafricanamericans.com) re-read specifically for any John Collins of the Flat River generation.~~ DONE Sept 16 (14.1; task 5): John, b. say 1736, probable son of Thomas.

8. Meredith Collins, c. 1760-1841: the arc in brief (DOCUMENTED; detail in main file)

Full timeline, family table, tax and court analysis are in the main file, Sections 1-7. The origin-line-relevant spine:

Born c. 1760, Virginia. Enlisted 1776 at 16 (Section 5). First marriage c. 1782-85 (wife unnamed; children Bradley b. 1787 and probably a daughter). Second marriage c. 1799 per Eula Conley's DAR application (Polly Holloway, b. c. 1780 VA, d. ante 1840; Conley-via-Blackburn elsewhere gives d. c. 1812, compatible); Conley names sons Archibald 1800, James 1804, William 1806 (b. RUSSELL CO VA per the same application), plus Edward (Ned) and John W. as believed sons. Russell Co VA tax rolls 1799-1809. Floyd Co KY by 1810; the 1810 household of ten includes FOUR MALES UNDER 10 (b. 1801-1810), of whom Conley's names fill only three slots (Section 10 below). Bought 50 acres on Shelby Creek 1816. Pike Co (formed 1821) tax lists through 1831, three parcels, ~180 acres by 1831. Late partner Milly Johnson; their son (b. c. 1818, carrying HER surname) bound out by the Pike County court, June 1829, in the same proceeding season that named George Collins & Patsy Kirk and Martin Collins & Mary Collins, three Collins households together. Tax-exempted for age, January 1829. Declared a "poor man" 1838, Richard P. Robinson appointed his overseer; court records show Meredith accused his own sons of stealing his land and refused to live with any of them; apparently in the Robinson household at the 1840 census while an Amy Collins (possibly the first wife's daughter) heads what remains of his. Died 1841, Pike County. Name in bronze on the courthouse grounds since 1929.

Classification note (main file Section 2, kaleidoscope table): Meredith all-white 1810; in the colored/slave columns 1820 Floyd (never attempted white); white again 1830 Pike. The same man, three censuses, two racial identities, depending on the enumerator.

9. The Edward "Ned" legend (TRADITION, with the evidence basis stated)

As told to Blackburn by Harold Keith Talbot (Weston, WV) and Vernice Trimble (Valparaiso, IN) [OL1]: Edward "Ned" Collins was said by family to be half Indian. His father was said to have married an Indian girl in an Indian ceremony; a beautiful baby boy was born; the father, knowing how hard the child's life would be, stole the baby and slipped out into the night. Talbot and Trimble also held that Ned's father may have been GEORGE Collins rather than Meredith (a George enlisted with Meredith in 1776), so even the legend's paternity is disputed.

Evidence basis for Ned's birth date: census brackets only. 1820 Floyd census, Edward head of household aged 20-24 (b. 1796-1800); Blackburn's bracketed research note says 1802; the 1810 reconstruction slots him as a male 10-15. True range roughly 1796-1802 with ordinary census slop. The range straddles the start of the Polly Holloway marriage (m. c. 1799, to c. 1812), which is what makes the legend chronologically awkward for Meredith; Blackburn herself speculates Meredith could have left his first family in NC during the involvement. The legend survives the chronology only by bending something (a gap we cannot see, an overlap, or George as the father).

Interpretive note for the narrative (stated once, plainly): this is the family's ONLY piece of oral tradition about ancestry. It is an Indian story, attached to one individual, while the written record's designations (Molata, fpc, mulatto) attach to the whole family and point at least partly to African descent. A speakable Indian story standing in front of an unspeakable mixed-race reality is a pattern historians of Melungeon and free-colored Appalachian families describe repeatedly, and Blackburn's own family script ("we were told it was Indian") follows it exactly.

10. Where Jesse Collins enters (DOCUMENTED; parentage SETTLED: son of Meredith and Polly Holloway)

Jesse (b. c. 1804, m. Mary Reed, Clay Co KY, 13 Dec 1827) is the hinge between this file and the main file. What bears on him from the origin side:

The 1810 census slot. Meredith's Floyd Co household contains four males under 10 (b. 1801-1810). Conley's named sons James and William fill two slots (John W. rests on the Conley list alone [?]); Jesse b. c. 1804 and Hiram b. c. 1804-06, both Polly's sons, fill the other two. This is the ONLY located record with space for both men (Collins-Reed addendum 9.9.8, 9.9.11).
Parentage: SETTLED (23 Sept 2026): Jesse was Meredith's son by Polly Holloway; Bradley was his half-brother. The evidence: age math (Meredith ~44, Polly ~24 at Jesse's birth; Jesse slots into the Polly children sequence c. 1800-1806) and the 1810 household room. WITHDRAWN, the Bradley reading: Clay County marriage geography (Jesse married in 1827 where Bradley lived), requiring fatherhood at ~17, possible but strained, and it must hold twice if Hiram is also his. Corroborating records queued in the Collins-Reed addendum: Clay/Pike tax lists (whose land Jesse first appears beside), Clay court order books, the James Reed 1841 estate file.
Jesse ≠ James. The Clay register clearly writes Jesse; Conley's "James b. 1804" is most likely a different (probably brother) James who married Martha Ann Cotton in Clay Co, 1839 (main file 9.0).

11. Bradley Collins: the westward lead (DOCUMENTED via Conley + census)

Conley's account [OL1], which carries weight as family knowledge rather than reconstruction: Bradley (b. 1787, probably Wilkes Co NC) sold his Clay County property in 1839 and, with wife Elizabeth (Lunsford, m. 1836) and son Andrew's family, went BY FLATBOAT down the Kentucky and Ohio rivers to Missouri; in 1844 he moved on to Appanoose County, Iowa with Andrew's family. Elizabeth is absent from the 1850 census and had probably died. Andrew's children's birthplaces track the route: Lewis b. 1837 Clay Co KY; Samson b. 1841 CHARITON Co MO; Archibald "David" b. 1844 Chariton or Appanoose; Polly Ann b. 1848 Appanoose. Andrew's wife "Betsy" Sizemore matches the March 1838 Clay County register entry (Andrew Collins and Betsy Ann Sizemore, main file S45), a clean corroboration of Conley.

Practical picture (CONTEXT): a flatboat from Clay County means down the Kentucky River to the Ohio, the Ohio to the Mississippi, and up the Missouri; a family dismantling a Kentucky life and floating it roughly a thousand river miles.

The 1840 county question: RESOLVED (Sept 16, 2026). Bradley's 1840 household is in CHARITON COUNTY, Missouri. The left-margin annotation on the schedule page itself (FamilySearch IGN 005154556, image 632 of 1,315; sheet stamped p. 309, "(No. 4.)"; division allotted to an assistant marshal whose signature reads approximately "Silas Marsh") reads, written vertically, "Chariton County" [OL6; margin detail saved as Bradley-1840-census-left-margin-CHARITON-County-detail.png]. The earlier "Callaway" attribution was a reel-metadata/waypoint artifact: image group 005154556 is a multi-county Missouri reel (Benton through Clark and beyond), and the FamilySearch Information panel lists every county on the reel, same failure mode as the 1830 "Estill" labeling for the Clay Co KY pages and the Van Buren/Keokuk/Jackson standardization split for the Reed brothers. Scorecard: Samson's 1841 Chariton birthplace, exact match; Conley's "Carroll," off by one adjacent county, respectable for family memory; "Callaway," metadata artifact, withdrawn. This also resolves the main file's internal conflict in Bradley's favor of the original north-central Missouri inference (Chariton/Carroll/Livingston), which was correct. The migration now reads cleanly: Clay Co KY (sold 1839) → flatboat → Chariton Co MO (1840-1844) → Appanoose Co IA (1844).

Significance for the line: the 1844 arrival makes Bradley and Andrew the Collins BEACHHEAD in Appanoose, four to six years before Mary Reed Collins's widowed household appears in Wells Township and six years before Mary Elizabeth's 1850 marriage there. NARRATIVE HYPOTHESIS (INFERENCE, plausible, undocumented): word from Bradley's established Appanoose household drew Jesse's family (or, after 1847, Jesse's widow) toward the same county, alongside the documented Reed-brother draw (Tilford in Iowa by c. 1836, the first to arrive; Benjamin by 1838; see READ THIS FIRST). Two kin magnets, one county. No letter or record documents the summons; the geography and dates merely permit it.

12. Melungeon context (CONTEXT)

"Melungeon" names the mixed-ancestry families of the Newman's Ridge / Vardy Valley area of Hancock Co TN and adjacent Lee Co VA, and by extension similar Appalachian communities. Core surnames are our record's surnames: Collins, Gibson, Goins, Mullins, Bunch, Bowling. VARDY COLLINS of our New River group (granted 100 acres on the S fork New River, 1796; well documented in Melungeon research per Blackburn) is remembered in local tradition as a founding patriarch of the Newman's Ridge settlement.

First documented use of the word: minutes of Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church, Scott Co VA, 1813, recording a complaint about "harboring them Melungins" [Estes et al. 2011, Table 1; OL47]. OUR CONNECTION: the New River research places Valentine Collins in that very congregation, received by experience 1801, dismissed by letter 1803, a decade before the word appears in its minutes [OL1].
Etymology (unsettled): leading candidates are French mélange (mixture), Afro-Portuguese melungo, and Kimbundu (Angolan) malungu, "shipmate." Given the Angolan segments in the family DNA (Section 13), the Kimbundu candidate is worth a footnote, no more. Older romantic theories (Portuguese shipwrecks, Turkish sailors) flourished because families needed origin stories that were not African; treat them as historiography, not history.
Genetics: the Melungeon DNA study (Estes et al., Journal of Genetic Genealogy 7(1), Fall 2011, published 2012 [OL47]) assigned 12 European, 8 African, and 1 Native American (a Sizemore line, Q1a3a) paternal lines, and every maternal line was European: a substantial African paternal share (8 of 21), not a predominance, consistent with Heinegg's archival thesis.
Historically a slur, later reclaimed. Blackburn (1998) deliberately set the "Melungeon factor" aside as beyond her scope while acknowledging the designations "fpc" and "mulatto" beside her family's names, the photographs in her grandmothers' albums, the total absence of oral history, and, in her phrase, the record as "an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colors." Her closing personal note: she had been told the dark skin and high cheekbones were Indian, but that could not explain the fpc and mulatto designations on Griffin Sr.'s and Jr.'s families; she is proud of her heritage whatever it is and would not wish her family any other way.

13. The DNA and the African/Indian question (DOCUMENTED test data + CONTEXT)

The measured line (main file): Frances Fairchild Holbrook 2.1% Sub-Saharan African; John Ellingwood 1.5%; John's sister 1.3%; Jordan's sister 1.2%; Jordan Ellingwood 0.5%; no Native American assignment in any of the five tests. Consistent with Mary Elizabeth Collins at roughly a quarter to a third non-European (main file 9.06).

Regional breakdown (verified from Jordan_Ellingwood_ancestry_composition_0_5.csv, Sept 15 2026): the African segments assign as one Nigerian, one Angolan & Congolese, one Congolese & Southern East African, one West African, and two broadly Sub-Saharan African. CONTEXT: Virginia's enslaved population drew heavily from the Bight of Biafra (modern Nigeria, especially Igbo) and West Central Africa (Angola/Congo). The segments point at the two principal source regions of the actual Virginia trade. NOTE: the test is an early-generation 23andMe composition; regional assignment at trace percentages is approximate.

What the DNA can and cannot say about the Saponi question:

It CONFIRMS African ancestry in the direct line, consistent with the Molata/Malatta/mulatto paper trail on both the Collins and Reed sides.
It CANNOT rule out a small, deep Saponi strand. A single full Native ancestor c. 1700-1750 sits eight to ten generations back, expected contribution roughly 0.1-0.4%, and because inheritance is chunky, entire contributions at that depth are routinely LOST to recombination; a real ancestor can leave zero detectable DNA. Early chips and reference panels were additionally weak on trace Native assignment.
The asymmetry is the point: the African signal survives because Mary Reed Collins was recent and substantially African-descended; a colonial-era Saponi ancestor would be neither. Absence of Native DNA is weak evidence at that depth; presence of African DNA is strong evidence. Both-explanations (Section 2.2) remains the file's position for the COMMUNITY; for our specific line, African descent is proven, Saponi descent is possible and unproven.

14. Findings from the September 16, 2026 online records sweep (supplements Sections 3, 6, 7, 12)

14.1 Heinegg's full Collins entry obtained: Thomas's probable sons named (DOCUMENTED via Heinegg) [OL7]

The complete Collins family entry at freeafricanamericans.com (Church-Cotanch section) was retrieved and read in full. Its key content beyond what the main file's S52 summary carried:

Heinegg lists FOUR probable sons of Thomas1 Collins (b. say 1700): Samuel (b. say 1724), George1 (b. about 1728), Thomas2 Jr. (b. say 1734), and JOHN (b. say 1736), the last a "Molata" taxable in Orange County NC on 1 Black tithe in 1755. This substantially grounds the Section 7 reconciliation hypothesis: SAMUEL AND JOHN WERE PROBABLE BROTHERS, both sons of Thomas. Whether Meredith's father was Samuel (Heinegg's descendants grouping) or John Sr. (Blackburn's claim), his grandfather is Thomas "Molata" either way. The paternity question narrows from "which family" to "which brother."

Two-Johns tension (log, unresolved): Heinegg's John b. say 1736 sits awkwardly with (a) the John Collins holding Flat River land adjoining Thomas Gibson's 1751 grant (a landholder that early implies birth by c. 1730) and (b) the 1771 Botetourt John with 4 tithes (himself plus three males over 16, i.e., sons born by 1755, impossible for a man born 1736). Either there were two Johns (an elder John, possibly Thomas's brother or the 1742/43 (1743 NS) Orange Co VA "Indian" John, plus Thomas's son John), or some 1771 tithes were not sons. The Blackburn claim "John Collins Sr.... son of old Thomas" may preserve a memory of the elder John. OPEN.

Thomas's 1745 presentments, sharpened: the Louisa court presented him for failing to list a tithable "who was probably his wife" (Heinegg's reading: the concealed tithable was the WIFE, confirming the racial-tax interpretation in Section 2), and separately on 26 November 1745 for profane swearing. He was in John Wade's Granville Co tax list in 1750.

Samuel's record, expanded: same failing-to-list-a-tithable presentment (probably HIS wife) 28 May 1745; sued by Richard Vernon 25 November 1746 for £16.9 and 14 pounds of DEER SKINS (a window into the hunting economy); he and William Collins presented 24 February 1746/7 for FISHING AND HUNTING ON THE SABBATH. His 1787 Wilkes state census household: 1 male 21-60 and 1 female, an aging couple with all sons out of the household (closes the household-composition part of the old task 1; it names no sons).

Heinegg's Wilkes/Ashe descendants of Samuel, with classifications: George2 (a HUNTER with a cabin in present-day Ashe when the first land grants were issued in the 1780s; estate taxed at £26 in 1778; 1787 Wilkes household of 1 male 21-60, 3 males under 21, 3 free females; possibly the George Collins heading a Wilson Co TN household of 14 "free colored" in 1830); David1 (estate £41, Ashe, 1778; 1790 Tenth Company, Wilkes); Martin (1790 Wilkes); Valentine (1790 Wilkes; 1800 Ashe: 6 "OTHER FREE"); Vardy/Vadery (1790 Wilkes; 1800 Ashe: 4 "other free"; 1830 Hawkins Co TN: 8 "free colored"); Ambrose (estate £20, 1778; 1790 Wilkes; 1800 Ashe: 4 "other free"); Charles1 (estate £44, 1778). Thomas2 Jr.: possibly white-counted in Moore Co 1790, then 1800 Ashe: 7 "other free." Grainger Co TN 1810: Griffin 11 "free colored," Lewis 10 "free colored," Joseph 9 "free colored."

Kaleidoscope extension (adds to the main file's classification table): 1755 Orange NC: Molata. 1787 state census and 1790 Wilkes: counted in the ordinary (white) schedules. 1800 Ashe: Valentine, Vardy, Ambrose, and Thomas Jr. all "other free" (free colored). 1810 Grainger TN: Griffin, Lewis, Joseph free colored. 1830: Vardy (Hawkins TN) and possibly George (Wilson TN) free colored. The pre-1810 generation shows the same oscillation as the post-1810 one.

Conflation caution #1: Heinegg treats the King William County, Virginia Collins family (Revolutionary sailor Mason Collins, John Collins of Williamsburg, later members allotted land on the PAMUNKEY RESERVATION, the Smithsonian-photographed Simeon Collins) as a SEPARATE family, possibly originating near James City County. Do not merge King William/Pamunkey Collins records into our Piedmont/New River line.

14.2 The 1755 Orange County NC "Molata" roster in full (transcription) [OL8]

The Historical Melungeons research blog transcribes the complete community roster from the 1755 list (task 10's target document): Gedion Bunch 1 tithe (mulatto); Micajer Bunch 1 (mulatto); Thomas Collins 3 tithes (mulatto); Samuel Collins 2 (mulatto); John Collins 1 (mulatto); Moses Ridley (Riddle) 1 tithe AND WIFE MARY (mulattoes); Thomas Gibson 3 (mulatto); Charles Gibson 1; George Gibson 1; Mager Gibson 1. Notes: Moses Riddle, the possible father-in-law of Thomas (Section 3), was himself taxed as a mulatto, with his wife Mary tithable, exactly the female-tithability regime of Section 1; if Thomas's wife was a Riddle, her family carried the same classification. Original image still wanted, but the transcription satisfies the roster question. [Superseded 2026-09-23: Moses (b. c. 1715-25) was too young to be Thomas's father-in-law; the Riddle link more likely runs through a daughter of Moses, b. c. 1740, married to one of Thomas's younger sons. See READ THIS FIRST.]

14.3 The chain carriers on Thomas's 700-acre patent (task 3 substantially answered) [OL7, OL8]

The prediction in the research plan held: the survey names the chain carriers, and they are family. Heinegg (citing the NC Archives MARS database) names them as Paul Collins and George Gibson; the Historical Melungeons transcription of the same grant (dated 1761 there, 29 December 1760 in Heinegg) names George Collins and Paul Collins, both noted "(mulattoes)". The two sources disagree on whether the second carrier was George GIBSON or George COLLINS; Heinegg lists George1 (b. c. 1728) as a probable SON of Thomas, so the Collins reading would put a son on his father's chain. Either way, PAUL COLLINS (also a witness to the 1752 grant) is confirmed as close kin physically present at the survey, and the discrepancy is resolvable by pulling the actual survey image at nclandgrants.com [RESOLVED Sept 16: plat obtained, Section 14.7; GEORGE GIBSON confirmed], which now hosts data and images for ALL Granville District grants (about a third directly linked to images). Related transcribed items from the same neighborhood: a 1756 grant to William Combs on Flat River adjoining Thomas Gibson, JOSEPH COLLINS, and John Wade (chainbearers Thomas Gibson Jr. and Moses Ridley); and a 26 December 1760 John Brown warrant for 700 acres on Flat River that "includes Bolins, Riddles and Collins Improvements," documenting Bowling, Riddle, and Collins households as squatters whose improvements were absorbed by another man's grant.

14.4 Second sweep, September 16: Gv579 verified, Moses Riddle identified, the dispersal mapped [OL9, OL10, OL11]

Thomas's grant, from the systematic Granville abstracts (Piedmont Wanderings, abstracting the NC Archives records): "Collins, Thomas - Gv579. Granville to Thomas Collins, 13 Oct 1761, 700 acres on Dials Creek of Flat River, SCC: GEORGE GIBSON & PAUL COLLINS, surveyed on 13 Apr 1761 by William Churton, SSLG 87-H, RegLn 2110." This settles the chain-carrier question in Heinegg's favor (George GIBSON, not George Collins) and corrects the dates: surveyed 13 April 1761, granted 13 October 1761 (Heinegg's "29 December 1760" is likely the warrant/entry date). William Churton, Granville's principal surveyor and the founder of Hillsborough, ran the chain lines himself. Same source, Gv131 (the 1756 Combs grant adjoining Joseph Collins): SCC "Thomas Gibson Jr & Moses REEDLEY," resolving the Reed-versus-Riddle reading of that chainbearer: Reedley = Ridley = Riddle, not Reed.

The John Brown warrant twist (INFERENCE, high interest, needs the shuck to confirm): the transcribed Brown item reads: warrant 26 Dec 1760, 700 acres on the Flat River, "includes Bolins, Riddles and Collins Improvements," with survey 13 April 1761 and deed 14 Oct 1761 attached. Those are THE SAME acreage, THE SAME survey date, and a grant date one day apart from Thomas Collins's Gv579. Two readings: (a) the transcriber ran two records together; (b) Brown's December 1760 entry over the squatters' improvements and Thomas's 1761 grant are the SAME 700-acre transaction chain, meaning the tract entered by Brown over the community's improvements was ultimately surveyed and GRANTED TO THOMAS COLLINS, i.e., Thomas answered the threat to the settlement by securing the paper himself, ten months after Brown's warrant. If (b) holds, the 1760-61 grant is not routine land acquisition but a successful legal defense of the community's homes, with a Gibson and a Collins kinsman dragging the chain. The warrant document inside shuck SSLG 87-H decides it; if the warrant in the file is in Brown's name, reading (b) is proven. THIS IS NOW THE TOP DOCUMENT PULL. [SUPERSEDED SAME DAY: Section 14.10 resolves the question; Brown's was the parallel grant Gv591 and reading (a) was correct.]

Moses Riddle, substantially answered (mix of DOCUMENTED, scholarship, and family-researcher TRADITION):

1755 Orange Co: taxed 1 tithe with wife Mary, both mulatto (Section 14.2).
Richard Carlson's dissertation on the Saponi (as reported in the Hawkins research summaries) describes the Flat River settlement as the CHRISTIAN SAPONI BAND community, split between the Louisa County, VA mountains and the Flat River from 1750 to the Revolution, joined by the Sizemore and Ridley/Riddle families, and names Moses Ridley/Riddle explicitly as "an Indian man" whose land bordered Tom Collins, Tom Gibson, and George Gibson.
1767 Pittsylvania County, VA tax list of John Wilson (per Jack Goins's research): "Moses Ridle (AN INDIAN)," with William Ridle, listed among the Bowlin families; the group had land entries on the Sandy River. A tax clerk writing "an Indian" beside his name is the closest thing to a contemporary identity document anyone in this community received.
Parentage per Riddle-family researchers (TRADITION, court records claimed but not yet seen): Moses thought to be the son of MARGARET RIDLEY, an indentured servant woman, and EDWARD BUSS, a mulatto man, with court records of the relationship. If verified, Moses's origin mirrors William Reed's exactly: the 1662 law's free child of a servant mother. [Source corrected 2026-09-23: the claim comes from WikiTree (Riddle-158; "Margaret (Redley) Buss," Redley-1; OL49), not the Empty Branches post cited in OL11; the court records have not been found.]
The loop closed: William and John Riddle, "sons of Moses," stand on the 1782 McDaniel's Company roster beside Meredith (Section 5). The Riddles of the New River militia are the sons of the Flat River Indian of 1755. If Moses was Thomas's father-in-law, William and John Riddle mustered beside their kinsman Meredith. [Superseded 2026-09-23: William and John Riddle took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in the fall of 1777, John by his mark (James McCorkle's list, Kegley, Militia, pp. 50-51); they are not on McDaniel's list, and no list puts them beside Meredith. Moses was not Thomas's father-in-law. See READ THIS FIRST.]

The classification mechanics, one layer deeper (Carlson via OL10): in the first few years on the Flat River the community was enumerated as WHITE tithables; after Orange County was formed from Granville in 1753, the new county officials chose to count them as "Molatas." The legal fractions: half Indian ranked as mulatto and less than half could pass as white in Carolina practice, while Virginia's rule made 1/16 African ancestry "mulatto" regardless of the rest. So the kaleidoscope's earliest panels now read: white tithables c. 1750-53, Molata 1755, and the change was a change of CLERKS, not of people.

The dispersal, c. 1767-1770 (secondary sources OL8, OL11): the Collins and Gibson families began selling their Flat River land in 1767-70 and moved to the New River backwoods. Per Brenda Collins Dillon's research: a John Collins appears in the Granville/Orange records about 1750, lived on the Flat River about 17 years, and moved to the New River c. 1767, settling on PEACH BOTTOM CREEK (the very creek where George Collins testified in 1809 that he had settled in 1767, Section 4); Grayson County tax records suggest LEWIS and JAMES Collins were sons of this John. This is the elder-John thread of Section 14.1 given substance: Flat River John → Peach Bottom Creek 1767 → sons including Lewis ("son of John" on the militia annotation), which, if Blackburn's Meredith-son-of-John claim holds, would make Lewis one of Meredith's brothers in the 1776 enlistment quartet. A branch (Moses Riddle, Bowlins, some Collins) went instead to Pittsylvania County, VA before 1767, which finally explains the stray "then to Pittsylvania Co. VA" fragment in the One More Mountain account of Thomas's line. Thomas Collins Sr. himself may have died in Orange County around 1770 (secondary claim, unverified). Those who STAYED on the Flat appear on the 1777 Caswell County tax list: Paul Collins (the chain carrier), Martin, Middleston, Obadiah, and John Collins, and the rare name Middleston/Melinton recurs on the 1782 Montgomery Co VA list and the 1793 Wythe list, a name-thread between those who stayed and those who left.

New names entering the roster: DENNIS COLLINS (Granville grant Gv091, 480 acres on Cobbs Creek, 8 May 1755; chain carrier on Gv313 on the SOUTH FORK OF THE FLAT RIVER, 4 Dec 1753, squarely in the neighborhood); PAUL COLLINS (1752 witness, 1761 chain carrier, 1777 Caswell taxpayer, the constant); and a caution pile for JAMES COLLINS of the Haw River (Gv178, 1756, with his own "Collins Creek" and non-community chain carriers, probably a separate family, though a James Collins chain-carried in 1753 on land adjoining Joseph Collins, so not fully separable yet). Also logged as a LEAD with a common-surname caveat: Granville grants to WILLIAM REED (Gv139, 292 acres, branches of the ENO RIVER, 1756) and Robert Reed (Gv293, Piney Mountain Creek), plus a John Reed chain carrier (Gv170): Reed-surname landholders one watershed east of the Flat River cluster in the 1750s. Whether any connect to Heinegg's Reed line is untested; if one did, the Collins-Reed adjacency would begin in 1750s Orange County, a century before the Clay County marriages.

14.5 DAR GRS: Meredith confirmed as Patriot A024535; two proven child lines (Sept 16, user search) [OL12]

The user located Meredith in the DAR Genealogical Research System Ancestor database: COLLINS, MEREDITH, Ancestor # A024535. Service: VIRGINIA, rank SOLDIER. Birth: circa 1760. Death: post 1841, Pike Co., Kentucky. Service source: Kegley, Militia of Montgomery Co, VA, 1777-1790, p. 23. Service description: Capt. James McDaniell, Montgomery Co Militia. Vitals match our man exactly (and exclude the 1789 Boones Station Meredith). The accepted service proof is the same McDaniel's Company roster in OL1, via Mary Kegley's published militia abstracts [Corrected 2026-09-23: Kegley pp. 23-24 is not the OL1 roster, which runs together McDaniel's list (p. 23), McCorkle's 1777 oath list (p. 51), and his note of refusers (p. 50)]; no pension or additional service record sits behind the DAR verification. Task 11 RESOLVED; the plaque and the GRS record rest on documented militia service.

The member applications (from the GRS results table, screenshot Sept 16): at least eleven verified applications descend from Meredith, through exactly TWO children:

WILLIAM, spouse [1] MOLLY HATFIELD (Nat'l Nos. 562294 with Additional Volume 505, and 661999, both with supporting-documents flags). Per OL1, Eula Conley herself descended from William's second wife Mary Ann "Molly" Hatfield, so these are very probably the Conley-Cline cousin network's own applications; their supporting documents may hold Conley-era family records.
BRADLEY, spouse [1] "X X" (unknown) (Nat'l Nos. 663507, 675733, 682664, 693414, 738061, 738511, 777970, 817698, 817699; supporting-documents flags on 663507, 675733, 777970). Nine-plus vetted lineages through OUR branch. The "X X" confirms the DAR also has NO name for Bradley's first wife; since Andrew (b. 1811) predates the 1817 Jane Ray marriage, these lines almost certainly run through children of the unnamed first wife.
Negative finding: NO applications through Jesse (or Archibald, Edward, Reuben, John W.). The DAR files cannot settle Jesse's paternity directly.

Acquisition strategy (logged as task 23): free first: read the "i" notice comments on each row; use the GRS DESCENDANTS tab to reconstruct each application's name-chain to Meredith at no cost, identifying which Bradley child each line runs through. Then purchase ONE Bradley-line record copy that carries the supporting-documents flag (663507, 675733, or 777970, chosen after the reconnaissance), with its supporting documents, and optionally 562294 (earliest number, Additional Volume, William/Hatfield line) for possible Conley source material. Caveat: pre-1984 applications frequently lack supporting documentation (returned to members on request), which is why the flag governs the choice. Kegley p. 23 itself is independently accessible (published booklet; WorldCat; much of the list material transcribed at newrivernotes.com). [2026-09-23: Kegley, Militia, pp. 23-24 (images 34-35), pp. 50-52 (images 61-63), and the index (image 88) now seen on the FamilySearch Digital Library, book 1033071 (OL46).]

14.6 Smaller findings and cautions

Conflation caution #2: a genealogy of a separate, apparently white Collins family (vaiden.net) documents ANOTHER Meredith Collins, born 13 March 1789 at Boones Station, Kentucky, of the Boonesborough-associated line. Any Kentucky index hit, DAR record, or online tree for a Meredith Collins must be checked against birth year (~1760 vs 1789) before use.
1802 Lower Russell County VA tax list (the district that became Scott Co): Valentine Collins, a dozen Gibsons, and two Bolins listed, recorded WHITE on the Russell/Scott lists per Jack Goins's research; Jesse Bolin became pastor of Stony Creek church in 1802. Context for the Stony Creek/Melungeon material in Section 12 and for Valentine's 1801-03 membership.
Charles Gibson pension R3995 (applied Hawkins Co TN, 19 January 1839, son of Thomas Gibson of the 1755 roster): a community-member Revolutionary pension worth reading for neighborhood testimony (revwarapps.org).
The DAR GRS could not be queried directly from this session (JavaScript application); user instructions provided in conversation. If Meredith has NO ancestor number, the 1929 plaque rested on chapter-level identification rather than a vetted application, itself an informative outcome. [Moot: the user found Meredith's ancestor number, A024535 (14.5).]

14.7 The Gv579 survey plat obtained: primary document in hand (Sept 16, user download via OL9's Drive links) [OL13]

Five plat images retrieved from the Piedmont Wanderings Google Drive folder. The third (thomas-collins-land3.jpg) is THE document: Churton's survey record for Gv579. Content: a tract surveyed for Thomas Collins on Dial's Creek, beginning at a red oak, thence North 75 chains to a red oak, East 93 chains 40 links to a pine, South 75 chains to a black oak, then West crossing the creek 93 chains 40 links to the first station, containing seven hundred acres, surveyed the 13th day of April 1761, signed W. Churton, with Sworn Chain Carriers: GEORGE GIBSON, PAUL COLLINS. Caption sourcing: SSLG 87-H, Patent Book 14, page 358. The chain-carrier question is now settled on the PRIMARY document, not an abstract. The tract is roughly 1.9 km by 1.5 km of the Dial's Creek drainage, creek crossing the western line.

Companion image (thomas-collins-land4.jpg): William Jones's 672-acre survey, north side of the Flat River, surveyed 15 Aug 1763, chain carriers Thomas Person and Jno. Ligon(?), header noting "Entered by Jones Griffin" with an assignment. Two evidentiary uses: (a) its boundary runs to a post oak at a corner of JOHN BROWN's, independently proving Brown held Flat River land near the community by 1763; (b) the entered-by-one-man, surveyed-for-another mechanics on its face demonstrate that entry assignment was routine local practice, the exact mechanism the Brown-to-Thomas hypothesis (14.4) requires. [Superseded same day: 14.10 disproved the Brown-to-Thomas hypothesis (Gv591).] The other three images (Davey on Mayo Creek 1761, Rawls on New Hope Creek 1762, Watson on the Stoney and Jordans forks of the Haw 1763) are unrelated neighboring files, retained as exemplars of the form.

Brown hypothesis status: UNTESTED by the plat (surveys do not name warrant holders). Deciding documents: the WARRANT inside shuck SSLG 87-H, and John Brown's own Orange County Granville file for comparison. If Thomas's shuck holds a warrant in Brown's name, the takeover reading is proven; if it holds Thomas's own December 1760 warrant, Brown's was a parallel 700 acres and the OL8 transcription ran two records together. [Superseded same day: 14.10 resolved it; Brown's was his own parallel grant, Gv591.]

14.8 DAR reconnaissance II: Eula Conley identified; the free lineage previews (Sept 16, user screenshots) [OL14, OL15]

Application 562294 is Eula Collins Conley herself. The Descendants list for A024535 displays her name unrestricted (deceased members display; living members show "Name Restricted"): "Eula Collins Conley (#562294)." Her member page: Chapter 7028OR, joined October 1971, with FOUR verified patriot lines, which are her own ancestry (not our line beyond Meredith):

COLLINS, MEREDITH (A024535), child William / [1] Molly Hatfield, Additional Volume 505;
EVANS, WILLIAM (A037746), child Ferrell H. / [1] Phoebe Musick, Add Vol 485, Virginia soldier;
HATFIELD, JOSEPH (A052955), b. circa 1735 ORANGE CO VIRGINIA, d. 29 Aug 1832 Campbell Co TN, pension *W5 with bounty land warrant, service as scout and spy under Capts. Thompson, Sevier, Scott, Dickenson and Col. Chrisman; carries the red notice "PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED WITH AT LEAST ONE PREVIOUSLY VERIFIED PAPER";
MUSICK, ELEXIOUS (A083510), b. 1718 Virginia, d. before 28 Aug 1798 RUSSELL CO VIRGINIA, Patriotic Service: TOOK OATH OF ALLEGIANCE (source VA Mag of Hist and Bio vol 9 p 142); same problems notice. Notes: the problems banner is DAR's flag that at least one previously accepted paper for that ancestor contains errors; new applicants cannot reuse the flagged paperwork without fresh proof. Narrative mirror worth keeping: Musick's qualifying "service" was taking the very Oath of Allegiance that Elisha Collins refused in 1777. Joseph Hatfield of Orange Co VA is presumably Molly Hatfield's forebear, the Hatfield clan line.

CORRECTION to 14.5: the yellow S icon means SHORT FORM APPLICATION (site hover text), not supporting documents. A short form piggybacks on an earlier member's full paperwork without re-recording the line (the site's red note on such lists: submitted using a DAR Short Form and did not record the full line; connects to an earlier national number). 661999 is a short form connecting to 562294; 675733 is a short form connecting to an earlier Bradley-line number (cut off in screenshot, presumably 663507). Purchases with real documentation are therefore the FULL FORMS: 562294 and the full form behind the Bradley chain.

14.9 What the free Descendants previews yielded (extracted Sept 16) [OL15]

The public Descendants lists display the actual generational chains, restricted only for living or recent generations. Extracted content:

Bradley line (full-form chain): Meredith Collins, b. c. 1760 VA, d. post 1841 Pike Co KY, and his recorded (1st) wife POLLY HOLLOWAY → BRADLEY COLLINS, b. 1787 VIRGINIA, d. (post) 29 NOV 1850, APPANOOSE CO IOWA, first wife unnamed → ANDREW COLLINS, b. c. 1811 KY, m. BETSY ANN SIZEMORE (b. c. 1815 VA, d. 1870 Pike Co MO) on 31 MAR 1838 at CLAY CO KY, d. c. 1875 Scott Co MO → Polly Ann Collins, b. 1 Sep 1849 APPANOOSE CO IA, m. Phillip Newton Smith 26 Mar 1871 Scott Co MO, d. 4 Jan 1940 Scott Co MO → Nora (Lewis) Smith (1882-1973) m. Charles David Powell (1878, Mississippi Co MO - 1945/49) → restricted.

Extractions of consequence:

A terminus for Bradley, later DECODED (see 14.11): the application's "(post) 29 November 1850, Appanoose County" is the DATE OF THE 1850 CENSUS SHEET enumerating Andrew's household with Bradley in it; the applicant used last-seen-alive at the census, not a discovered death record. Bradley's actual death date remains unknown; place presumably Appanoose.
DAR records Polly Holloway as Meredith's (1st) wife on the Bradley-line form. CORRECTED Sept 16 evening (see 14.13): the "[1]" is the application's spouse NUMBERING on Meredith's line, not a claim about Bradley's mother. Eula Conley's own application dates Polly b. c. 1780 VA, married c. 1799, d. ante 1840, which excludes her as mother of Bradley (b. 1787) and restores the Section 8 structure: unnamed first wife (early 1780s) mothers Bradley; Polly (m. c. 1799) is the natural mother of the 1800s cohort (Archibald, Jesse, William, Hiram) if they were Meredith's sons. [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Bradley-line papers DO name Polly as Bradley's mother, which is wrong (she was about seven in 1787); the cohort, Jesse and Hiram included, is now read as Polly's. See READ THIS FIRST.]
Andrew Collins married a SIZEMORE, in Clay County, in 1838. Third allied Saponi-community surname to marry into the family (after the Riddles of the muster roster and the Reed sisters) [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Riddles took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in 1777 (Kegley, Militia, p. 51) and are on no roster with Meredith; any Riddle marriage is a daughter of Moses with one of Thomas's younger sons, unproven]; Sizemore is a family Carlson names as joining the Christian Saponi band, famous in Melungeon studies for its Native American Y-DNA haplogroup line. Same county as Jesse-Mary Reed (1827); the project's Clay Co vitals marriage pages (already on file) should contain the 1838 entry.
Andrew's household was in Appanoose by 1849 (Polly Ann born there Sept 1849): father Bradley, son Andrew, and Jesse's widow's family all present in Appanoose together. INFERENCE: the cluster migration tightens (without proving) the Jesse-as-Bradley's-son reading; if so, Andrew was Jesse's brother. [Superseded 2026-09-23: Jesse was Meredith's son by Polly and Bradley's half-brother, so Andrew was Jesse's nephew.] Andrew later moved on to Scott Co MO (the Bootheel), a third Missouri destination for the family.

William line (661999 short form, connecting to Eula's 562294): WILLIAM COLLINS, b. 13 APR 1806 VA, d. 30 MAR 1896 CRAIGSVILLE (Nicholas Co) WV, wife Mary A "Molly" HATFIELD, b. 23 Jun 1834 VA, d. 28 Apr 1899 Craigsville, m. c. 1860 → Nancy Jane Collins, b. 4 Jul 1865 PIKE CO KY, m. Thomas W. Blankenship 12 Sep 1883 LOGAN CO WV (Hatfield country), d. 16 Oct 1918 Craigsville. This places the Nicholas County, West Virginia Collins colony (William's branch) and explains why Brenda Collins Dillon's research site is a Nicholas County site: that branch writing its own history. William's precise birthdate (13 Apr 1806) fits the known William, son of Meredith and Polly.

Purchase strategy, final form: the previews delivered the lineage FACTS free; a record copy now buys the SOURCE CITATIONS and any supporting documents behind Bradley's death date, the Holloway identification, and the Sizemore marriage. Order of value: (1) 562294, Eula Conley's own full form; (2) the full form behind the Bradley chain (663507 pending confirmation of the connecting number). Record copies rise from $10 to $15 on March 16, 2026 (site banner); purchase before spring. [Obsolete: the order page already showed $15 on Sept 16 (14.12, OL21).]

14.10 Gv591 found: the Brown question RESOLVED, and the replacement story (Sept 16 evening, user search of OL9 abstracts) [OL16]

John Brown's Flat River grant located: Gv591, Granville to John Brown, 14 Oct 1761, 698 acres on Flat River, adjoining James Watson and Thomas Gibson, sworn chain carriers MOSES RIDDLE and CHARLES GIBSON, surveyed 13 Apr 1761 by William Churton, SSLG 85-H. Setting Gv591 beside Gv579 decodes the OL8 transcription completely: the 26 Dec 1760 warrant "including Bolins, Riddles and Collins Improvements," the 13 Apr 1761 survey, and the 14 Oct 1761 deed all belong to BROWN'S OWN grant. The takeover hypothesis (14.4 reading b) is DISPROVEN: Thomas did not capture Brown's paper; the two men held parallel tracts.

What replaces it, all documented or near-documented:

The three-day race. Brown's warrant over the community's improvements: 26 Dec 1760. Heinegg's date for Thomas (reinterpreted as his warrant): 29 Dec 1760, THREE DAYS LATER. Thomas could not undo Brown's claim on the improved bottoms, but within days of the threat he filed on the adjacent Dial's Creek land. Both tracts then ran through the system in lockstep: surveyed by Churton the same day (13 Apr 1761), granted one day apart (13 and 14 Oct 1761). Gv579 reads as an immediate DEFENSIVE filing. The 87-H warrant would confirm the 29 Dec date (task 17, narrowed again).
Moses Riddle carried the chain on the survey that absorbed his own improvements. The sworn chain carriers on Brown's Gv591 were Moses Riddle and Charles Gibson. On 13 April 1761 Churton ran both surveys with two crews drawn entirely from the community: Gibson + Collins chaining Thomas's defensive 700, Riddle + Gibson chaining the 698 that took the improvements. Readings of Moses's service (not exclusive): knowing exactly where the lines fell; the first act of a tenancy under Brown; paid work not refusable. However read, it is one of the most humanly loaded documented details in the corpus.
Moses Riddle appears in the Granville index ONLY as a chain carrier, never as a grantee (user's systematic search of the abstracts). He held by improvement alone, which is why his was absorbable; the sequel is his departure to Pittsylvania by 1767, where the clerk wrote "an Indian." The man who never got paper.
Thomas as neighbor's chainman: Gv985 (Wharton, Deep Creek, surveyed 21 Jun 1760, SCC Thomas Collins + George Gibson) and Gv897 (Justice, Deep Creek, surveyed 14 Aug 1763, SCC Thomas Striplin + Thomas Collins); and Gv685 (Thompson, Camp Creek of Flat River, 1762) ADJOINS Thomas Collins, pinning his holdings into the Deep Creek / Camp Creek / Dial's Creek geography. Reciprocity: everyone chained for everyone.
Brown context: Gv089 (1755, 210 ac, Little River) shows Brown as a Little River settler expanding toward the Flat; plat geometry of Gv591 (river-hugging, both banks in its lower half) is bottomland geometry, exactly where cleared improvements lay. Corrections to the user's plat reading from the abstract: 698 acres, surveyed 13 Apr 1761, granted 14 Oct 1761.

14.11 Clay County register haul; the Appanoose decode; Edward of Patrick County (Sept 16 evening, user records) [OL17, OL18]

Clay Co KY male-C marriage register, 1807-1889, downloaded by user. Confirmed and new [D]:

Andrew Collins m. Betsy Ann Sizemore, 31 Mar 1838 (license same day). CONFIRMED in the register; task 24 resolved.
Bradley Collins m. Catherine Barney, Jul 1831; m. Betsy Griffin, 16 Feb 1833; m. Elizabeth Luneford (Lunsford?), Sep 1836. Almost certainly OUR Bradley (the only Bradley in Clay; ages 44-49). Stacked on the unknown first wife and Jane Ray (1817): FIVE wives, the frontier signature of women dying young. By the 29 Nov 1850 census he is wifeless in Andrew's household. Probate/guardianship records for these wives could name unknown children (task 30).
Hiram Collins m. Elizabeth REED, 8 Dec 1829: second documented Reed-Collins marriage. License saga: first license 1 Dec 1828, never returned as solemnized; fresh license 1 Aug 1829; married 8 Dec 1829. Probable mechanics: a license unsolemnized within its validity window lapses (preacher's circuit, consent not in order if Elizabeth underage, or family objection outlasted); the couple marrying anyway a year later reads as obstacle overcome. A surviving marriage BOND for either license would name a bondsman (usually the bride's father or brother) (task 29).
Unplaced Clay Collins men, new roster rows: Abraham Collins m. Christina Poutston/Poulston (1828; register shows a license-after-marriage order oddity, probably a register artifact, one more look due); William Collins m. Sytha Powell (Jan 1832; NOT William son of Meredith, whose path ran to WV); James Collins m. Martha Ann Cotton (Jul 1839).
User can pull other male-surname sections: REED (the third sister; the family structure), SIZEMORE (Betsy Ann's kin in Clay), HOLLOWAY (task 28).

The Mary Reid annotation, re-examined (user's high-crop screenshot): "Mary Reid" clear; block-caps JAMES beneath is a later clerk's/indexer's clarification, so the NAME James is certain even where the cursive is not. The small phrase before "of James" is two short word-shapes not conclusively "d/o." Ranked readings: (1) "dau'r of James" or similar, the standard paternity/consent annotation, which with Elizabeth's 1829 marriage would make JAMES REED father of the Reed sisters; (2) "ward of James," the guardian-consent formula (father dead, James her protector and likely kinsman); (3) "widow of James," which would make Mary a remarrying widow and unsettle her maiden name, worth ruling out precisely because of its consequences. Settling it: maximum-resolution crop of the cell; the license/bond record for Jesse-Mary; and the same clerk's annotation formula on other lines of the page (task 29). ~~File standing until then: Mary tied by the register to a James, relationship word uncertain, "daughter of" most probable.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16 evening (14.13, OL22): the loose consent note shows JAMES READ himself requesting the license; "of James" is the clerk's cross-reference to that consent; James Read = Mary's father [D].

The Appanoose census, decoded from the user's prior read: Andrew Collins, 39, farmer, b. KY, cannot read/write, counted white; wife Betsy, 35, b. VA; children Lewis, Samson, Archibald(?), Polly A. (2); and BRADLEY COLLINS, 63, b. NORTH CAROLINA, cannot read/write; Center Township No. 3, Appanoose, sheet dated 29 NOV 1850. Consequences:

The DAR "d. post 29 Nov 1850" is the CENSUS DATE: last-seen-alive, not a death record (14.9 item 1 corrected).
Bradley born NORTH CAROLINA, c. 1787, against the DAR's "VA." NC is the better fit: 1787 is precisely the year the family cohort is documented in WILKES CO NC (Samuel's 1787 state-census household), so Bradley was likely born in the Wilkes-Ashe settlements before the Kentucky move, which also quietly corroborates Meredith's residence on the NC side c. 1787.
Naming-pattern evidence: Andrew's sons LEWIS and ARCHIBALD carry names straight from Meredith's generation and claimed-children list; soft but real binding of Andrew's household to the wider family. Samson is a new name to watch. Polly A., age 2, matches the DAR chain exactly.
The tableau: Bradley, Andrew, Betsy the Sizemore, and Jesse's widow's family in one Iowa county, all counted white, the elders unable to read or write.

Edward "Ned" candidate: 1850 Patrick Co VA (user's FamilySearch find) [OL18]: Edward Collins, 46 (b. c. 1804), farmer, b. NORTH CAROLINA, $1,000 real estate; Eliza Collins, 36, b. VA; Davis Collins, 21, laborer; Samuel Holt, 24, laborer; color column blank (counted white). Assessment: birth c. 1804 sits just past the legend's 1796-1802 census-bracket estimate, within normal slack. NC birth fits the network: both candidate fathers were on the NC side in the window (the cohort's Wilkes-Ashe presence; George Collins "the hunter" in Ashe under the alternate-father version). Patrick Co sits on the NC line two counties west of Pittsylvania (the Riddle-Bowlin destination) and adjacent to the Stokes-Rockingham corner that held the GOINSTOWN tri-racial community; geographically at home for a mixed-heritage Collins. Davis is young enough to be Edward's son by an earlier wife (Edward ~25 at his birth), Eliza a second wife; Holt reads as hired hand or Eliza's kin. Grade: genuine [?] candidate. Tests (task 27): Patrick marriage records (Edward x Eliza), 1840 Patrick census incl. free-colored columns, 1860 follow-up, the deed behind the $1,000 farm.

14.12 Second evening wave: both plats in hand; the Reed section; the DAR order page (Sept 16) [OL19, OL20, OL21]

Gv591 plat obtained (John-Brown-Moses-Riddle-Orange-NC-Land-1.jpg). Metes: beginning at a hickory on JAMES WATSON's line, North 42 ch 50 li to a hickory on THOMAS GIBSON's line, then his line East 4 ch to a hickory on the riverbank, then WITH GIBSON's up the waters of the river N15W 35 ch to a red oak on the east bank, then East 95 ch to a stake, South 76 ch 50 li to a post oak, West 90 ch crossing the river to the start; 698 acres; surveyed 13 Apr 1761; sworn chain carriers MOSES RIDLE and CHARELS GIBSON in Churton's record. The notch reading corrected and sharpened: the western notch is THOMAS GIBSON'S PATENTED TRACT; Brown's survey bends around Gibson's lines and runs with them along the river. The plat thereby draws the legal divide in one figure: a man with paper got a notch cut AROUND his land; men without paper (Riddle, Bowlin, Collins improvements) got the line run THROUGH their clearings. User's motive hypothesis logged [?]: if Moses was Thomas's father-in-law, serving as sworn carrier was also boundary-watching, ensuring Brown's lines stopped where they lawfully had to and crept no further into what the family could still save. [Superseded 2026-09-23: Moses (b. c. 1715-25) was not Thomas's father-in-law.]

Gv091 plat obtained (Dennis-Collins-87-H-Land-.jpg). Dennis Collins, 480 acres both sides of Cobbs Creek, surveyed 6 DEC 1753 by Churton, sworn chain carriers CORNELIUS and FRANCIS DOLLARHIDE; granted 8 May 1755; SSLG 87-H, Patent Book 14 p. 384. Two days after Dennis chain-carried on Gv313 (4 Dec 1753): a December 1753 Churton circuit through the neighborhood, prefiguring the April 1761 one. Dollarhide: a non-core surname to watch.

Clay Co register, R and H sections (user reading; page 91 image on file) [OL20]:

DOUBLE-WEDDING FINDING: STEPHEN REED m. NANCY POWELL, 13 DEC 1827, THE SAME DAY as Jesse Collins m. Mary Reid. Same-day marriages in one register overwhelmingly indicate a joint ceremony, and joint ceremonies indicate siblings: Stephen marrying alongside his sister Mary [INFERENCE, strong]. The name doubles back a generation: Elisha Collins's Ashe land adjoined STEPHEN and JAMES REED on the New River; a James fathering a Stephen fits the naming recycle exactly.
Working Reed reconstruction: JAMES REED (the register's "of James"), children marrying in Clay 1822-1830: Patsy (m. James Hollinsworth 1822) [candidate], Randolph (m. Rhodey Hollinsworth 1825) [candidate], MARY (m. Jesse Collins 13 Dec 1827) [D], STEPHEN (m. Nancy Powell 13 Dec 1827) [strong], ELIZABETH (m. Hiram Collins 8 Dec 1829) [D], William (m. Lydia Langdon 1830) [candidate]. Children marrying 1822-30 places James's birth c. 1775-85. [Superseded 2026-09-23: James Reed/Read was b. c. 1765, d. c. 1841, son of Hugh Reed of Rowan Co NC; over forty-five in the 1820 Clay census.] James Reed m. Polly Silver (1839; no month recorded) = the widowed father remarrying OR a son James; test. [Revised 2026-09-27: James's census ages put his birth c. 1766-75, and Hugh Reed as his father rests only on the Attride compilation [?]. He died either in Clay c. 1841 (reading A) or in Morgan Co, Indiana, before 6 Jan 1845 (reading B); under (B) the 1839 Polly Silver groom is another James. Patsy is more likely a daughter of Stephen Reed Jr; Elizabeth is a probable daughter; Randolph is a possible son, and William a son under reading (A) only. See READ THIS FIRST and claude/Reed_Family_Investigation_Addendum.md.]
Richard Reed x KELSEY (Kesiah?) COLLINS, license Jan 1827, unsolemnized: a THIRD Reed-Collins pairing in the record, direction reversed (Reed groom, Collins bride), eleven months before Jesse-Mary. Kesiah Collins = new unplaced Collins woman (roster row).
Base-rate recalibration: unsolemnized licenses are COMMON in this register (John Reed 1819; Richard Reed 1823, 1827; Willis Reed 1849; several Hollinsworths). Some reflect certificates never returned rather than weddings that never happened. Hiram's 1828 gap stays distinctive only because he RE-LICENSED in 1829.
The Reeds' primary allied family in Clay = HOLLINSWORTH (three pairings). Lunsford correction: Bradley m. Elizabeth Luneford Sep 1836 PRECEDES John Hollinsworth's failed Apr 1837 license for an Elizabeth Lunesford; therefore almost certainly two different Elizabeth Lunsfords (the surname is thick in the register). Lydia BOWLING m. Clem Hurd 1839: the old Flat River allied surname present in Clay. No Holloways in H; the register begins 1806, so Meredith's 1780s-90s Virginia/Carolina marriages are structurally out of its range. S section lost before 1864: Betsy Ann Sizemore's Clay kin must be traced via the 1820-1840 Clay census schedules instead (task 32).
BOND ROUTE FOUND: the register's rightmost column is FILE NO., pointing to the loose marriage file (bond, license, consent). The loose files are typically filmed in the same FamilySearch image group (IGN 007728051, 814 images; the General Index is only its front) or sibling Clay County sets, else KDLA Frankfort microfilm or the Clay County Clerk, Manchester. Jesse-Mary's File No. is the direct path to the bond and to the "of James" answer (task 29 updated).

Census infrastructure notes: FamilySearch 1840 collection search: familysearch.org/en/search/collection/1786457 (Patrick Co Edward Collins test); 1860 via the census hub wiki page; Virginia's 1810 census is LOST for Patrick, Pittsylvania, Grayson, Russell, and Orange counties, exactly this project's counties; no 1810 sweeps there can succeed.

Moses Riddle, why no land (analysis): no formal racial bar existed (Thomas the "Molata" received 700 acres). The stack: cash (entry, survey, patent fees, then perpetual quitrents, in an economy of hunting and improvements); the office (distant, notoriously corrupt, and a place a taxed-as-mulatto Indian man had reason to avoid); and timing, the cruelest: after Brown's grant absorbed his improvements 1760-61, the Granville office effectively ceased granting in the mid-1760s (Granville d. 1763) and no grants issued again until the state office of 1778, a decade after Moses left. One chance at the paper economy; the paper went to another man. Pittsylvania sequel: Sandy River ENTRIES (entries again, patents unproven), the 1767 "an Indian" tax line; then task 33: Pittsylvania entry/deed books, and the UNVERIFIED Riddle-family lore thread connecting son William to the Tory-outlaw William Riddle hanged on the New River, to be tested, not assumed.

DAR order page for 562294 [OL21]: Application PDF $15 (page carries a free "Preview: Lineage" link, click first); Supporting Documentation $30 with 25 DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE; both $45. Twenty-five surviving documents behind Eula Conley's four-patriot application is a small archive at ~$1.20/document; some will serve her Evans/Hatfield/Musick lines, but her Collins proofs for Meredith, Polly Holloway, and William are inside, possibly including family records existing nowhere else. RECOMMENDATION: the $45 bundle; instant download via Download Purchased Items.

14.13 THE CONSENT NOTE FOUND: James Read named as Mary's father; and Eula's preview data (Sept 16 evening) [OL22, OL23]

The Jesse-Mary loose file located (user, FamilySearch Clay Co films; archivist's "Smeared Ink" card on the frame). Transcription (phonetic spellings original): "November the 25 1827. Mr Abner Baker Sir ples to grant Jesse Collens lisens to marrey Mary Red and oblige them. atest: Stephen Read, Hirom(?) Collins. [signed at right:] James Read." Abner Baker was Clay County's longtime clerk; the note is a request TO the clerk to issue the license, written eighteen days before license and marriage (13 Dec 1827). Decoding:

The author-signatory of such a note is the person whose permission the clerk needed on file: the bride's father (occasionally guardian). JAMES READ = MARY'S FATHER [D]. The register's "of James" annotation (14.11) is the clerk's cross-reference to this consent; that question is RESOLVED. James wrote (or at least signed) the note: literate, or at minimum signature-literate.
Stephen Read attesting his sister's license request, eighteen days before marrying Nancy Powell on the same day Mary married: the double-wedding reading upgrades to near-certainty, one family event planned from late November.
The second attester reads HIRAM COLLINS (cursive capital H yields the "Fl/Cl" impressions; user considered Fleiom/Cleonee before landing on Hiram). A Collins man witnessing Jesse's license request in 1827 who then marries a Read daughter in 1829 is almost certainly Jesse's brother: the FIRST DOCUMENT PLACING JESSE AND HIRAM TOGETHER, quiet but real sibling evidence.
On the all-male signatures: bonds and consent notes were male legal instruments (capacity to be bound, property behind the penalty); wives were never listed. James appearing alone says NOTHING about widowhood; the Polly Silver 1839 question stays open on its own merits.
The file for this marriage may also hold a formal penal bond and the minister's return; photograph everything adjacent on the film.

Eula Conley's free lineage preview (descendants list, generations now displaying) [OL23]:

POLLY HOLLOWAY: b. c. 1780 VA, married c. 1799, d. ante 1840 per Eula's own application. CONSEQUENCE: Polly CANNOT be Bradley's mother (b. 1787 when Polly was ~7). The Bradley-line form's "[1] Polly Holloway" was spouse NUMBERING on Meredith's line, not a maternity claim (14.9 point 2 corrected accordingly). Section 8's structure is restored and refined: unnamed first wife (c. 1782-85) mothers Bradley; Polly, marrying c. 1799 at ~19, is the natural mother of the 1800s cohort (Archibald 1800, Jesse c. 1804 with Polly ~24, William 1806, Hiram c. 1806-08) IF they were Meredith's sons. [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Bradley-line papers do name Polly as Bradley's mother, wrongly; Hiram is c. 1804-06; the cohort, Jesse included, is Meredith and Polly's. See READ THIS FIRST.] Jesse and Bradley, on this reading, are HALF-BROTHERS. Eula's "d. ante 1840" is census-derived; Conley-via-Blackburn's "d. c. 1812" sits inside it; both retained.
WILLIAM COLLINS b. 13 Apr 1806 at RUSSELL CO VA, locking onto Meredith's Russell tax years (1799-1809). By extension JESSE (b. c. 1804) was very likely RUSSELL-BORN. Eula also has the Hatfield marriage exact (25 Nov 1860) and correctly labels Molly the (2nd) wife, Mary Mullins first: her precision against the short forms.
Eula's own arc decoded: her grandfather Samuel Collins (b. 20 Sep 1861 Pike Co KY) married Nebraska Rocilla Cutlip of Nicholas Co WV (1891) and died in PORTLAND, OREGON (1937): hence Eula's Oregon chapter (7028OR). Pike County > Nicholas County > Portland.
Purchase case STRENGTHENED: the free skeleton contains Polly's vitals; the application's citation column and the 25 supporting documents hold whatever "married c. 1799" rests on, which is fork-relevant evidence. [2026-09-23: the fork is settled; the packet remains open lead 3.] $45 bundle stands recommended.

14.14 The 1840 Patrick County read; Stephen Read flagged (Sept 16 evening) [OL24]

Edward Collins, 1840 Patrick Co VA (user read): all free WHITE columns; 1 male 30-40 (Edward, fits b. c. 1804), 1 male 15-20 (b. 1820-25), 1 male 10-15 (fits DAVIS, b. c. 1829), 1 female 30-40 (b. 1800-1810). Analysis adopted: the 1840 wife (b. 1800-1810) is a FIRST wife of the right age for the early-1820s boys; Eliza (b. c. 1814, who would be female 20-30) replaces her by 1850: Edward remarried in the 1840s. REVISED Sept 16 late (user correction): within normal census age slack (plus or minus a year), Samuel at 24 in 1850 (b. c. 1825-26) FITS the 1840 male 15-20; and the 1850 entry's hyphenated "Samuel-Holt" with no surname ditto reads plausibly as a COMPOUND GIVEN NAME, i.e. SAMUEL HOLT COLLINS, Edward's son, with "Holt" preserving a family surname, most naturally the 1840 FIRST WIFE'S maiden name (Holt) [?]. Alternative (unrelated laborer named Samuel Holt) retained. Tests: Patrick marriages for Edward Collins x a HOLT bride c. 1820-25; the 1860 census (Samuel H. Collins vs Samuel Holt); the enumerator's surname-blank habits on the 1850 page.

The Patrick cluster: adjacent Collins households on the page: William, RUBEN, Edward, Edmund, plus Leighton Collins and a second William elsewhere on it. REUBEN is a claimed-son name of Meredith's in the Conley material, adjacent to Edward, another claimed son. Two readings: (a) two of Meredith's Virginia-staying sons side by side (pattern boost for Ned); (b) a long-standing LOCAL Patrick Collins family whose common names coincide (caution). DECIDING TEST: the 1830 Patrick census. Cluster present in 1830 and earlier = likely local family, Ned case weakens; Edward and Reuben appearing between 1830 and 1840 = arrival, and arrival fits the legend (task 27 updated).

Stephen Read flagged for tracing (task 37): marrying Dec 1827 puts his birth c. 1800-07: generationally Mary's SIBLING (too young for James's father; a much-younger brother of James not excluded but unfavored; his attesting Mary's consent fits brother). Routes: 1830/1840 Clay censuses; 1850 census (Stephen Reed b. c. 1800s KY, wife Nancy); the Powell connection doubling (Nancy Powell; Sytha Powell m. William Collins of Clay 1832).

14.15 Kegley, Early Adventurers on the Western Waters vol. 2 (archive.org earlyadventurers0002mary): the REFUSAL RECORD and the Elk Creek anchor (Sept 16 night, user searches) [OL25]

THE REFUSAL RECORD, p. 218 (Montgomery Co COURT MARTIAL OF 23 APRIL 1783, held at the house of Patrick Campbell; date confirmed by user from the page). Officers present include Walter Crockett (president), Jehu Stephens, James Newell, William Love, JAMES McDONNALD himself (sitting on the court that processed his own company's refusers), John Adams, James Finley, and others. The record orders captains to enlist a sixteenth of their companies as cavalry, excuses various men for infirmities, and then lists, company by company, men who "had refused to serve their present tours of duty," the refusers from Capt. Ozburn's company to be sent aboard "the armed vessels for the defence of Chesapeake Bay," and: "In Captain McDonnald's Company, Joel Stamper, Daniel Blevins, William Minyard, JAMES COX, MEREDITH COLLINS, Stephen Austin, Robt. Briggs, Jno. Robison, Moses Indicut, Zachariah Simmons, Wm. Hill and JOHN SAXTON were under similar orders." Context corrected: this is the POST-WAR ACCOUNTING of the 1781-82 calls (the Chesapeake threat belongs to those calls); Yorktown was eighteen months past, the peace being signed that spring, yet the court was still clearing delinquencies: p. 219 records dozens fined for missing general muster, "Captain McDonnald's men" fined WITHOUT NAMES RECORDED, and clerk James McCorkle paid fifteen pounds OUT OF THE FINES IMPOSED (Montgomery County Loose Papers 23680, Court Martials 1781-1783, LVA). This is only the SECOND contemporaneous Revolutionary document naming our Meredith (after the Kegley p. 23 enrollment roster), and it records him REFUSING AN ACTIVE TOUR. Interpretive frame: refusal was epidemic across every company on the page (a frontier county resisting orders to strip its own defenses for the Tidewater, in harvest, with Cherokee and Tory threats at home, for pay in collapsing paper); it completes rather than contradicts the belonging frame: enrolled as citizens, refusing as the same stubborn self-directed men of the 1747 Sabbath-hunting presentments. DAR wrinkle: his Patriot verification rests on the enrollment roster from the same records that preserve the refusal. Allied names beside him: JAMES COX (see 14.16, Capt. John Cox thread), Daniel BLEVINS (New River Blevins family), JOHN SAXTON (= SEXTON, the allied family refusing alongside).

p. 108 land entries: "Elisha Wallen, Senr. assignee of JOHN COLLINS, 200 acres on north side of Rocky Creek, settled 1774": a New River-era John Collins settlement claim assigned to a WALLEN (the longhunter family): candidate elder-John record. Same page: "Richard Wright assignee of JAMES McDANNAL... 400 acres on Turkey Fork of ELK CREEK, settled 1776": Capt. James McDaniel's land dealings sat on ELK CREEK waters, the Peach Bottom / Elk Creek country where the Collins settled: THE COMPANY DISTRICT WAS THEIR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD, confirmed.

Other Kegley catches: 28 Oct 1830, ZACHARIAH COLLINS m. MARY ANN McDANIEL (Richard Buckingham's minister list): a Collins-McDaniel marriage a generation on; Zachariah unplaced (roster row; task 38). p. 292: Elizabeth Collins m. Jacob Hevner Jr. 1836, Montgomery Co (nine sons; family to Indian Territory; Jacob Jr. and eldest son said hanged 1863 by Jayhawkers near Heavener OK): UNPLACED, low priority (our line left Montgomery by c. 1810). CAUTION: most "Meredith" hits in the volume are the HUGH MEREDITH family (surname), not our man. Search-term list for this volume and siblings (vols 1 and 3 on archive.org): Collins, Gibson, Riddle/Ridley/Reedley, Sexton AND Saxton, Bowlin/Bolen, Cox, Blevins, Osborn/Ozburn, Wallen, lead mines, court martial, delinquent, insolvent, oath, Elk Creek, Peach Bottom, Merida, Meredy.

Militia pay context (for the incentives reading): wages were owed in Virginia currency pounds (a money of account distinct from and discounted against sterling); almost no coin circulated (British specie restrictions, no mints), the working hard money being the Spanish milled dollar (the model for the 1792 US dollar); wartime emissions by Congress ("Continental dollars") and Virginia collapsed, Virginia's official depreciation scale reaching ~1000:1 against specie by late 1781; militia pay ran years in arrears in this paper or in certificates. The frontier's real exchange ran on skins (cf. Samuel Collins's 1746 deer-skin debt; "buck" for dollar derives from buckskins), tobacco notes eastward, whiskey, and land claims. A 1781 tour meant abandoning farm and exposed family for months of despised duty paid in dissolving paper: refusal was economically rational, and the page's epidemic of refusals shows the county knew it.

14.16 Pension finds: John Riddle S9069; the Martin file confirmed; a Joseph Collins namesake cleared (Sept 16 night) [OL26, OL27]

John Riddle (Riddley) S9069 (user find, transcription by C. Leon Harris): aged 83 in Sept 1833 (b. c. 1750); entered service 1776 under CAPT. JOHN COX "near Chissels lead mines" on the New River; marched to the LONG ISLAND OF HOLSTON against the Cherokee, serving 4.5 months: THE SAME 1776 CHEROKEE EXPEDITION Meredith's cohort joined from Christiansburg, mustered from the same lead-mines neighborhood. Residence 1833: the STOKES-ROCKINGHAM COUNTY LINE, NC: the GOINSTOWN tri-racial corridor, one county from Patrick where the Edward/Ned candidate farms. Age and profile fit MOSES RIDDLE'S SON JOHN (the 1782 McDaniel-roster John Riddle) [strong candidate, common-surname caveat: other Riddles lived in Stokes]. The Patrick-Stokes convergence of Riddle and Collins descendants is flagged [?]. Also: Capt. John Cox connects to JAMES COX beside Meredith on the refusal list: Cox family on the watch list. [Superseded 2026-09-23: no record gives the place or column of Meredith's 1776 service (Christiansburg was founded in 1792); John Riddle is not on McDaniel's list: he took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company, by his mark, in the fall of 1777 (James McCorkle's list, Kegley, Militia, pp. 50-51).]

Tory William Riddle lore, restated with its tension: regional history records Tory leader William Riddle kidnapping Col. Benjamin Cleveland at the Old Fields of New River, April 1781; Cleveland rescued within days; Riddle captured and hanged (Wilkes "Tory Oak" tradition). Riddle-family researchers identify him with MOSES'S SON WILLIAM: UNVERIFIED, and the 1782 roster's William Riddle argues against it UNLESS Kegley's 1777-1790 list is cumulative and captures a pre-1781 enrollment. [Superseded 2026-09-23: "William Ridel" is not on a 1782 roster; he took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in the fall of 1777 (James McCorkle's list, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777, Kegley, Militia, pp. 50-51). That oath predates the April 1781 kidnapping, so it does not argue against the identification.] Task 33 unchanged.

Salathiel Martin W1044 confirmed as the Gibson-episode source (widow Mary, f120NC, Will Graves transcription; user has it): read in full for the Joseph Collins affidavit on Lewis and David Gibson's 1780 capture and escape; transcribe verbatim. NOTE: the "stone tower, escaped in the night" detail in the user's memory is NOT in our collected sources; check the One More Mountain telling. [Resolved 2026-09-23: Joseph Collins's affidavit (27 Jan 1849, Grainger Co TN; NARA M804, roll 1642, frame 0730; transcribed at joepayne.org) has the Tories taken at a "Rock House": "Two of said company of tories escaped the night after their capture." "Stone fort/tower" was a paraphrase.] Companion texture now citable: pension W19209 (same site) describes tours under Capt. Salathiel Martin from FOX KNOB (present Grayson) over the Brushy Mountains to Hunting Creek and Col. Cleveland on the Yadkin, then the Mulberry Fields, capturing "one Roberts a tory who afterwards made his escape," parts of the detachment killing three others: the Tory war as small mounted parties hunting neighbors. The Gibsons persisted after 1780: Charles Gibson's R3995 (Hawkins 1839), the 1802 Russell list, and Gibson as a core Newman's Ridge surname.

Conflation caution #3: Joseph Collins S2142 (read in full Sept 16) is a NAMESAKE, not ours: b. 1745 Westmoreland Co VA, raised Prince William / Stafford / Bedford, served from Bedford under Capts. Leftwich (Buford's command), settled the Watauga, marched toward King's Mountain arriving just after the battle, guarded prisoners and saw some hanged; illiterate, X mark; pensioned six months. Geography excludes both the Flat River Joseph (landholder by 1756) and the New River affidavit Joseph. Do not merge.

14.17 Kegley vol. 2, second pass: economics anchored, the Montgomery marriage cluster, the Sexton certificate (Sept 16 late night, user screenshots and readings) [OL28, OL29]

Economics, now locally documented: (a) Montgomery petition, 24 May 1782 (p. 222): specie "almost unknown," what existed "securely kept by the few"; hundreds of poor mountain families whose means of obtaining supplies "was by the use of DEER SKINS," petitioning that skins be made TAX-PAYABLE (the skins economy stated by their own county in their own year). (b) John Taylor's 1781 tithable list analysis (p. 220): 109 tithables, only 39 with any cash; the district's gold itemized coin by coin (louis d'or, half Johannes, guinea, silver dollars). (c) Col. Charles Lynch's letter from the LEAD MINES, 20 June 1783 (p. 219): Razor, held "on suspicion of being a Tory... a dangerous man being a Dutch [German] man," his purse holding "a half joe, a guiney, and a piece of 8": Portuguese, British, and Spanish coin in one frontier pocket, none of it American. (d) Book's own pointer: for the TORIES see Early Adventurers vol. I, pp. 137-151 (task 43); militia rolls also served as the road-work assignment lists (p. 225).

Regional legal context, the Indian-descent freedom suits (pp. 223-225): Rachel Findley, "a woman of color," recovered her freedom (Powhatan Superior Court, May 1820) on the grounds of MATERNAL DESCENT FROM AN INDIAN brought into the country when Indians could not lawfully be enslaved; her daughter Juda and co-plaintiffs (suing John Draper Sr. from 1813, heard 1820, Wythe) recovered theirs the same way, with supporting records back to a 1770 jury finding. The same maternal-line legal logic as William Reed's 1694 suit, running through THIS region's courts into the 1820s: context for how Indian ancestry functioned in Virginia law.

The MONTGOMERY COLLINS MARRIAGE CLUSTER (bonds and ministers' returns; "sur." = SURETY, the bond's guarantor kinsman; "Returns by [name], M.G." = a Minister of the Gospel's list of marriages performed):

14 Feb 1785: Boston Wygal x ELENOR COLLINS (sur. John Wiley, Meredith Raines: the given name Meredith in the Raines family noted)
12 Aug 1793: JOHN COLLINS x Betsy Johnston, dau. of William Johnston (sur. John Paden Jr): candidate = JOHN JR of the muster [?] [Superseded 2026-09-23: no John Collins is on McDaniel's list; "John (probably Jr.)" came from the merged roster. "Jno. Collens" took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in the fall of 1777 (Kegley, Militia, p. 51).]
4 Feb 1794 (Ross return; bond p. 129): Thomas Hardy x NANCY COLLINS, DAUGHTER OF DANIEL COLLINS (sur. Parker Lucas)
25 Jul 1801: SAMUEL COLLINS x Rachel PRICE, sur. DANIEL COLLINS (likely Daniel's son)
9 Mar 1808: James Caffee x Sally Collins, sur. HEZEKIAH COLLINS
8/11 Mar 1813: SAMUEL COLLINS x Permelia Gaines, sur. John Gaines, CONSENT OF DAVID COLLINS AS FATHER (underage groom, b. c. 1792-95): THE HEADLINE ENTRY: if this David is OUR David (1776 enlistee, 1782 muster, Ashe 1778), we have his son and his 1813 residence [? strong lead]
4 Nov 1819: Doherty x Lucinda Collins, sur. Hezekiah Collins; 7 Oct 1820: William Collins x Polly Furrow; 6 Feb 1821: Richard Collins x Evelina Lee; 3 Oct 1826: Adam PRICE x Nancy Collins; 1828: Benjamin Collins x Kitty Stevens; 1829: Thomas Collins x Elizabeth Booth; 28 Oct 1830: Zachariah Collins x Mary Ann McDaniel (14.15). CAUTION, stated as firmly as the lead: Daniel and Hezekiah are names ABSENT from the Flat River and muster sets, and the surety-spouse network (Wygal, Price, Gaines, Furrow, Johnston, Lucas) is the German-English settler web of Walker's Creek and Reed Creek, not the community surnames. Either stay-behind kin marrying into the county mainstream, or a SEPARATE Montgomery Collins family. Sorting tests (task 42): 1810/1820 Montgomery-Wythe censuses for Daniel, David, Hezekiah Collins households (free-colored columns); presence in 1782 company lists and Grayson tax rolls. PRICE double-link noted (Rachel 1801, Adam 1826).

The Sexton certificate (p. 154) [OL28]: "October 11, RICHARD MUSE, assignee of John Hays, assignee of WM. SEXTON, Commissioner's preemption certificate, 1,000 acres on New River below a branch of Bingeman's Bottom." A settlement right earned by residence, papered, and ASSIGNED AWAY through middlemen: the third allied family showing the same pattern (Moses Riddle's absorbed improvements; John Collins's Rocky Creek claim to Wallen). The assigned-away preemption is emerging as the community's signature relationship to the land system.

Texture sources logged (pp. 216-217): Elizabeth Barrett's 1826 petition (husband in the penitentiary for stealing a horse from a Grayson man; six small children; house burned; "waring cloath"; "deep and uncommon distress"; petition rejected) and the Catherine King dower litigation: the county's poverty-and-law texture from the inside, for the book's milieu chapters.

14.18 Late-night close: Cox on Peach Bottom; the Tories pages read (Sept 16, final) [OL30]

CAPT. JOHN COX, 400 acres on PEACH BOTTOM, settled 1774 (Kegley p. 246). The captain John Riddle served under in 1776 was the Collins family's neighbor on their own creek (John Collins settled Peach Bottom 1767; George Collins there from 1767 per his 1809 testimony). The two captains now bracket the family's world: COX on Peach Bottom, McDANIEL on Elk Creek waters; the companies were the adjoining hollows, each under its creek's biggest landholder.

Tories pages (pp. 298-299, 344-346) read; NO Gibson content (W1044 remains that source). Context captured for the milieu chapter: the SHALLOW FORD fight on the Yadkin (Oct 1780, ~400 British and Tories, sixteen enemy dead, one colonial killed, the county's "perfect marksmen"); John Day's pension (Morgan Co KY 1833): 1776 Cherokee Towns tour; May 1779 enrolled Montgomery as volunteer SPY OR RANGER under Capt. Lyon, stationed at PARRIS'S FORT on the New River; 1780 under Col. Joseph Cloyd and Capt. George Paris to Shallow Ford; 1781 under Col. William Preston into NC against the British; Trollinger the gunpowder maker's expeditions against the Moravian Towns Tories, "some of whom they whipped and others they hanged," and his powder paid for "in Continental money which turned out to be of little or no value" (Pension W4087): the tours the 1781-82 calls demanded and the refusers refused, plus one more pension-documented instance of the worthless-paper economy.

Census link kit (for task 42 and the Ned tests): 1810: familysearch.org/en/search/collection/1803765 (Collins, residence Montgomery then Wythe, Virginia; Grayson 1810 LOST); 1820: familysearch.org/en/search/collection/1803955 (add Grayson); 1840: collection 1786457 (already in use). The decisive column on 1810/1820: "ALL OTHER FREE PERSONS." Finding DAVID would: confirm the 1813 consenter, age-test him against our David (b. c. 1755-60), classification-test the cluster, and, if identified, open a MALE-LINE Collins branch (son Samuel b. c. 1792-95) for the long-horizon Y-DNA question.

14.19 The David hunt, first returns: Fauquier 1810 dismissed; WYTHE 1820 candidate found (Sept 16, last finds of the day) [OL31]

1810 Fauquier Co David Collins: NAMESAKE, dismissed. Fauquier sits in the northern VA Piedmont, ~200 miles from the New River; a Fauquier man would not consent to a Montgomery marriage in 1813. User's ticks (boxes 1, 4, 6, 8 of the 1810 layout: FWM <10, 10-15, 16-25, 26-44, 45+; FWF same five; other free; slaves) read as a young family (boy <10, man 26-44, girl <10, woman 16-25), far-right marks ambiguous on the headerless sheet. Our David's ABSENCE from 1810 is uninformative: GRAYSON'S 1810 SCHEDULE IS LOST, and Grayson (Elk Creek / Peach Bottom country after 1793) is exactly where a stay-behind cohort man would have been enumerated.

1820 WYTHE Co David Collins: THE CANDIDATE. Page neighbors: Samuel and Robert CROCKETT (family of Walter Crockett, president of the 1783 court martial) and William and Jesse COX: the lead-mines / Reed Creek neighborhood, one county from the 1813 consent. Column map (1820: FWM <10, 10-16, 16-18, 16-26, 26-45, 45+ = boxes 1-6; FWF <10, 10-16, 16-26, 26-45, 45+ = boxes 7-11; foreigners = 12; AGRICULTURE = 13). User's ticks: box1 = 2, box2 = 1, box5 = 1, box6 = ditto (value uncertain), box7 = 3, box10 = 1, box13 = 1. Reconstruction: TWO BOYS UNDER 10 (b. 1810-20), ONE BOY 10-16 (b. c. 1804-10), ONE MAN 26-45, POSSIBLY MEN 45+, THREE GIRLS UNDER 10, ONE WOMAN 26-45 (b. 1775-94), ONE FARMER; NOTHING in the free-colored columns: counted entirely white.

The deciding cell: if box 6 (males 45 and upwards) holds a genuine mark, this is a MULTIGENERATIONAL household: old David (our David, b. c. 1755, would be ~65) + son SAMUEL (b. c. 1792-95, m. Permelia Gaines 1813) as the 26-45 man + Permelia as the 26-45 woman + their five small children (b. 1810-20): exactly what the 1813 consent should look like seven years on. If box 6 is empty, this David is a YOUNGER David (b. 1775-94), still cluster-relevant but not our cohort man. CAVEAT on the user's "ditto = 2": ditto marks repeat the CELL DIRECTLY ABOVE (Jacob Capp's row), whose value is unverified; the stroke may not be a ditto at all. TASK 44: zoom the single intersection, David Collins row x column six.

If confirmed: the 1813 consenter placed and aged; the Montgomery cluster gains its first documented household; the 1820 classification reads WHITE (kaleidoscope panel); and Samuel-son-of-David's sons (b. 1810-20) constitute a MALE-LINE Collins branch for the Y-DNA question. Follow-ups: search 1820 for a separate SAMUEL COLLINS head in Wythe/Montgomery (his absence as head supports the multigenerational reading); check 1830 WYTHE for David (1830's brackets: a man 70-80 nails or breaks the cohort identification in one glance). [Box 6 RESOLVED by user's re-examination: see 14.20.]

14.20 Second returns on the cluster hunt: the ditto resolved, the Samuels triaged, Daniel in Patrick, the 1840 Wythe David (Sept 16, closing) [OL31, OL32]

1820 Wythe David, finalized reading (user's ditto-convention analysis accepted and documented): the enumerator dots zeros and dittos repeat the nearest POSITIVE value above (here Robert Cranston's 2, skipping Capp's dot-zero), so box 6 = 2: TWO MEN 45 AND UP. Full household of ten: 2 M under 10, 1 M 10-16, 1 M 26-45, 2 M 45+, 3 F under 10, 1 F 26-45; "1 in agriculture" is an occupation count, not an eleventh person; free-colored columns empty, counted WHITE. Consequences: NO WOMAN 45+: neither old man has a wife present; if our David is one, he was a WIDOWER by 1820, folded into the younger family. The TWO ELDERS question open: father + father-in-law (user's suggestion), two brothers, or David + an aged cohort kinsman.

Daniel Collins triage: 1820 HAMPSHIRE Co (Potomac drainage, ~200 mi north; a Thomas Collins two rows below = Hampshire's own Collins cluster): NAMESAKE, dismissed. 1820 PATRICK Co Daniel: scan overexposed and unreadable, but the INDEX PRESENCE matters: a Collins named Daniel in Patrick twenty years before the 1840 cluster. HYPOTHESIS, held loosely: Patrick lies two counties from Montgomery via Floyd; the MONTGOMERY Daniel may have MOVED, making the 1840 Patrick cluster (William, Reuben, Edward, Edmund) partly the Montgomery cluster relocated, which reshapes without settling the Edward/Ned question. Arbiter: the 1830 PATRICK schedule.

1830 census EXISTS (the user's search filter hid it): on FamilySearch as its own collection, linked from the census hub wiki page; first census with ten-year age brackets. 1830 PATRICK (cluster test) and 1830 WYTHE (David age test) are the two decisive schedules (task 46).

Samuel Collins 1820 triage (user's four hits): skip Frederick (N Shenandoah) and Nelson (central Blue Ridge). WASHINGTON Co: second priority (borders the Russell country). PEARISBURG, GILES CO: THE HEADLINE: Giles was formed FROM MONTGOMERY in 1806, Pearisburg on the New River immediately downstream of the family's old ground. Two-Samuels resolution hypothesis: if the Giles head is SAMUEL-OF-DANIEL (m. Rachel Price 1801, b. c. 1775-80: a man 26-45 with children from the early 1800s), then SAMUEL-OF-DAVID (m. Permelia 1813) remains the 26-45 man INSIDE David's Wythe household, both Samuels placed in one stroke; if the Giles household shows only post-1813 children, it is Samuel-and-Permelia living separately and the Wythe reading changes. Household shape decides (task 45).

1840 WYTHE David Collins (user's "White County" corrected: the citation reads Wythe; division of Robt. Tibbally?): continuity in the same county as the 1820 hit. Visible on the printed form: a knot of marks in the young-adult male columns, ONE elder-male mark in the middle-elder columns (exact column unresolved from this scan), women's marks, and the FREE COLORED columns of his row apparently BLANK (white again). THE ONE COLUMN THAT DECIDES (task 47): the elder male's bracket: 60-70 = a David b. 1770-80 (NOT cohort David; plausibly one of 1820's two elders grown old); 70-80 = boundary; 80-90 = b. 1750-60, OUR DAVID alive at ~85. User to count the printed column headers to the tick, as with the ditto.

14.21 REVISION on Wythe; the Giles Samuel placed (tentative); the minister's register (Sept 17, first finds) [OL33, OL34]

The 1840 Wythe re-read (user's careful count) and what it REVISES. 1840 David Collins household: 1M 5-10, 2M 10-15, 2M 15-20, 1M 50-60, 1F 10-15, 2F 20-30, 1F 50-60. The head is b. 1780-90: NOT cohort David. But the 1820 and 1840 households map onto each other as ONE FAMILY AGING TWENTY YEARS: the 1820 M 26-45 = this same head (a DAVID JR., b. c. 1780-90); the 1820 F 26-45 = his wife (the WIDOWER reading of 14.20 is WITHDRAWN); 1820 boys under 10 = 1840 males 15-20; 1820 girls under 10 = 1840 females 20-30; the 1840 younger children born after 1820. THEREFORE the multigenerational casting of 14.19 is also WITHDRAWN: the 26-45 man of 1820 was the head himself, not Samuel-of-David. The TWO MEN 45+ of 1820 = elder lodgers in David Jr.'s household. NEW CANDIDATE STRUCTURE [?, to verify, not conclude]: a DAVID SR., b. c. 1755, father of both David Jr. (b. ~1785) and Samuel (b. ~1793), = the 1813 consenter, = one of the two 1820 elders, dead or gone by 1840 (no 80-90 male). David Sr. b. c. 1755 = cohort David's exact profile. TESTS (task 48): 1830 Wythe (David Jr. 40-50; any M 70-80 in household = the old man living) and WYTHE PROBATE for a David Collins estate 1820s-1840.

Samuel Holt of Wythe 1840 (same page): a DIFFERENT man from the Patrick 1850 Samuel-Holt (Wythe: lone M 30-40, b. 1800-10; Patrick: b. c. 1826). The Patrick compound-name question (14.14) is UNAFFECTED; minor note added: Holt households sat near Collins households in Wythe too.

Giles 1820 Samuel Collins, TENTATIVE: the row appears to include a BOY 10-16 (b. 1804-10); if confirmed by the user's tick-read, the children predate 1813, EXCLUDING Samuel-of-David (m. 1813) and fitting SAMUEL-OF-DANIEL (m. Rachel Price 1801): one Samuel placed. Consequence: Samuel-of-David's own 1820 household is UNFOUND; next look = MONTGOMERY 1820 (task 49). Washington Co 1820 page: alphabetized C-list with at least one other Collings household (Elijah, possibly more): a Washington Collins pocket noted; Samuel's row unparsed from this scan, user tick-read requested.

The minister's register page (Clay Co, Register of Marriages 1826-1827) [OL34]:

Right column, December 1827: "Jese Collins & Mary Reed," minister "Same," and DIRECTLY BENEATH, "Stephen Reed & Nancy Powel," minister "Same": adjacent lines, same month, ditto resolving to the same minister, J. AMBRES (Ambrose). One preacher, two weddings, recorded consecutively: the DOUBLE WEDDING now rests on three independent records (shared date in the index, the consent note's attesters, the minister's register adjacency).
BONUS RECOVERY: March 1827, Robert Asher & POLLY SIZEMORE: a Clay Sizemore marriage recovered despite the lost S-section, because Sizemore WOMEN appear as brides under other letters' grooms. WORKAROUND logged (task 50): sweep the registers for SIZEMORE BRIDES; Polly (m. 1838-minus-11 years before Betsy Ann) is the first candidate kinswoman.
Smaller: James York x Matilda BOOLING 1826; E. BOWLING x Elizabeth Payne Jul 1827 (Bowlings marrying in Clay through the 1820s); Stephen Lunceford x Elizabeth Lunceford Dec 1826 (the Lunsford thickness).

14.22 David Jr.'s death found; both Samuels placed; the alphabetized-copy caveat (Sept 17) [OL35, OL36]

Wythe death register, line 1 (Commissioner of the Revenue mortality register): David Collins Sr., white, male, d. Nov 1866, Wythe County, DROPSY, age 79, FARMER, born "Wythe County," parents NOT GIVEN, informant a FRIEND (designation Friend); consort column appears to read consort deceased (user to confirm at zoom). Age 79 at Nov 1866 = b. c. 1787: this is DAVID JR. of the 1820/1840 censuses, not the cohort elder. The register's "Sr." is 1866's community label (the elder of the Davids then living, relative to a younger David, likely a son or nephew), not our generational label. The friend-informant could not name his parents (the column we most wanted, empty). "Born Wythe County" is loose-but-fine for a c. 1787 birth in ground cut from Montgomery in 1790.

David Jr.'s family named (free index entries, user screenshot): Jas. C. Collins, b. 1828 Wythe, m. MARGARET L. MABE 9 Oct 1865, parents DAVID COLLINS and ELIZABETH COLLINS; Adam Collins, b. 1831, m. SARAH H. MABE 19 Feb 1856, parents David and Elisa. So DAVID JR.'S WIFE = ELIZABETH; sons James C. (b. 1828 = the 1840 M 10-15) and Adam (b. 1831 = the 1840 M 5-10); the census mapping keeps confirming. TWO BROTHERS MARRIED TWO MABES (Margaret L., Sarah H., almost certainly sisters): the double-alliance pattern again (cf. the Reed sisters). James Collins d. 1 Nov 1890 Bland Co, b. 1820 Wythe: candidate third son (the 1840 M 15-20). Free reconstruction route (task 51): harvest every Wythe marriage/death index entry naming David Collins as parent. Probate sharpened (task 48): WYTHE ESTATE BOOKS 1866-67.

Both Samuels placed (user tick-reads, OL36):

WASHINGTON Co 1820 Samuel (boxes 1, 5, 7=2, 9, 13): 1 boy <10, 1 man 26-45, 2 girls <10, 1 woman 16-26, 1 farmer: the exact 1820 shape of an 1813 marriage: SAMUEL-OF-DAVID + PERMELIA [strong candidate] (he b. c. 1792-95; she b. c. 1795; children b. 1814-20). Washington borders Russell: inside the family's range. Montgomery 1820 search DOWNGRADED to optional.
GILES Co 1820 Samuel (boxes 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13=2): 1 boy <10, 1 boy 10-16 (b. 1804-10), HEAD 45+ (b. by 1775), daughters <10 / 10-16 / 16-26, wife 26-45, two in agriculture: SAMUEL-OF-DANIEL on two independent grounds (pre-1813 children AND the head's age excluding Samuel-of-David) [strong].

Method caveats and small notes: the surviving 1810/1820 federal copies are often clerks' ALPHABETIZED FAIR COPIES (hence all-C pages): original visitation order destroyed, so NO neighbor-adjacency analysis is possible for those years (unlike 1840/1850). Washington Co pocket noted: Elijah, Jeremiah (Geremiah), John Collins on the Samuel page; Washington borders Russell; one future look. NORTHAMPTON Co Collinses (Eastern Shore, 400 miles east, its own historic free communities): NOT our line; conflation caution, not a lead. The working 1830 collection link: familysearch.org/search/collection/1803958. Census priorities restated: (1) 1830 Wythe David (any M 70-80 = David Sr. alive); (2) 1830 Patrick sweep; (3) 1830 Washington Samuel; (4) 1830/1840 Clay Hiram; (5) 1860 Patrick Edward + the Samuel H. test; plus, outside the censuses, Wythe probate 1866-67.

14.23 Hiram's classification arc RESTORED; the consort cell verified; the 1830 reads and the bracket tension (Sept 17) [OL37]

HIRAM'S CENSUS ARC (restored from the user's prior-session work, which had not reached this file; citations to re-attach, task 53):

1830 CLAY CO KY (index mislabels it Estill; neighbors prove Clay: Abraham Collins, Bradley Collins, Christopher Bowling, John Luneford): Hiram's household shows a free white male under 5, and on the schedule's second page the enumerator ticked HIRAM AND HIS WIFE IN THE SLAVE COLUMNS (M 24-36, F 10-24). A free man cannot be a slave: the page records a Clay enumerator forcing a free family of color into the only non-white columns at hand, the small child left in the white column of the same household.
1840 MONTGOMERY CO, INDIANA [Revised 2026-09-27: very likely MORGAN Co, Indiana, misread as Montgomery. The Reed addendum finds Hiram free colored on Morgan Co image 36 (Ancestry collection 8057), the page after James Reed's; to confirm, Reed addendum section 12, item 10]: Hiram's household the ONLY one on its page marked FREE COLORED: 2M <10, 1M 10-24, 1M 24-36, 2F <10, 1F 24-36; seven people, en route (per the prior conclusion) from Clay toward Appanoose.
Reading: the family's kaleidoscope at its most compressed: in the same decade Jesse's widow, Bradley, and Andrew are counted WHITE in Appanoose while Jesse's brother Hiram (Bradley's half-brother) is counted COLORED in Indiana, having been ticked a SLAVE in Kentucky. Also confirms register-Abraham as a Clay resident (near Hiram and Bradley, 1830).

The consort cell VERIFIED (user paleography): the clerk's D matched against his own "daughter" elsewhere on the page; his vocabulary otherwise married / not married / widow; David Jr.'s cell reads "Consort Dead": ELIZABETH PREDECEASED Nov 1866. Maiden name UNKNOWN; routes (task 55): her own entry in the Wythe death registers 1853-1866 (parents named); the David-Elizabeth marriage bond c. 1805-12 (Montgomery/Wythe series); children's later records (James d. 1890 Bland; any child surviving past 1912 gets a certificate naming the mother's maiden name).

1830 WYTHE David Collins (user box-read, verified against the enumerator's own total of 12): M: 2 under 5, 1 of 5-10, 1 of 10-15, 2 of 20-30, 1 of 50-60; F: 1 of 5-10, 1 of 10-15, 2 of 15-20, 1 of 40-50; no colored columns marked. Forward mapping to 1840 mostly clean (the under-5 boys = 1840's M 10-15; the girls 10-20 = 1840's F 20-30; grown sons out). THE BRACKET TENSION: M 50-60 = b. 1770-80, against 1840 (b. 1780-90) and the death register (b. c. 1787). Readings, none forced: (a) informant age-slop; (b) the 50-60 man is an ELDER RELATIVE (possibly David Sr.) with headship passing to David Jr. by 1840; (c) a tick one column off. RESOLVER = the 1850 WYTHE census (every person named with exact age and birthplace: David ~63, ELIZABETH by name, younger children listed): NEW TOP CENSUS PRIORITY (task 54), 1860 behind it. Page notes: JACOB COLLINS, new Wythe name (household: several sons and daughters, head c. 40-50); Samuel Crockett again; TWO John Browns, UNRELATED to the 1760 Orange Co NC land-office John Brown (user's instinct confirmed: seventy years, two hundred miles).

BROOKS COLLINS, 1830 Wythe: 1M 20-30 + 1F 15-20, total two (enumerator-verified): a brand-new household, likely newlyweds; John L. and William COX on the page; distinctive given name (reads like a mother's surname passed down); UNPLACED, roster row.

THOMAS COLLINS, 1830 Montgomery: 1M 20-30 + 1F 20-30, total two, childless: almost certainly the 1829 Montgomery groom THOMAS COLLINS x ELIZABETH BOOTH (14.17) one year on [strong]: the bond cluster materializing in the censuses.

Census battle plan, restated and ranked (Sept 17): (1) 1850 WYTHE David Collins (the resolver); (2) 1830 PATRICK all Collins (the arrival test); (3) 1830 MONTGOMERY all Collins (the cluster in motion; watch for any M 70-80 = a separate David Sr., the smoking gun); (4) 1830 GRAYSON all Collins (the stay-behind New River kin); (5) 1830 WASHINGTON and GILES Samuels forward; (6) HIRAM in 1850.

14.24 The 1850 forge; the Patrick arrival result; Knox County logged with caution; Saponi-evidence routes (Sept 17) [OL38, OL39, OL40]

1850 WYTHE, David Collins household (the resolver, user read): DAVID 63 (b. c. 1787: THIRD independent record of the birth year; the 1830 tick confirmed as age-slop, the user's reading adopted), BLACKSMITH, $100 real estate, b. VA, literate; ELIZABETH 63, b. VA, cannot read/write; Elizabeth Moore 35 (b. c. 1815, MARRIED WITHIN THE YEAR); [illegible: Lo_/Don?] Collins 29 (b. c. 1821; name to re-zoom); JAMES 22 (b. c. 1828 = the 1865 Mabe groom, CONFIRMED); ADAM 19 (b. c. 1831 = the 1856 Mabe groom, CONFIRMED); Madison Bowman 22; Elias Smith 23; JOHN MOORE 23, HAMMERMAN (the smith's striker); Catherine Collins 7, in school. READING: a WORKING SMITHY: the old master, his striker, young labor, grown sons. The Moore marriage: most economical, Elizabeth (nee Collins) m. JOHN MOORE within the year (enumerators often ticked one spouse only); the absent-husband alternative not excluded; the Wythe 1849-50 marriage register decides in one line (task 58). Catherine 7 = probable GRANDDAUGHTER (Elizabeth 63 excluded as mother), parent unknown. 1860 GAP: David lived to Nov 1866 and should appear; strategy = search 1860 Wythe for ADAM, JAMES, JOHN MOORE, ELIZABETH Collins (he may sit inside a child's household or under a mangled index), else browse the images.

1850 statewide David triage (user screenshot): (1) WYTHE, David Collins b. 1818: a second Wythe David, the age of David Jr.'s 1830 M 10-15, almost certainly a SON, and THE MAN RELATIVE TO WHOM THE 1866 REGISTER SAYS "SR.": pull first (DAVID III candidate). (2) WASHINGTON, David Collins b. 1822: in Samuel-of-David's county, inside his household window: candidate SON OF SAMUEL named for grandfather David (the naming pattern performing): pull second. Patrick Davids (b. 1825, 1828) = cluster next-gen, lower; Pittsylvania David R. (b. 1804) = note only (the Riddle-Bowlin destination county); Russell b. 1841 = a child, skip.

1830 PATRICK SWEEP RESULT (user reads; index localities render as "Patrick Parish, Henry"): present 1830: WILLIAM (2M<5, 1M 20-30, 1F 50-60: young father with a probable widowed MOTHER, no young wife), DANIEL (1M<5, 1M 30-40, 2F<5, 1F 5-10, 1F 30-40), REUBEN (1M 30-40, 1F 10-15, 1F 30-40), EDMUND (young household, read garbled, approximate), MARTHA (2M<5, 1F 30-40: WIDOW, of whom unknown); on distant pages ELISHA (3M 20-30, 1M 50-60 b. 1770-80, 1F 15-20, 1F 50-60; a COX above him) and ARIS Collins (probable widow: 1F 5-10, 1F 10-15, 1F 30-40). All counted white. THE ARRIVAL TEST: EDWARD IS ABSENT IN 1830 AND PRESENT BY 1840: the one cluster member who ARRIVES in the 1830s, exactly the Ned-candidate signature (our Edward, b. c. 1804, was raising his young first family elsewhere in 1830). CLUSTER ORIGIN revised: the Patrick DANIEL (b. 1790-1800) is far too young to be the Montgomery Daniel (daughter married 1794): the relocation hypothesis WEAKENED (at most a son); the outliers ELISHA (the oath-refuser's name, a generation on, Cox-adjacent) and REUBEN read like NEW RIVER COHORT DESCENDANT names: the cluster smells cohort-descended rather than Montgomery-bond-descended, still unsorted.

KNOX CO INDIANA 1850 Hiram (user-recalled from prior sessions; MULTIPLE-HIRAMS CAUTION ACTIVE): Hiram 46 b. VA, $500, wife Elizabeth 39 b. INDIANA, Francis 17 b. Indiana, in school. TENSIONS stated: our Clay Hiram m. Elizabeth REED (KY, 1829); the 1840 Indiana household (Montgomery Co in this entry; very likely Morgan Co, per the 2026-09-27 note in 14.23) held seven incl. five children who do not map to a three-person 1850 household with a c. 1833 Indiana-born 17-year-old. Either a DIFFERENT Hiram (the user's prior chat concluded two or three Hirams existed and tracked them: THAT WORK IS NOT IN THIS FILE and must be re-imported, task 59) or the same man with a second wife and scattered household. The user's wife-ancestry speculation logged as ONE reading among several: classification varied by enumerator and local knowledge (the kaleidoscope itself), and appearance varied among siblings; the marks record how clerks saw the household, not ancestry arithmetic.

Saponi-evidence routes (user request): DOCUMENTARY (already strong): the 1742/43 (1743 NS) Orange VA court record NAMES A COLLINS AS AN INDIAN in a colonial court: the anchor; plus Carlson's Christian Saponi Band identification (its FOOTNOTES = the highest-value add, task 18), Moses Riddle "an Indian" 1767, the white-to-Molata reclassification. GENETIC: (a) the user's 0% Native autosomal argues NOTHING: a single Saponi ancestor 7-9 generations back contributes an expected fraction under 0.5% and small segments wash out by recombination as often as not; (b) check the CLOSER tested generations (Frances 2.1% SSA; John 1.5%) for any trace Native component [done 2026-09-23: no Native American assignment in any of the five tests] (each generation closer doubles expected signal); (c) mtDNA, the power play: the candidate Saponi ancestors are WOMEN (Thomas's possible Riddle wife; Moses's wife Mary; Mary Reed's maternal line) [Superseded 2026-09-23: Thomas's wife was not a Riddle; the Riddle candidate is a daughter of Moses, b. c. 1740, married to one of Thomas's younger sons]: trace an unbroken daughter-to-daughter line from one to a living cousin and test (a Native haplogroup A/B/C/D/X would be near-proof); the user's own line breaks female continuity at Richard C. Holbrook, so a COUSIN is required (task 60); (d) Y-DNA cannot see wives but the new male lines (David Jr.'s sons; Samuel-of-David's sons) could anchor the surname to the Core Melungeon Collins cluster.

14.25 The Moore dossier; the Davids index; the Washington revision; the mtDNA route through Frances (Sept 17) [OL41, OL42]

The Moore marriage CONFIRMED and enriched (Hardesty/Presgraves excerpt + FamilySearch profiles): "his mother was a daughter of David Collins, also of Wythe county": ELIZABETH COLLINS m. JOHN W. MOORE, the 1850 household's 23-year-old HAMMERMAN, who rose to DEPUTY SHERIFF and magistrate of Wythe Co. Their son DR. JOHN HARRISON MOORE (b. 14 Jul 1858 Cripple Creek; Baltimore Medical College; merchant then physician; m. Julia Virginia HUFFARD 1886, the same family whose Andrew J. Huffard's revenue district recorded David Jr.'s death) died 13 May 1895, aged 37, off a train into the Holston at Marion. The two newspaper accounts reconciled: the Bristol News piece records the SUSPICION ($100 collected that day, $3.90 found, forehead bruise, "Was He Murdered?"); the Southwestern News/Richmond Times piece records the INQUEST'S CONCLUSION (watch, pistol, pocketbook still on the body; post-mortem verdict drowning; the shoes he carried for Capt. Davis found on the embankment): officially accident, locally doubted, the missing money never explained. His brother James Moore drowned in Reed Creek c. 1893: two brothers drowned in two years. PHOTOGRAPHS: the ELIZABETH COLLINS MOORE TINTYPE = the first photograph of anyone in the Wythe Collins line; the John W. Moore tintype is NOT a blood Collins (user's own correction); the J.H. Moore portrait is half-Collins. PHENOTYPE CAUTIONS logged: Baltimore Medical College in the 1880s was a white institution in Jim Crow Maryland (Black physicians of the era trained at Howard, Meharry, Leonard), so admission implies he was RECEIVED AS WHITE; reception is not ancestry arithmetic, faces and clerks are unreliable instruments (the project's central lesson), and this branch's connection to our family still hangs on the unproven David Sr. link: no ancestry conclusions from these portraits in either direction.

FamilySearch profile data on the Wythe line [C-grade, testable]: David Jr.'s wife = ELIZABETH ELIZA STEVENS, 1784-1860 (MAIDEN-NAME CANDIDATE; test: her own entry in the Wythe death registers c. 1860, which would name her parents, task 61; her 1784 vs the census's c. 1787 = normal slop). David Jr.'s parents per the profile = DAVID COLLINS b. 1753, d. 1819, m. NANCY ANN LEE (1765-1840): b. 1753 fits COHORT DAVID's profile almost exactly; d. 1819 CONFLICTS with the 1820 two-elders reading (one of the two is wrong); test = Wythe/Montgomery PROBATE 1819-20 for a David Collins estate (task 62). The Lee pedigree to a William Hugh Lee of 1615 = classic tree-grafting onto a famous surname: PARKED, unweighted (user's own suspicion endorsed). ADAM MARSHALL COLLINS (1831-1909, m. Sarah Elizabeth Mabe) CONFIRMED = our Adam; Company C, 51st VIRGINIA INFANTRY (Confederate service in the Wythe branch noted); charcoal portrait exists. DOW COLLINS: the 1850 household's 29-year-old's name confirmed.

DAVID III confirmed (the profile's "David Collins IV"): b. 3 Apr 1816, d. 1 Oct 1905 Wythe; m. CATHERINE COOK, Jan 1842, Wythe; 1850 household (Catherine 24, Charles 6, Albert 3, Lorenzo 1); 1860 Raleigh Co; 1870 back at FORT CHISWELL (the lead-mines ground) with sons incl. David C. (b. 1860) and STONEWALL J. (b. c. 1863) and Cassandra C. The 1866 register's "Sr." on his father is DEFINITIVELY relative to him.

THE WASHINGTON REVISION (conflation caution #4): the Washington Co David b. 1822-23 = DAVID A. COLLINS, m. MARY KENT 1845 Montgomery; son of JEREMIAH (m. Margaret Campbell), grandson of ELIJAH COLLINS of ALBEMARLE (b. 1760-70, d. Nov 1840 Washington Co) [C]: the Elijah and Jeremiah of the 1820 Washington page: the Washington pocket is a SEPARATE Collins family out of central Virginia. My son-of-Samuel hypothesis for this David: WITHDRAWN. CASCADE: the 1820 Washington "Samuel" (14.22) is now DOUBTED as Samuel-of-David (probably Elijah kin): SAMUEL-OF-DAVID IS UNPLACED AGAIN; the Montgomery 1820 search RE-UPGRADED (task 63). His 1850 household read (user): David 28 WAGONER, Mary 25, Nancy 5, James 2, Sarah Barnett 25, Jas Collins 18, Leonidas 12, Daniel Ryan 20 blacksmith (a boarder; a wagoner's household with a smith lodging, not a second forge).

THE DAVIDS INDEX (as of Sept 17): (1) COHORT DAVID, b. c. 1750s: 1776 enlistee, 1782 muster, 1780 Tory-suspect capture and escape [corrected 2026-09-23: that was DAVID GIBSON, with Lewis Collins (W1044 affidavit), not David Collins], Ashe 1778, Wilkes 1790; documented cohort kin of Meredith (brother or first cousin per the fork). (2) DAVID SR., the 1813 consenter [hypothesis]: father of Samuel-of-Permelia and probably of David Jr.; candidate identity = the profile's David b. 1753 d. 1819 m. Nancy Ann Lee [C]; the question is whether he IS (1). (3) DAVID JR., the Wythe BLACKSMITH, c. 1787 - Nov 1866; wife Elizabeth (Stevens? [C]); children Elizabeth (Moore), David III, Dow, James C., Adam Marshall; connection to Meredith RIDES ENTIRELY on identifying (2) with (1). (4) DAVID III ("IV"), 1816-1905, m. Catherine Cook 1842; Fort Chiswell; the register's relative "Sr." (5) DAVID A. of Washington, 1822-1905?, wagoner, m. Mary Kent 1845: SEPARATE FAMILY (Elijah of Albemarle) [C]. (6) Fauquier 1810 David: namesake, dismissed. (7) David R. of Pittsylvania (b. 1804): noted only. (8) Patrick Davids (b. 1825, 1828): cluster next-gen, unworked.

THE mtDNA ROUTE THROUGH FRANCES (correcting the break-at-Holbrook premise): Richard Holbrook is Jessie Clifford's HUSBAND, not a link in maternal transmission; [Superseded 2026-09-23, see task 60: Frances's father was Richard Clifford Holbrook, Jessie's SON, so her mtDNA is Lucille McMillan's line, not Mary Reed's; the break at Richard C. Holbrook stands, and the Reed mtDNA needs a cousin in an unbroken female line from one of the Reed sisters. "Thomas's possible Riddle wife" below is also withdrawn.] the chain runs through the women: MARY REED > Mary Elizabeth Collins > Emma Bruner > Jessie Clifford > (IF Frances was Jessie's daughter, or connects through mothers only) > FRANCES. Every child inherits the mother's mtDNA; only daughters pass it on; a male at the END of a chain still carries it. THEREFORE: if that one link holds, Frances's maternal haplogroup = MARY REED'S maternal haplogroup, and 23andMe reports maternal haplogroup as a standard result: the answer may ALREADY SIT in Frances's existing account. A haplogroup in the A2/B2/C1/D1/X2a families = a Native maternal line, near-proof, for the REED side (itself one of the "Malatta" families and a fully legitimate target). The Collins-side candidate women (Thomas's possible Riddle wife; Moses's wife Mary) still need cousin lines someday. ACTION (task 60 upgraded): confirm Frances descends from Jessie through daughters, then read the haplogroup off her results.

Phenotype-inference note (user question, Sept 17): the geometry, stated precisely: David Sr., if = cohort David, is Meredith's BROTHER or FIRST COUSIN, collateral, not ancestral; the common ancestor of our branch and the Wythe branch would be SAMUEL (b. 1724) or THOMAS himself, the Molata-labeled generation, which is why both branches' appearance bears (weakly) on the same node. But the dilution arithmetic disarms the instrument: Thomas to John Harrison Moore is five generations; with European marriages along the way (Stevens, Lee, Moore), J.H. Moore carried ~1/32 to 1/64 of whatever Thomas was: invisible in a face EITHER WAY, so the branch's white-passing 1880s appearance cannot discriminate African from Indian in the c. 1700 ancestor. What discriminates, honestly: the documentary Indian case (the 1742/43 record, Carlson, Riddle, Sizemore) AND the 2012 Melungeon Core DNA study's finding of AFRICAN-origin paternal haplogroups in the core Newman's Ridge Collins lines (incl. Vardy's), largely European mtDNA in those tested [Corrected 2026-09-23: Estes et al. (Fall 2011, published 2012; OL47) assigned 12 European, 8 African, and 1 Native American paternal lines; Vardy Collins's Y line is R1a1, EUROPEAN (Table 11); every maternal line was European]: the supported synthesis is TRI-RACIAL, both-and, varying line by line, with Saponi descent plausibly entering via women and allied families. Our branch's own Y-line is UNTESTED (the long-horizon task) and the Frances maternal-haplogroup check (task 60) is the live genetic move. Polly Holloway's ancestry: no record speaks to it; open unknown.

14.26 Elizabeth's death entry; the paternity instruments ranked; the Spotsylvania conflation family identified (Sept 17 evening) [OL43, OL44]

ELIZABETH'S DEATH ENTRY FOUND (Wythe register, year ending 31 Dec 1866, First District; user image): Elizabeth Collins, age 76 (b. c. 1790), cause UNKNOWN, parents UNKNOWN, consort of DAVID COLLINS, informant WILLIAM PAINTER, SON-IN-LAW. Consequences: (1) the two registers CORROBORATE: Elizabeth d. earlier in 1866, David d. Nov 1866 "consort dead": husband and wife within months, two districts' books. (2) The register route to the maiden name is CLOSED (parents unknown to the informant): STEVENS stays [C], testable via the c. 1805-12 marriage bond and children's later records (task 61 updated). (3) A SECOND DAUGHTER m. a PAINTER: William Painter son-in-law = a daughter we did not have; the Wythe marriage index (Painter x Collins) would name her (task 64); Catherine the 1850 granddaughter possibly theirs. Wythe PROBATE access reality: the will-book films are FamilySearch-Library-restricted online; alternates = a FamilySearch Center or affiliate library, Library of Virginia microfilm, or the Wythe clerk.

1820 Samuel, the Montgomery absence: no Samuel Collins heads a Montgomery 1820 household (all five index hits triaged: Frederick/Nelson/Norfolk out; Washington and Giles already read). For a man married there 1813, the likely reading = living INSIDE another household: NEXT PROBE = JOHN GAINES, Montgomery, 1820 (Permelia's father; look for a surplus young couple with infants), then Montgomery C-pages under variant spellings; Washington held as possible despite the Elijah doubt (task 65).

The FamilySearch tree above Meredith ASSESSED (user screenshots and profile readings): the Thomas Collins b. 1713 HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND m. Ann Blyth (Isle of Wight, Oct 1733) graft is DEMOLISHED on chronology (cannot father Samuel b. c. 1724) and on records (a Hampshire Englishman cannot be the 1755 "Molata" patriarch of a community the 1742/43 court called Indians); Samuel + Cicely Hall undersourced. Salvage: the tree's "MARGARET Holloway, 1765-1812" logged as the formal name behind "Polly" [C] (its d. 1812 matches Conley). [Superseded 2026-09-23: this profile came in with the demolished Hampshire graft; don't use it. Polly was b. c. 1780; "Margaret" stays only as a query.] CONFLATION CAUTION #5, THE SPOTSYLVANIA FAMILY, identified in full: Capt. JOSEPH COLLINS of Essex/Spotsylvania (b. 1709, m. Susanna Lewis), eleven children incl. JAMES who moved to ORANGE CO NC (almost certainly our HAW RIVER JAMES of Gv178), LEWIS (Granville will 1783; Kershaw SC; wife Elizabeth Davis; the tree's false father-option for Meredith), WILLIAM (Kershaw SC): an English-descent planter family whose records generate the region's tree-glue; recognize on sight.

THE PATERNITY QUESTION, strategic status (user's central ask): NOT lost, NOT yet determined, may settle at "probable" permanently; the grandfather is THOMAS on either branch of the fork (Samuel b. c. 1724 [P, Heinegg] vs John b. c. 1736 [C, Blackburn]). Instruments ranked: (1) KEGLEY, TITHABLES (the volume EXISTS: cited "Kegley, Tithables, p. 16" in the Waggoner sketch, OL28): Montgomery tithable lists routinely show sons 16-21 INSIDE the father's tax household; Meredith turned 16 c. 1776: a 1776-1780 list beside Samuel or John CLOSES the fork: locate the volume, task 66; (2) the Grayson tax lists on John's sons (task 20); (3) Eula's packet (task 23: applications sometimes record the patriot's parentage); (4) Montgomery court order books (orphan bonds, apprenticeships, road orders); (5) land-assignment chains from Samuel or John to Meredith in the Kegley abstracts (Merida/Meredy variants); (6) Heinegg's own footnotes for the Samuel grouping. Y-DNA CANNOT pick between the brothers (same line); it anchors only to Thomas's cluster. The genuinely lost boundary = BEFORE THOMAS: his c. 1700 parentage. The servant-woman surname mechanism the user described is DOCUMENTED in our tree on the REED side (William Read, b. c. 1673, mother's status and surname, freed 1694); for Collins it is Heinegg's general template, plausible, UNDOCUMENTED for our line.

14.27 The Civil War brothers RESOLVED: Spencer killed in action; Kalaska survived and married (Sept 20, 2026) [OL45]

SPENCER COLLINS, KIA (muster card, user find via Find a Grave): card reads: 46 Regt. Inf. Vols., Co. H: "Collins Spencer, Rank Pvt., Age 44, Captain Alsup Com'd'g. Enlisted Aug 17, '64, Spf'ld Mo. Mustered in Sept 9, '64, Spf'ld Mo. Remarks: KILLED IN ACTION Nov. 3, '64, at Vera Cruz Mo." Vera Cruz = Douglas Co MO (Ozarks guerrilla country, the autumn after Price's Raid); buried PARSONS CEMETERY, Ozark Co MO per Find a Grave (which gives b. 1818 KY). AGE DISCREPANCY FLAGGED: our Spencer (son of Jesse + Mary Reed) was b. c. 1840-42 (age 10 in 1850 Wells Twp; 14 in 1856 with the Hendon family); the card's "44" is most plausibly a clerk's slip for 24 (Find a Grave's 1818 likely back-calculated from the error); identification rests on name + the 46th MO (matching the main file's prior research) + Springfield enlistment. Eight weeks from muster-in to death. Supersedes the main file's "fate unrecorded."

KALASKA SURVIVED (Schuyler Co MO Marriage Records 1845-1883, image 131, user find): "This is to certify that I joined in the Holy Bonds of Matrimony KELASHIA COLLINS to MARGARET KING on the 24th day of August 1862," recorded 25 Aug 1862, minister RICHARD A. COLLINS, M.G. (a Collins minister; unplaced, watch). Name note (user's reading): the register's cursive initial is a K whose top stroke connects so as to read like an R (the FamilySearch transcript renders "Relashia"); the man's name is variably spelled KOLASKA / CALASKA / KALASKA / KELASHIA across the records, the ordinary fate of a rare name carried by a likely-illiterate man through a series of clerks. Identification: the distinctive name + surname + geography (SCHUYLER CO MO borders Appanoose IA directly south: a Wells Twp son marrying across the state line). THE ENTRY ABOVE HIS: Samuel Swinney m. CATHARINE COLLINS, THE SAME DAY, SAME MINISTER: Kalaska married in a DOUBLE WEDDING, thirty-five years after his parents' own (Catharine unplaced: sister? cousin? minister's kin? task). Sequence: married Aug 1862; Co. E, 118th ILLINOIS Infantry (organized Camp Butler, fall 1862; Vicksburg campaign per the main file); survived, children recorded per user's prior research. Supersedes the main file's "neither brother appears after the war" for Kalaska; the earlier "Kolaska and Lloyd" recollection corrected (Lloyd did not serve so far as records show).

14.28 Later-generation vitals and Heck Bruner (Sept 22, 2026, user FamilySearch review)

Vitals supplied by the user from corrected FamilySearch profiles (entered in the master family tree, Collins_Reed_Master_Family_Tree.md): Jessie Lorene Clifford b. 6 May 1876 Siloam Springs AR, d. 29 Aug 1948 Yuba Co CA; Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr. b. 16 Sep 1872 San de Fuca, Whidbey Island WA, d. 23 Sep 1923 Bismarck, Burleigh Co ND; Richard Clifford Holbrook b. 12 Jul 1902 Seattle, d. 30 Nov 1955 Hot Springs, Garland Co AR (cf. the 1951 manifest's destination, Naval Ammunition Depot Shumaker, Arkansas); m. Lucille McMillan May 1927 San Jose CA (newspaper 15 May 1927); Lucille b. 17 Sep 1905 Tacoma, d. 1 Aug 1996 Lacey WA; Frances m. Richard Everett "Dick" Ellingwood Jr. 26 Mar 1955 Seattle; Thomas Harris Absolom b. 1 Apr 1867 Wolfscastle, Pembrokeshire, Wales, d. 12 Mar 1953 Contra Costa Co CA; Orlando Hines Clifford b. 20 Oct 1873 Siloam Springs, d. 25 Feb 1954 Phoenix AZ; Eli Woodrie Clifford d. 31 May 1947 Bothell WA; Delilah Susan Collins b. 15 Oct 1828 KY, d. 24 Dec 1899 Sidney MO; Matilda Collins b. 10 May 1830 Morgan Co IN, d. 9 Jan 1918 Kirksville MO (Morgan Co IN birth corroborates the 1830 Morgan Co Jesse Collins household); Bruner children: David 17 Jul 1851 - 12 Feb 1857; Elizabeth Ellen 30 Oct 1852 - 12 Feb 1905 Delta CO; Christopher Columbus 25 Dec 1855 - 25 Feb 1927 De Beque CO; Olive Marie 22 Mar 1856 - 1917 Edmonds WA; Albert Woodruff 17 May 1857 IL - 29 Nov 1935 Wenatchee WA; Eli Hickman "Heck" 13 Feb 1859 - 21 Jun 1899; James Finlay 18 Nov 1860 Mercer Co MO - 23 Oct 1942 Wenatchee WA; Mary Elizabeth 29 Oct - 7 Nov 1862 (previously unknown infant death); Georgia Ann 8 Feb 1869 - 30 Jul 1901 Seattle.

Conflicts flagged in the supplied profile dates: (1) Christopher Columbus (25 Dec 1855) and Olive Marie (22 Mar 1856) cannot both be right, three months apart; the 1860 census (C.C. 5) and 1870 census (Christopher 15, Olive 13) suggest Christopher c. 1854-55 and Olive c. 1857. (2) Elizabeth Ellen's 30 Oct 1852 duplicates Mariah Emma's 30 Oct 1853 exactly one year apart: possible copy error. (3) Georgia Ann's "Siloam Springs, Arkansas" birthplace conflicts with the 1870 Mercer Co MO household and her Missouri birthplace on the 1870 and 1880 censuses. (4) David's "Appanoose" birthplace sits against the 1850 Daviess Co IN newlywed household. (5) Reuben and Lloyd shown born "Iowa" 1834/1836 on FamilySearch; the 1850 census reads Indiana (ditto), and Iowa was barely open to settlement then: keep Indiana. (6) Jesse b. 1804 "North Carolina" on FamilySearch vs Mary Elizabeth's 1880 statement that both parents were Virginia-born and the Russell Co VA inference: unresolved. (7) Kalaska's bride is Margaret King per the Schuyler register, not "Mary King."

Resolutions (user decisions, Sept 22, 2026): (1) tree uses census estimates, Christopher c. 1855 and Olive c. 1857; the FamilySearch day-dates are dropped. (2) Elizabeth Ellen entered as c. 1853 (1860 census age 7). (3) Georgia Ann entered as born Missouri. (5) Reuben and Lloyd entered as born Indiana. (6) Jesse entered as born Virginia. (7) Margaret King kept.

Heck Bruner, Deputy U.S. Marshal: Eli Hickman "Heck" Bruner, Mary Elizabeth's son and the 20-year-old "E. G. Bruner, blacksmith" of the 1880 Gothic CO census page, became a Deputy U.S. Marshal riding for Judge Isaac Parker's federal court at Fort Smith in Indian Territory (the Cherokee Nation lay just across the line from the family's Siloam Springs); he is listed among the deputies credited with leading the November 1892 posse that killed Ned Christie, and he drowned 21 Jun 1899 attempting to cross the Grand River near Spavinaw (Officer Down Memorial Page). A period newspaper piece (user transcription) calls him "the United States Marshal" (he was a deputy; the marshal was a presidential appointee at Fort Smith) and tells of "Bruner's Graveyard," a rail-fenced grove south of Tahlequah said to hold 28 outlaws killed by him in the line of duty, one with a marble stone bought by his fellow horse thieves. Treat the graveyard as frontier-press legend, colorful and unverified; the deputyship, the Christie posse, and the drowning are documented.

14.29 The book-rewrite source audit and Kegley's Militia pages (Sept 23, 2026) [OL46 onward]

The September 2026 rewrite of the book (Molata, 1st ed., v1.3 [OL54]) was checked line by line against its sources, and the user read Kegley's Militia of Montgomery County on the FamilySearch Digital Library the same day [OL46]. The full current position is the READ THIS FIRST block at the top of this file; what changes this file is below.

Kegley pages seen: pp. 23-24 (images 34-35), pp. 50-52 (images 61-63), and the index (image 88). John and William on p. 51 are the only Riddles in the book under any spelling; there is no Moses.
McDaniel's list (pp. 23-24, undated): "Mendaby Collens" (Meredith) and "Lewies Collens" on consecutive lines, David, George, a deleted Collens, Benjamin, Charles, and John Sexton, James Cox. No Riddles, no Bowlin, no Elisha, Samuel, or John Collins. This is the page the DAR cites for Meredith.
McCorkle's oath list (pp. 50-51): James McCorkle recorded the men of several companies who swore allegiance to the state, from 30 Sept 1777, signed and dated 5 Dec 1777. Under Cox's company: "Jno. Collens," "Samuel Collens," "Jno. (his mark) Riddle," "William Ridel," and James McDaniell himself, swearing as one of Cox's men before he had a company of his own. It is an oath list, not a muster roll.
McCorkle's refusers (p. 50): "Elisha Collins, Coxes Compy." refused the oath before him in the fall of 1777 (the Collins Timeline's "30 Sept 1777" is the list's opening date). James McGavock's separate list (p. 52) has no Collinses or Riddles.
The merged roster explained: the single "McDaniel's / Osborn Company" roster in Blackburn and the Collins Timeline runs together McDaniel's list, McCorkle's oath list, and his refusers; only William Bowlin's source is still unlocated. Every passage here that put the Riddles, Samuel, John, Elisha, or Bowlin on McDaniel's list has been corrected or marked.
Court martial: 23 April 1783 at Patrick Campbell's house (Kegley, Early Adventurers, vol. 2, p. 218), not c. 1780-81.
Lewis Collins's pension S21142 [OL51]: living on Broad River, South Carolina, in 1776 and drafted there against the Cherokee; 1778 crop with Charles Tompson, "not then a man of a family"; June 1781 from his father's house in Montgomery County; Eutaw Springs, September 1781, "a severe battle"; discharged near Salisbury. No record places Meredith's 1776 enlistment, and Christiansburg was not founded until 1792.
The Rock House: Joseph Collins's affidavit (27 Jan 1849, in W1044, OL27) has the Tories taken at a "Rock House"; the two who escaped were David Gibson and Lewis Collins. "Stone fort" was a paraphrase.
Citation fixes: the Orange Co VA court sat 27 Jan 1742/43, 1743 NS [OL48]; the 1729 Sappony Creek sale is a Surry record, county of the land unstated; the Stony Creek minute is cited to Estes Table 1 [OL47], whose paternal lines were 12 European, 8 African, and 1 Native American, with Vardy's R1a1 European; Moses Riddle's supposed parents come from WikiTree [OL49], not Empty Branches; John Ellingwood's African figure is 1.5%; Heinegg's print edition is OL50.
Tilford first: Tilford Reed's son Harman, born in Iowa c. 1836 (1856 Appanoose census [OL53]), puts Tilford in Iowa before Benjamin; the 1840 Iowa Territory census has "Tifford" Reed at Van Buren [OL52].
Jesse SETTLED: Jesse was Meredith's son by Polly Holloway (b. c. 1780, m. c. 1799), not Bradley's; Bradley and Jesse were half-brothers. Thomas's wife was not Moses Riddle's daughter (Moses b. c. 1715-25). Meredith's own father stays OPEN between John and Samuel; the book leans to John.

15. Working family tree (text diagram; add to as findings land)

Evidence tags: [D] document ties the link. [P] probable per Heinegg. [C] claimed in secondary research (Blackburn, Conley, Dillon). [?] hypothesis or unresolved.

ALLIED HOUSEHOLD                        CORE LINE
Moses Riddle "an Indian" (1767 tax)     Thomas Collins "Molata", b. say 1700
 wife Mary (both mulatto, 1755)          Louisa Co VA 1745 > Flat River NC c. 1748
 |                                       Gv579: 700 ac Dial's Creek, 1761
 |--[?] a daughter, b. c. 1740, m. a     d. c. 1770, Orange Co? [C]
 |     younger son of Thomas [?]         wife unknown (NOT Moses Riddle's daughter)
 |-- William Riddle \ both took oath      |
 +-- John Riddle    / Cox's Co. 1777 [D]  |--[P] Samuel, b. say 1724
                                          |    (Wilkes 1787: aging couple)
                                          |    Heinegg groups under him [P]:
                                          |    George2 "the hunter", David1, Martin,
                                          |    Valentine, Vardy, Ambrose, Charles1
                                          |--[P] George1, b. c. 1728
                                          |--[P] Thomas Jr, b. say 1734
                                          |    (1800 Ashe: "other free")
                                          +--[P] John, b. say 1736
                                               [?] and/or an ELDER John: Flat River
                                               c. 1750 > Peach Bottom Creek 1767 (Dillon)
                                               |--[C] Lewis, b. 1754, "son of John"
                                               |    (pension S21142)
                                               +--[C] James (per Grayson tax)

THE FORK: Meredith (b. c. 1760 VA) is a son of Samuel [P, Heinegg grouping]
or of John [C, Blackburn; the book LEANS TO JOHN]. Grandfather is Thomas either way.

Meredith Collins, c. 1760 - 1841, Pike Co KY. Patriot A024535.
 m. (1) unnamed, c. 1782-85 [C, Section 8]: Bradley's mother
 m. (2) POLLY HOLLOWAY, c. 1799 [D Eula app: b. c. 1780 VA, d. ante 1840]
 |   (Bradley-line DAR papers name Polly as Bradley's mother: WRONG, since
 |    Polly b. 1780 cannot mother Bradley b. 1787)
 |-- Bradley (mother: the unnamed first wife), b. 1787, NC per 1850 census / VA per DAR
 |    last alive 29 Nov 1850, Appanoose census, in Andrew's household
 |    m. (1) unknown ("X X" to DAR too); (2) Jane Ray 1817 (Conley list only; county uncertain);
 |    (3) Catherine Barney 1831; (4) Betsy Griffin 1833;
 |    (5) Elizabeth Luneford 1836 [D Clay register; wives dying young]
 |    |-- Andrew, b. c. 1811 KY [D DAR]
 |    |    m. Betsy Ann SIZEMORE, 31 Mar 1838, Clay Co KY [D register]
 |    |    Appanoose IA by 1849 > Scott Co MO (d. c. 1875)
 |    |    +-- Lewis, Samson, Archibald, Polly Ann (b. 1849; m. Smith 1871)
 |    |         (Lewis + Archibald = Meredith-generation names [soft evidence])
 |    +-- Nancy, m. Williams [D death cert]
 |-- JESSE, b. c. 1804, likely RUSSELL CO VA; mother POLLY [settled 2026-09-23];
 |    half-brother to Bradley; consent note 25 Nov 1827: James Read author,
 |    Stephen Read + HIRAM COLLINS attest [D OL22]
 |-- HIRAM, b. c. 1804-06, mother Polly; Jesse's brother
 |    ATTESTED Jesse's 1827 consent note [D OL22]: probable brothers
 |    m. Elizabeth REED, 8 Dec 1829, Clay Co [D register]
 |    (license Dec 1828 lapsed unsolemnized; remarried license Aug 1829)
 |-- William, b. 13 Apr 1806 RUSSELL CO VA [D Eula app], d. 30 Mar 1896 Craigsville WV
 |    m. (1) Mary Mullins [C]; (2) Mary A "Molly" Hatfield, 25 Nov 1860 [D Eula app]
 |    +-- Nancy Jane, b. 1865 Pike Co KY, m. Blankenship 1883 Logan Co WV
 |         (the Nicholas Co WV colony; Dillon's branch)
 |-- Archibald (c. 1800) and James: mother Polly [C Conley]
 |--[? Conley list only] Edward, Reuben, John W.
 +--[legend] Ned, "half Indian," b. 1796-1802 (straddling the start of the Holloway marriage, c. 1799)
      [?] candidate: Edward Collins of Patrick Co VA, 1850 census,
      46, farmer, b. NORTH CAROLINA, w. Eliza (see 14.11)

Jesse Collins (c. 1804 - 1847) m. MARY REED (1804 - c. 1852), 13 Dec 1827, Clay Co KY [D]
 +-- Mary Elizabeth "Polly," b. c. 1827 [D]
      m. Eli Bruner, 1850, Appanoose Co IA [D]
      (continues in main file: Bruner > Clifford > Holbrook > Ellingwood)

REED SIDEBAR: William Reed, b. c. 1673, freedom suit won 3 Sept 1694 [D Heinegg]
 ... [generations missing; the link from William to James is unproven] ...
 HUGH REED, d. bef. end of 1786, Rowan Co NC [?: James's father only per the Attride compilation]
 JAMES REED/READ of Clay Co [D consent note, OL22], b. c. 1766-75;
  d. c. 1841, Clay Co KY [or bef. 6 Jan 1845, Morgan Co IN] (revised 2026-09-27)
 children marrying Clay 1822-1830:
  |-- Randolph, m. Rhodey Hollinsworth 1825 [candidate]
  |-- MARY, m. Jesse Collins 13 Dec 1827 [D]  \  SAME DAY:
  |-- STEPHEN, m. Nancy Powell 13 Dec 1827    /  probable double wedding
  |-- ELIZABETH, m. Hiram Collins 8 Dec 1829 [D; probable daughter]
  +-- William, m. Lydia Langdon 1830 [candidate]
 (James Reed m. Polly Silver 1839: widowed father or a son James; test)
 (Patsy, m. James Hollinsworth 1822, moved off 2026-09-27: more likely Stephen Reed Jr's daughter)
 (Reading B, Morgan Co IN: sons Elisha, John [or James] and Naaman; see the Reed addendum)
 Richard Reed x Kelsey (Kesiah?) COLLINS, license Jan 1827 unsolemnized:
  third Reed-Collins pairing, direction reversed
 [?] Eno River William Reed, Granville Gv139, 1756: untested (task 22)

SIZEMORE SIDEBAR: Betsy Ann Sizemore m. Andrew Collins 1838 [D DAR];
 Sizemores named by Carlson among the Christian Saponi band families [OL10];
 family workup pending (task 26)

16. Master roster of the early community (working table; add rows and evidence as found)

Person	Dates	Records and classifications	Land	Movements	Standing / notes
Thomas Collins Sr "Molata"	b. say 1700, d. c. 1770?	Louisa VA 1745 presentments (concealed tithable "probably his wife"; swearing); 1750 Wade's list Granville; 1755 Orange NC 3 tithes MULATTO; himself SCC for Wharton (Gv985, 1760) and Justice (Gv897, 1763)	1752 grant (Moses Riddle witness); Gv579 700 ac Dial's Creek, warrant c. 29 Dec 1760 (3 days after Brown's), granted 13 Oct 1761, SCC George Gibson + Paul Collins; adj Thompson's Camp Creek grant (Gv685, 1762)	Louisa VA > Flat River NC c. 1748; stayed	Patriarch. Probable father of Samuel, George1, Thomas Jr, John [P]. Gv579 reads as a defensive filing against Brown's warrant (14.10)
Samuel Collins	b. say 1724	1745 Louisa presentment (wife tithable); 1746 Vernon suit, 16 pounds 9 + 14 lb DEER SKINS; 1746/7 Sabbath hunting-fishing presentment (with William C.); 1755: 2 tithes MULATTO; 1787 Wilkes census: 1M 21-60, 1F	Flat River; later Wilkes	Flat River > Wilkes NC	Probable son of Thomas [P]; Heinegg's ancestor of the Wilkes-Ashe men; candidate father of Meredith
John Collins (son)	b. say 1736	1755 Orange NC: 1 tithe MULATTO			Probable son of Thomas [P]; Blackburn's candidate father of Meredith
John Collins (elder?) [?]	b. by c. 1730?	Flat River records from c. 1750; possibly the 1743 (27 Jan 1742/43) Orange VA "Indian" John; candidate: "Elisha Wallen, Senr. assignee of John Collins, 200 ac N side Rocky Creek, settled 1774" [OL25]	Flat River adjoining Gibson 1751; Rocky Creek claim 1774 (assigned away)	Flat River c. 1750-1767 > Peach Bottom Creek, New River 1767 (Dillon)	Two-Johns tension unresolved; sons Lewis + James per Grayson tax [C]
George1 Collins	b. c. 1728			Anson Co NC 1764 purchase per Heinegg	Probable son of Thomas [P]; candidate 1761 chain carrier if blog reading were right (plat says Gibson)
Thomas Collins Jr	b. say 1734	1755 taxable; 1800 ASHE: 7 "OTHER FREE"		Flat River > Ashe	Probable son of Thomas [P]
Paul Collins		1752 grant witness; 1761 Gv579 SWORN CHAIN CARRIER [D plat]; 1777 Caswell taxpayer		STAYED on the Flat	The constant; kin of Thomas, exact link unplaced
Dennis Collins		SCC on Gv313, S Fork Flat River, 4 Dec 1753; own tract surveyed 2 days later	Gv091: 480 ac both sides Cobbs Creek, surveyed 6 Dec 1753, granted 8 May 1755, SCC Cornelius + Francis DOLLARHIDE, PB 14 p. 384 [OL19 plat in hand]		New name; in the neighborhood; link unplaced; Dollarhide surname to watch
Joseph Collins		adjoined by Combs grant Gv131, 1756	Flat River, W side		Link unplaced
James Collins (Haw River)		Gv178: 350 ac Haw River 1756, own "Collins Creek"; non-community chain carriers	Haw River		CAUTION: probably separate family; but a James SCC'd 1753 beside Joseph Collins (Gv015), not fully separable
Meredith Collins	c. 1760 VA - 1841 Pike KY	McDaniel's Company list, Kegley Militia pp. 23-24, undated [D OL46]; refused a tour: Montgomery court martial of 23 April 1783, "under similar orders" to Ozburn's refusers (armed-vessels duty), listed after James Cox, with Blevins and Saxton [D OL25]; DAR Patriot A024535; white 1810, colored and slave columns 1820, white 1830, 1840 apparently in the Robinson household; 1838 pauper declaration; 1840 accusation vs sons	New River; Pike Co KY	Montgomery VA > Russell > Floyd/Pike KY	Our man. Father: Samuel [P] or John [C]. Wives: (1) unnamed c. 1782-85 (Bradley's mother); (2) Polly Holloway m. c. 1799 [D Eula app]; late partner Milly Johnson
Polly Holloway	c. 1780 VA - ante 1840 [D Eula app]; d. c. 1812 per Conley-via-Blackburn	m. Meredith c. 1799 [D Eula application preview]			Second wife; mother of Archibald (c. 1800), James, Jesse (c. 1804), William (1806), and Hiram (c. 1804-06), with Edward, John W., and Reuben on the Conley list alone [?]; NOT Bradley's mother (b. c. 1780 vs Bradley 1787), though the DAR's Bradley-line papers name her; the Ned legend (b. 1796-1802) straddles the start of this marriage
Lewis Collins	b. 1754	"son of John" on muster annotation; consecutive line with Meredith on McDaniel's list (Kegley pp. 23-24); 1776 enlistment with Meredith, George, David per the family record, but by his pension living on Broad River, SOUTH CAROLINA, and drafted there against the Cherokee (Capt. James Steen); Eutaw Springs, Sept 1781; taken as a Tory at the "Rock House" 1780 with David Gibson, escaped (W1044); pension S21142 (OL51)			If Blackburn right, Meredith's brother
David Collins		1776 enlistment (family record); McDaniel's list (Kegley pp. 23-24) [D]	David1: Ashe estate 41 pounds 1778; 1790 Wilkes		Heinegg groups under Samuel [P]; CANDIDATE STRUCTURE (14.21) [?]: = DAVID SR. b. c. 1755, father of David Jr. (b. ~1785) and Samuel (b. ~1793), the 1813 consenter, one of the two elders in David Jr.'s 1820 Wythe household, dead or gone by 1840; tests: 1830 Wythe + Wythe probate (task 48)
David Collins Jr. (of Wythe) [?]	b. c. 1787 (1840, 1850, death register concur; 1830 tick = slop) - d. Nov 1866, Wythe, dropsy, age 79 [D]	BLACKSMITH (1850: household = a working smithy with hammerman son-in-law John Moore + young labor); 1820/1830/1840/1850 Wythe heads; wife ELIZABETH (63 in 1850, b. VA, illiterate, d. before Nov 1866); children: illegible son b. c. 1821, Elizabeth b. c. 1815 (m. Moore 1849-50), James C. b. 1828 (m. Mabe 1865), Adam b. 1831 (m. Mabe 1856), granddaughter Catherine b. c. 1843; counted white throughout		Wythe Co	Probable son of David Sr. [?]; the 1866 "Sr." relative to the WYTHE DAVID b. 1818 (David III candidate, task 57); estate = Wythe books 1866-67
Samuel Collins (of David) [?]	b. c. 1792-95	m. Permelia Gaines 1813 Montgomery (consent of father David) [D]; candidate household 1820 WASHINGTON Co: man 26-45, wife 16-26, 3 children b. 1814-20, farmer [strong, OL36]		Montgomery > Washington Co	Male-line branch; trace forward 1830 (task 52)
Samuel Collins (of Daniel) [?]	b. by 1775	m. Rachel Price 1801 Montgomery (sur. Daniel) [D]; candidate household 1820 GILES Co: head 45+, wife 26-45, children from c. 1802, two in agriculture [strong, OL36]		Montgomery > Giles Co (Pearisburg)	Daniel's probable son; trace forward (task 52)
George2 Collins "the hunter"		cabin in Ashe when first grants issued 1780s; estate 26 pounds 1778; 1787 Wilkes 1M+3M under 21+3F; possibly 1830 Wilson TN 14 FREE COLORED	Ashe cabin	> TN?	Heinegg under Samuel [P]
Elisha Collins		REFUSED the Oath of Allegiance before James McCorkle in the fall of 1777 as a man of Cox's company, "Elisha Collins, Coxes Compy." (Kegley, Militia, p. 50); NOT on McDaniel's list	Ashe land adjoining Stephen + James REED	New River	The refuser; Reed adjacency on the New River
Valentine Collins		1790 Wilkes (ordinary schedule); 1800 Ashe: 6 "OTHER FREE"; 1801-03 STONY CREEK church member; 1802 Lower Russell tax WHITE		Ashe > Russell/Scott VA	The kaleidoscope in one man: white, other free, white, and at Stony Creek where "Melungin" was first written (1813)
Vardy Collins		1790 Wilkes; 1800 Ashe: 4 "other free"; 1830 Hawkins TN: 8 FREE COLORED		> Hawkins TN (Newman's Ridge)	Namesake of Vardy community
Ambrose Collins		estate 20 pounds 1778; 1790 Wilkes; 1800 Ashe: 4 "other free"
Martin Collins		1790 Wilkes
Charles1 Collins		estate 44 pounds 1778
Griffin Collins		1810 GRAINGER TN: 11 FREE COLORED (also Lewis 10, Joseph 9)		> Grainger TN	Grainger cluster
Middleston / Melinton Collins		1777 Caswell (stayed); 1782 Montgomery VA list; 1793 Wythe list		Flat > New River	Rare name threading stayers and leavers
Obadiah Collins		1777 Caswell taxpayer		STAYED
Bradley Collins	b. 1787 NC (1850 census) / VA (DAR); last alive 29 Nov 1850	1820 Floyd; 1830 Clay; m. Barney 1831, Griffin 1833, Luneford 1836 (Clay register [D]); sold Clay land 1839; 1840 CHARITON MO (margin annotation, OL6); 1850 Appanoose sheet 29 Nov: age 63, in Andrew's household, cannot read/write, counted white; DAR child of Meredith + Polly Holloway	Clay Co KY farm	(Wilkes-Ashe NC birth) > KY > flatboat > Chariton MO 1840-44 > Appanoose IA 1844	FIVE wives incl. unknown first + Jane Ray 1817; wives dying young; son Andrew; HALF-BROTHER of Jesse (the father reading is withdrawn)
Andrew Collins	c. 1811 KY - c. 1875 Scott MO [D DAR]	m. BETSY ANN SIZEMORE 31 Mar 1838 CLAY CO KY [D register]; 1850 Appanoose: 39, farmer, cannot read/write, counted white, children Lewis, Samson, Archibald(?), Polly A. (2), father Bradley co-resident, Center Twp No. 3		Clay KY > Appanoose IA (by 1849) > Scott Co MO	Bradley's son; Jesse's nephew (Jesse was Bradley's half-brother); SIZEMORE alliance; sons carry Meredith-generation names (Lewis, Archibald)
Jesse Collins	c. 1804, likely RUSSELL CO VA - 1847	Consent note 25 Nov 1827 (James Read author; Stephen Read + Hiram Collins attest) [D OL22]; m. MARY REED 13 Dec 1827 Clay Co [D]; 1840 Missouri census		Russell VA > Clay KY > Morgan Co IN (1830) > IL > St. Louis Co MO (1840) > Appanoose IA (probably by 1847)	OUR LINE. Son of Meredith and Polly Holloway [settled 2026-09-23]; half-brother to Bradley
Hiram Collins	b. c. 1804-06	ATTESTED Jesse's consent note 25 Nov 1827 [D OL22]; m. ELIZABETH REED, 8 Dec 1829, Clay Co [D register]; 1830 CLAY: he and his wife ticked in the SLAVE columns, child in the white column; 1840 MONTGOMERY CO INDIANA [very likely MORGAN Co, the page after James Reed's; revised 2026-09-27, see 14.23]: household of seven, the only FREE COLORED entry on its page [OL37]; 1850 KNOX CO IN entry (Hiram 46 b. VA, wife Elizabeth 39 b. INDIANA, Francis 17) logged with MULTIPLE-HIRAMS CAUTION: tensions with the Reed marriage and the 1840 household; prior-chat Hiram-sorting to re-import (task 59)		Clay KY > Morgan Co IN (recorded earlier as Montgomery) > ?	Probable brother of Jesse; the family's starkest kaleidoscope arc
Edward Collins (Patrick Co) [?]	b. c. 1804 NC	1850 Patrick census (14.11): 46, farmer, $1,000, counted white, w. Eliza 36 VA, Davis Collins 21, Samuel Holt 24; 1840 Patrick household (14.14); ABSENT from Patrick in 1830 (14.24): the ONE cluster member who ARRIVES in the 1830s: the arrival test favors the Ned candidacy	Patrick Co VA farm	NC > (elsewhere 1830) > Patrick Co VA by 1840	CANDIDATE for Ned "half Indian" of the legend; near Pittsylvania and the Goinstown corridor; tests remaining: 1860 Patrick, marriages, the Holt hypothesis (tasks 27, 41)
Abraham Collins		m. Christina Poutston/Poulston, 1828, Clay Co [D register]; license-order oddity in register		Clay Co KY	Unplaced; new Clay name
William Collins (of Clay)		m. Sytha Powell, Jan 1832, Clay Co [D register]		Clay Co KY	Unplaced; NOT William son of Meredith (whose path ran to WV)
James Collins (of Clay)		m. Martha Ann Cotton, Jul 1839, Clay Co [D register]		Clay Co KY	Unplaced; James recurs across the family
William Collins	13 Apr 1806 RUSSELL CO VA - 30 Mar 1896 Craigsville WV [D Eula app]	m. (1) Mary Mullins [C]; (2) Molly Hatfield 25 Nov 1860 [D Eula app]		Russell VA > Pike KY > Nicholas Co WV	Meredith + Polly's son; the WV colony; Eula Conley's line (her grandfather Samuel b. 1861 Pike Co took the family to Portland OR)
Moses Riddle / Ridley		1755 Orange NC: 1 tithe + WIFE MARY, both MULATTO; Carlson: "an Indian man" bordering Tom Collins and the Gibsons; SCC on Brown's Gv591, 13 Apr 1761, the survey absorbing his own improvements [D]; 1767 Pittsylvania VA tax: "Moses Ridle (AN INDIAN)"	held by improvement only: NEVER a Granville grantee (user's index sweep); improvements absorbed by Brown's 1760 warrant; Sandy River entries, Pittsylvania	Flat River > Pittsylvania VA before 1767	NOT Thomas's father-in-law (b. c. 1715-25; son John b. c. 1750); a daughter b. c. 1740 may have married one of Thomas's younger sons [?]; not in Kegley's Militia (the only Riddles there are John and William, p. 51); claimed son of Margaret Ridley (servant) + Edward Buss (mulatto) per WikiTree (Riddle-158, Redley-1; OL49), court records not found [?]; Buss = Bass? [?]; the man who never got paper
William Riddle		1767 Pittsylvania list (William Ridle); *took the oath of allegiance with Capt. Cox's company in the fall of 1777 as "William Ridel" (James McCorkle's list, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777, Kegley, Militia, pp. 50-51) [D]*		Pittsylvania > New River	Son of Moses; lore identifies a Tory William Riddle (kidnapped Col. Cleveland Apr 1781, hanged) with him: UNVERIFIED; his fall 1777 oath predates the April 1781 kidnapping, so it does not argue against the identification (task 33)
John Riddle	b. c. 1750?	took the oath of allegiance with Capt. Cox's company in the fall of 1777, by his mark ("Jno. (his mark) Riddle," Kegley, Militia, p. 51) [D]; candidate = pensioner S9069: entered 1776 under Capt. JOHN COX at the lead mines, Long Island of Holston Cherokee expedition, 4.5 months; resident 1833 on the STOKES-ROCKINGHAM line NC (Goinstown corridor, adjacent Patrick) [OL26]		New River > Stokes/Rockingham NC?	Son of Moses; Christian's 1776 campaign (the column Meredith went with is unrecorded); Patrick-Stokes convergence flagged [?]
Thomas Gibson		1755: 3 tithes MULATTO; Flat River patents adjoining Charles Gibson, Moses Ridley, Thomas Collins	Flat River		Gibson patriarch; son Charles pension R3995
George Gibson		1755: 1 tithe MULATTO; 1761 Gv579 SWORN CHAIN CARRIER [D plat]			On Thomas's chain
Charles Gibson		1755: 1 tithe; pension R3995 applied Hawkins TN 1839		> Hawkins TN	Community Revolutionary testimony source (task 15)
Mager Gibson		1755: 1 tithe MULATTO
Gedion + Micajer Bunch		1755: 1 tithe each, MULATTO		Micajah Bunch on 1773 New River "Indian Lands" list	Bunch family thread, Flat River to New River
William Bowlin		on the merged OL1 roster only, NOT on McDaniel's list or McCorkle's 1777 oath list (source not yet located); Bowlin improvements in 1760 Brown warrant; Bowlins on 1767 Pittsylvania list	Flat River improvements (lost)	Flat > Pittsylvania and New River
Sexton brothers (Benjamin, Charles, John)		McDaniel's list (Kegley, Militia, pp. 23-24, undated) [D]; JOHN SAXTON on the refusal list beside Meredith, court martial 23 Apr 1783 [OL25]; WM. SEXTON's commissioner's preemption certificate, 1,000 ac New River below Bingeman's Bottom, ASSIGNED AWAY via John Hays to Richard Muse [OL28]	New River preemption (assigned away)		Allied family on the roster, refusing alongside; the assigned-away-claim pattern's third instance; Saxton spelling variant; workup task 37
Montgomery Collins marriage cluster (Daniel, Hezekiah, et al.) [?]		Bonds and returns 1785-1830 (14.17): Elenor 1785; John x Betsy Johnston 1793; Nancy dau. of DANIEL 1794; Samuel x Rachel Price 1801 (sur. Daniel); Sally 1808 + Lucinda 1819 (sur. HEZEKIAH); Samuel x Permelia Gaines 1813 (consent of DAVID as father); 1820s marriages; Zachariah x McDaniel 1830		Montgomery-Wythe	UNSORTED: stay-behind kin in the county mainstream, or a separate Montgomery Collins family; Daniel and Hezekiah absent from Flat River and muster sets; sorting tests task 42
Jacob Collins (of Wythe)	head c. 40-50 in 1830	1830 Wythe household (several sons and daughters) on David Jr.'s page [OL37]		Wythe Co	New Wythe name; unplaced; candidate cluster kin (task 56)
Brooks Collins (of Wythe)	b. 1800-10	1830 Wythe: 1M 20-30 + 1F 15-20, total two (newlyweds); Coxes on the page [OL37]		Wythe Co	New name, unplaced; "Brooks" reads like a mother's surname passed down (task 56)
Thomas Collins (of the 1829 Booth marriage)	b. 1800-10	m. Elizabeth Booth 1829 Montgomery [D register, 14.17]; 1830 Montgomery: childless couple both 20-30 [strong match, OL37]		Montgomery Co	The bond cluster materializing in the censuses; not Thomas Jr. of the old tree
Zachariah Collins		m. MARY ANN McDANIEL, 28 Oct 1830, Buckingham's minister list [D OL25]		Montgomery/Wythe area	Unplaced; documents a Collins-McDaniel marriage a generation after the company (task 38)
Capt. James McDaniel (McDonnald/McDannal)		Commanded the company on Kegley, Militia, pp. 23-24 (undated: Meredith, Lewis, David, George, the Sextons); in the fall of 1777 he swore the oath of allegiance as one of Cox's men, before he had a company of his own (Kegley, Militia, p. 51); in the Elk Creek Turkey Fork land-assignment chain, settled 1776 [OL25]; sat on (Walter Crockett presided) the court martial of 23 April 1783 that listed his men "under similar orders"	Elk Creek waters		The company district = the Peach Bottom / Elk Creek neighborhood; profile task 35
Capt. John Cox		Commanded John Riddle's 1776 Cherokee-expedition tour from the lead mines (S9069, OL26); 400 acres on PEACH BOTTOM, settled 1774 [OL30]	Peach Bottom Creek		The Collins family's neighbor on their own creek; JAMES COX beside Meredith on the 1783 refusal list; the two captains bracket the family's hollows
Betsy Ann Sizemore	c. 1815 VA - 1870 Pike MO	m. Andrew Collins 1838 Clay Co [D DAR]			Sizemore = Christian Saponi band family per Carlson; workup pending
James Reed/Read (of Clay) [D]	b. c. 1766-75 (census ages); d. c. 1841, Clay Co KY [or bef. 6 Jan 1845, Morgan Co IN]; son of Hugh Reed (d. bef. end of 1786, Rowan Co NC) per the Attride compilation only [?] (revised 2026-09-27)	AUTHOR-SIGNATORY of the 25 Nov 1827 consent note to clerk Abner Baker [D OL22]: MARY'S FATHER, literate or signature-literate; children marrying Clay 1822-1830 (reconstruction, 14.12); James Reed m. Polly Silver 1839 (father remarrying or son James; task open); 1830 Clay: himself in the slave column (55-100), four young men also in the slave columns, one free colored man 24-36, his wife the one person counted white [D]		Clay Co KY [> Morgan Co IN, reading B]	Father of Mary [D], probable father of Elizabeth, Stephen + candidates Randolph, William (Patsy moved off 2026-09-27: more likely Stephen Reed Jr's daughter); name echoes the Ashe adjacency (Stephen + James Reed)
Stephen Read/Reed	b. c. 1800-07	ATTESTED Jesse-Mary consent note 25 Nov 1827 [D OL22]; m. NANCY POWELL, 13 DEC 1827, Clay Co [D register]: THE SAME DAY as Jesse x Mary; double wedding near-certain		Clay Co KY	Probable brother of Mary [strong]; flagged for census tracing (task 37); name from the Ashe-adjacency generation
Kelsey (Kesiah?) Collins		Richard Reed license for her, Jan 1827, unsolemnized [D register]		Clay Co KY	Unplaced Collins woman; third Reed-Collins pairing, direction reversed; whose daughter? (task 31)
William Reed (Eno) [?]		Gv139: 292 ac Eno River branches, 1756; also Gv322 adjacency, Robert Reed Gv293, John Reed SCC Gv170	Eno River		LEAD ONLY, common surname; test vs Heinegg Reed entry (task 22)

17. Consolidated open tasks (origin line)

~~1787 NC state census, Wilkes: Samuel (and John) household composition.~~ PARTIALLY RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.1): Samuel's 1787 household was 1 male 21-60 and 1 female per Heinegg; sons already out. Remaining: check the published 1787 Wilkes list for any John Collins household.
Wilkes/Ashe deed sweep for Samuel-to-son or John-to-son conveyances.
~~Granville grant packets for Thomas's surveys.~~ SUBSTANTIALLY RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.3): chain carriers identified (Paul Collins plus George Gibson or George Collins, sources disagree). RESOLVED Sept 16 (14.7, OL13): the Gv579 plat names GEORGE GIBSON and PAUL COLLINS.
Botetourt/Montgomery tithables 1771-1782: whose household Meredith first appears in. UNCHANGED, still the highest-value paternity test.
~~Heinegg Collins entry re-read for a Flat River John.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.1): John, b. say 1736, Molata taxable 1755, probable son of Thomas; two-Johns tension logged.
~~1840 Callaway image heading re-read; 1840 Carroll + Chariton Collins surname search.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16, 2026: left-margin annotation on the image reads "Chariton County" (Section 11, OL6). Optional follow-up only: read the right-hand page of the same sheet for Bradley's full column entries and the free colored columns.
~~Moses Riddle → Thomas Collins father-in-law lead.~~ RULED OUT 23 Sept 2026: Moses (b. c. 1715-25) was too young. REDIRECTED: a daughter of Moses, b. c. 1740, marrying one of Thomas's younger sons, possibly Meredith's father (bears on task 4).
William Read / Sappony Creek 1729 identification (a Surry County record, DW&c 8:22; county of the land unstated) (Reed side lead logged here for its Saponi geography).
Milly Johnson's son (b. c. 1818, bound out 1829, mother's surname): any trace under Johnson in later Pike records.
~~Orange Co NC 1755 tax list: obtain image of the Thomas/Samuel "Molata" entries.~~ TRANSCRIPTION OBTAINED Sept 16 (Section 14.2, full roster); original image still wanted (T&C box 1, p. 15 and 19, NC Archives).
~~DAR GRS ancestor lookup for Meredith Collins.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.5): Patriot A024535, service proof Kegley p. 23 (McDaniel's Company); eleven-plus member applications through William (m. Molly Hatfield) and Bradley (wife unknown, "X X"); none through Jesse.
NEW: FamilySearch Full-Text Search sweeps (Louisa orders; Granville/Wilkes/Ashe deeds; Russell, Floyd, Pike, Clay courts; every Meredith spelling).
~~NEW: pull Thomas Collins's Granville survey image at nclandgrants.com (settles the chain-carrier George question).~~ DONE Sept 16 (14.7, OL13): plat obtained; GEORGE GIBSON confirmed.
NEW: LVA Chancery Records Index search, Collins, in Grayson, Wythe, Montgomery, Russell counties.
NEW: read Charles Gibson pension R3995 (Hawkins Co TN 1839) for New River community testimony.
Meredith pension/bounty search (NARA catalog, Fold3): unchanged; no application located despite his surviving well past the 1832 militia-pension act. An absence, a rejection, or an unclaimed bounty warrant would each be informative.
~~Gv579 warrant as Brown-hypothesis test.~~ HYPOTHESIS RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.10): Brown's was his own parallel grant, Gv591. Remaining, downgraded to documentation: pull the Gv591 plat image (Moses Riddle's chain-carrier signature line) and the Gv579 warrant (to confirm the 29 Dec 1760 date and the three-day-race sequence).
NEW: obtain Richard Carlson's dissertation on the Saponi/Christian Saponi Band (the source behind the Hawkins summaries in OL10) for the Flat River chapter and its footnoted primary records (white-tithable lists c. 1750-53, the Moses Ridley land records).
NEW: 1767 Pittsylvania Co VA tax list (John Wilson's list) original image: "Moses Ridle (an Indian)," William Ridle, the Bowlins; plus the Sandy River land entries. Library of Virginia / published Pittsylvania tithables.
NEW: Grayson County, VA tax records establishing Lewis and James Collins as probable sons of John Collins of Peach Bottom Creek (per Dillon); bears directly on the Meredith paternity fork via the elder-John thread.
NEW: the claimed court records of Margaret Ridley (indentured servant) and Edward Buss (mulatto), Moses Riddle's asserted parents; targeted search Sept 16 returned nothing public; locate via the citations on the WikiTree profiles the claim comes from (Riddle-158; "Margaret (Redley) Buss," Redley-1; OL49; not the Empty Branches post) and the Halifax/Pittsylvania/Lunenburg VA order books. Test the Buss = BASS hypothesis (Nansemond-descended free family, Heinegg's Bass entry). If Margaret was the servant mother, she was almost certainly white (the 1662 mechanism, as with William Reed), placing any Indian descent through Buss, through Moses's wife Mary, or through community identity.
Test the Eno River William Reed (Granville Gv139, 1756) against Heinegg's Reed family entry; a match would push the Collins-Reed adjacency back to 1750s Orange County.
DAR purchases, final strategy (14.8-14.9): buy full forms only, (1) 562294 Eula Conley's own application, (2) the full form behind the Bradley chain (663507 pending the connecting-number check on 675733's short-form note). Short forms (661999, 675733) carry no independent documentation. Before March 16, 2026 ($10 becomes $15). [Obsolete: the page already shows $15 (14.12, OL21).]
~~Clay Co vitals check for Andrew-Sizemore 1838.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.11): confirmed in the register, license and marriage 31 Mar 1838.
~~Appanoose 1850 images for Andrew's household.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.11): user had already read it; Andrew 39 with Betsy, four children, and Bradley 63 (b. NC) co-resident; sheet dated 29 Nov 1850, decoding the DAR death entry.
NEW: Sizemore family workup: Betsy Ann's parents; the Grayson/Ashe Sizemores (incl. "Old Ned" Sizemore) among the Christian Saponi band per Carlson; the Sizemore Y-DNA line (Native American haplogroup) in the Melungeon DNA literature as context.
UPDATED: 1840 Patrick Edward READ (14.14); the 1830 Patrick census test is DONE (14.24, OL38): Edward absent in 1830 and present by 1840, the arrival signature (Reuben was already there in 1830). Also still: Patrick marriages (Edward x Eliza, c. 1840s), the RUSSELL and Tazewell 1840 Edward Collinses (Russell = the family's own county), 1860 Patrick follow-up, the farm deed, the missing elder son (b. 1820-25).
NEW: pull further Clay Co male-surname register sections from the user's download source: REED (the third Reed-Collins marriage; the sisters' family structure), SIZEMORE (Betsy Ann's kin), HOLLOWAY.
~~Locate the Jesse-Mary license/bond and decode the annotation.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16 evening (14.13, OL22): consent note found, James Read author, "of James" decoded, Mary's father named. Follow-ons moved to task 34.
NEW: Clay Co probate/guardianship sweep for Bradley's wives (Barney, Griffin, Luneford) and any children of those marriages; estate or guardian records could name unknown siblings of Andrew.
NEW: identify Kelsey (Kesiah?) Collins of the Jan 1827 Richard Reed license: whose daughter (Bradley's? a cousin's?); any later marriage or census trace.
NEW: Sizemore-in-Clay via the 1820-1840 Clay Co census schedules (the S register section is lost pre-1864); Betsy Ann b. c. 1815 VA, so her household arrived from Virginia between c. 1815 and 1838.
NEW: Moses Riddle after 1767: Pittsylvania Co entry and deed books for the Sandy River entries (patented or lapsed?); trace to death; TEST, not assume, the Riddle-family lore identifying son William with the Tory-outlaw William Riddle hanged on the New River.
NEW, the bond shopping list (loose files, same film series as OL22), in yield order: (1) Stephen Read x Nancy Powell, Dec 1827 (shared attesters / hand / adjacent file numbers = double-wedding closure); (2) Hiram x Elizabeth Reed, BOTH files, 1828 and 1829 (James Read consent would document Elizabeth as another daughter; differences may explain the year's gap); (3) Andrew x Betsy Ann Sizemore, 1838 (consent names Betsy's father); (4) Richard Reed x Kelsey Collins, Jan 1827 (consenter identifies her household); (5) Bradley's three, 1831/1833/1836 (bondsmen map his network; the Griffin bond especially); (6) Randolph Reed 1825 and William Reed 1830 (test as James's sons); also photograph any formal bond and minister's return in the Jesse-Mary file itself.
NEW, McDaniel chapter: profile Capt. James McDaniel via Kegley (Militia, FamilySearch Digital Library book 1033071: pp. 23-24, 50-52, and the index SEEN 23 Sept 2026, OL46; what remains there is Bowlin/Bolin/Bowling and any Collins entries on the other 1777-79 oath lists; plus the Early Adventurers on the Western Waters series) and Montgomery/Wythe/Grayson records: his land, the company's district, the source of the merged roster's William Bowlin.
NEW, McDaniel chapter: sweep revwarapps.org for OTHER Montgomery Co / McDaniel-company pension declarations (search McDaniel, Montgomery, lead mines, Preston): neighbors' narrated tours reconstruct the company's actual service (musters, lead-mines guard, Tory suppression 1779-80, Cherokee 1776); plus the Montgomery court order books 1777-82 (oath refusals, militia fines, Tory prosecutions) and Preston's papers in the Draper MSS for the lead-mines defense.
NEW: trace Stephen Read/Reed (b. c. 1800-07): 1830/1840 Clay censuses, 1850 census with wife Nancy; the Powell double-connection (Nancy Powell; Sytha Powell m. William Collins 1832). Also the Sexton family workup (the roster's third allied family: Benjamin, Charles, John Sexton/Saxton; John Saxton on the refusal list; Kegley searches under both spellings; Grayson tax lists; revwarapps S-surname browse; 1810/1820 Grayson and 1800 Ashe censuses).
NEW: Zachariah Collins (m. Mary Ann McDaniel 1830): which Collins line; 1830/1840 Montgomery-Wythe-Grayson censuses.
NEW: John Riddle S9069 full read (remaining pages beyond the user's excerpt: later tours, officers, family statements); trace him in Stokes/Rockingham censuses 1800-1840; test identity with Moses's son John; map his residence against Goinstown and Patrick (the Riddle-Collins convergence flag).
UPDATED: session date RESOLVED (23 Apr 1783, Patrick Campbell's house, 14.15). Remaining: run the 14.15 search-term list through vols 1-3 (insolvent and delinquent lists especially); ~~read W1044 and transcribe the Joseph Collins affidavit~~ DONE 23 Sept 2026: affidavit of 27 Jan 1849, Grainger Co TN (NARA M804, roll 1642, frame 0730; transcribed at joepayne.org): Tories taken at a "Rock House"; "stone tower/fort" was a paraphrase.
NEW: Samuel Holt Collins hypothesis tests (14.14 revised): Patrick marriages for Edward Collins x a HOLT bride c. 1820-25; 1860 census for Samuel H. Collins vs Samuel Holt; the 1850 enumerator's surname-blank habits.
NEW: sort the Montgomery Collins marriage cluster (14.17): 1810/1820 Montgomery and Wythe censuses for DANIEL, DAVID, and HEZEKIAH Collins households (free-colored columns); check the 1782 company lists and Grayson tax rolls for Daniel/Hezekiah; map the Wygal-Price-Gaines-Furrow surety network's geography (Walker's Creek, Reed Creek). The David-consent 1813 entry is the priority identification.
NEW: read Early Adventurers vol. I, pp. 137-151 (the TORIES chapter, per vol. 2's own pointer) for the Gibson and Riddle context; order or view the Montgomery County Loose Papers item 23680 (Court Martials 1781-1783) at the Library of Virginia for the original of the 23 Apr 1783 refusal record; note the Findley/Juda Indian-descent freedom-suit literature (Wythe/Powhatan, 1813-1820) as regional legal context.
~~Zoom the 1820 Wythe box 6.~~ RESOLVED by user's ditto-convention analysis (14.20): TWO men 45+; household finalized.
NEW: pull the 1820 GILES CO (Pearisburg) Samuel Collins household (the two-Samuels test, 14.20) and second-priority the Washington Co Samuel; skip Frederick and Nelson.
NEW: the 1830 census (collection linked from the census hub wiki page): 1830 PATRICK Collins sweep (the cluster-arrival test: present 1830 = local family reading; absent 1830, present 1840 = arrival reading) and 1830 WYTHE David Collins (ten-year brackets age-test the Davids). DONE Sept 17: 1830 Wythe David read (14.23, OL37); 1830 Patrick sweep read (14.24, OL38): Edward absent in 1830, present by 1840.
~~The 1840 Wythe elder-male column.~~ RESOLVED by user's re-read (14.21): M 50-60, b. 1780-90: David Jr., not cohort David; free-colored columns blank confirmed.
UPDATED, the David Sr. tests: 1830 WYTHE for David Jr. (M 40-50; any M 70-80 in household = David Sr. alive); WYTHE PROBATE now dated: David Jr.'s estate in the 1866-67 books (death register found, 14.22); also identify the SECOND 1820 elder.
~~Place the two Samuels.~~ SUBSTANTIALLY RESOLVED (14.22, OL36): Washington 1820 = Samuel-of-David + Permelia [strong]; Giles 1820 = Samuel-of-Daniel [strong, two grounds]. Montgomery 1820 check downgraded to optional.
NEW, the lost-S-section workaround: sweep the Clay registers for SIZEMORE BRIDES under other letters' grooms (first recovery: Robert Asher x Polly Sizemore, Mar 1827, OL34); trace Polly Sizemore Asher as Betsy Ann's candidate kinswoman.
NEW, free reconstruction of David Jr.'s family: harvest every Wythe marriage and death index entry naming DAVID COLLINS (and Elizabeth) as parent (James C. x Margaret L. Mabe 1865 and Adam x Sarah H. Mabe 1856 already in hand; James b. 1820 d. 1890 Bland candidate); the Mabe sisters' family as the next allied-surname note.
NEW: trace both Samuels forward (1830 Washington for Samuel-of-David; 1830 Giles for Samuel-of-Daniel); note the Washington Co Collins pocket (Elijah, Jeremiah, John) for a future pass.
NEW, Hiram (14.23): re-attach the 1830 Clay (slave-columns) and 1840 Morgan Co Indiana (free colored; recorded earlier as Montgomery; the Reed addendum's citation is Ancestry collection 8057, Morgan Co, image 36 of 116) census images and citations to this file; locate Hiram in 1850 (Appanoose or along the road); note the 1830 page also confirms Abraham and Bradley Collins, Christopher Bowling, John Luneford as neighbors.
NEW, TOP CENSUS PRIORITY: 1850 WYTHE David Collins household (exact ages, ELIZABETH named, birthplaces, children incl. Adam ~19): resolves the 1830 bracket tension (14.23); then 1860 (Elizabeth alive or not, narrowing her death before Nov 1866). DONE Sept 17 (14.24, OL39): David 63, the 1830 tick read as age-slop; Elizabeth's own death entry (1866) found in 14.26 (OL43); the remaining 1860 work is task 58.
UPDATED, Elizabeth's maiden name: her own death entry FOUND (14.26, OL43: 1866, parents unknown), so that route is closed; the David-Elizabeth marriage bond c. 1805-12 (Montgomery/Wythe series); James Collins's 1890 Bland death record; any child's post-1912 certificate.
NEW: place JACOB and BROOKS Collins of 1830 Wythe (Wythe marriage records; 1840/1850 forward traces); the 1830 Montgomery Thomas = the 1829 Booth groom [strong] already linked.
~~Pull the Wythe 1850 David b. 1818 and Washington 1850 David b. 1822.~~ DONE (14.25): Wythe = DAVID III (m. Catherine Cook 1842, d. 1905, Fort Chiswell 1870), the register's relative "Sr." resolved; Washington = DAVID A. of the SEPARATE Elijah-of-Albemarle family (conflation caution #4).
UPDATED: the Moore marriage CONFIRMED by the Hardesty excerpt (Elizabeth Collins x John W. Moore, later deputy sheriff); remaining 1860 work: search 1860 Wythe for ADAM, JAMES, JOHN MOORE, DAVID III, and ELIZABETH Collins households (David Jr. and Elizabeth should sit in or near one), else browse the Wythe images; Elizabeth d. 1866 per her own death entry (14.26, OL43), not c. 1860 as the profile has it.
NEW: re-import the prior-chat MULTIPLE-HIRAMS tracking (two or three Hirams distinguished); verify the Knox Co IN 1850 entry against it; re-attach the 1830 Clay and 1840 Morgan Co IN (earlier "Montgomery") citations (14.23-14.24).
REVISED (the Frances route corrected): Frances's father was RICHARD CLIFFORD HOLBROOK (son of Jessie Clifford + Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr.), so Frances carries LUCILLE McMILLAN's maternal line, not the Collins-Reed one; a male mid-chain breaks transmission. THE COUSIN HUNT, tiers nearest first (every daughter of the same mother shares the haplogroup): (1) Jessie Clifford's DAUGHTERS (Richard's sisters) and their daughter-lines; (2) Emma Bruner's other daughters (the project holds an image of a Davis daughter of Mariah Emma); (3) Mary Elizabeth's other daughters; (4) daughters of MARY REED'S SISTERS (Elizabeth Reed m. Hiram, a probable sister; Patsy Reed m. Hollinsworth 1822 is more likely a cousin, Stephen Reed Jr's daughter [revised 2026-09-27]) and their daughter-lines. Method: scan Ancestry/23andMe match lists for cousins descending through those women via females; one 23andMe kit on one such cousin reports the maternal haplogroup (A2/B2/C1/D1/X2a = Native, near-proof for the Reed side). A male at the END of a chain still works as tester. Frances's and John's panels checked: no Native American assignment in any of the five tests; Collins-side candidate women still need their own cousin lines; Carlson footnotes (task 18) remain the documentary anchor.
UPDATED: verify ELIZABETH (STEVENS?) Collins: her death entry FOUND (14.26, OL43: 1866, parents unknown), so the register cannot name her parents; the David-Elizabeth marriage bond c. 1805-12 (Montgomery/Wythe).
NEW: test the profile's DAVID SR. (b. 1753, d. 1819, m. Nancy Ann Lee) [C]: Wythe/Montgomery PROBATE 1819-20 for a David Collins estate (would name children; a hit reconciles or breaks the 1820 two-elders reading); the Lee pedigree stays parked.
NEW: re-place SAMUEL-OF-DAVID (the Washington placement withdrawn, 14.25): MONTGOMERY 1820 Samuel Collins search re-upgraded; also re-examine the 1820 Washington Samuel against the Elijah family.

Sources

#	Source	Location
OL1	Frankie A. Blackburn et al., "One More Mountain to Cross: The Collins Story" (1998), Searching for Saponitown. Incorporates the Eula Collins Conley research as printed by Marlin Cline, with Blackburn's bracketed additions; quotes Orange Co VA Order Book 3 (court of 27 Jan 1742/43, 1743 NS), Louisa/Granville/Wilkes/Ashe/Botetourt records, Lewis Collins pension S21142, militia rosters (its single merged roster runs together McDaniel's list, Kegley, Militia, p. 23, McCorkle's 1777 oath list, p. 51, and his note of refusers, p. 50: SUPERSEDED)	Project file: `One_More_Mountain_to_Cross_-_The_Collins_Story_-_Searching_for_Saponitown.html`
OL2	Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina, Collins family entry	freeafricanamericans.com; summarized in main file S52
OL3	Heinegg, Reed family entry (page scans): William Reed b. c. 1673, Robert Jones bequest, 1694 freedom suit, 1699 "Malatta," 1708-15 Edwards suit, possible 1729 Sappony Creek sale (Surry DW&c 8:22; county of the land unstated)	Project file: `REED_FAMILY.pdf` (zip of page scans)
OL4	Pikeville Chapter DAR memorial, 1929, Pike Co courthouse grounds: sixteen Revolutionary soldiers incl. Meredith Collins; listed in Pike County, Kentucky 1821-1987 Historical Papers No. 6 (archive.org) and Pike Co GenWeb; marker still present per hmdb.org listings	Web, verified Sept 15 2026
OL5	Jordan Ellingwood 23andMe ancestry composition, 0.5% resolution	Project file: `Jordan_Ellingwood_ancestry_composition_0_5.csv`
OL6	1840 U.S. Census, Chariton County, Missouri, p. 309 (stamped), sheet "(No. 4.)": Bradley Collins household; county confirmed from the vertical left-margin annotation "Chariton County" on the page itself. FamilySearch IGN 005154556 (multi-county Missouri reel), image 632 of 1,315, ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBS-9BGL. Supersedes the "Callaway" reel-metadata attribution in main file S50 notes	User screenshot: `Bradley-Collins-1840-census-COUNTY__.png`; margin detail: `Bradley-1840-census-left-margin-CHARITON-County-detail.png`
OL7	Paul Heinegg, Collins family entry IN FULL (Church-Cotanch section): Thomas1 with probable sons Samuel, George1, Thomas2 Jr., John (b. say 1736, Molata 1 tithe 1755); 1745 Louisa presentments (tithable "probably his wife"; profane swearing); Samuel's deer-skin suit and Sabbath hunting presentment; 1760 patent chain carriers Paul Collins and George Gibson (citing NC MARS); Samuel's 1787 household; Wilkes/Ashe descendants with 1778 estates, 1787/1790/1800/1810/1830 classifications; separate King William/Pamunkey Collins family	freeafricanamericans.com/Church-Cotanch.htm, retrieved Sept 16, 2026
OL8	"Old Thomas Collins of Flat River," Historical Melungeons research blog: full 1755 Orange Co NC Molata tithe roster (Bunch, Collins x3, Riddle with wife Mary, Gibson x4); 1760/61 Thomas Collins 700-acre grant with chainbearers George Collins and Paul Collins "(mulattoes)"; 1756 Combs grant adjoining Joseph Collins; 1760 John Brown warrant absorbing "Bolins, Riddles and Collins Improvements"; 1802 Lower Russell Co tax list (Valentine Collins, Gibsons, Bolins, recorded white); Charles Gibson pension R3995	historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2012/02/old-thomas-collins-of-flat-river.html, retrieved Sept 16, 2026
OL9	"Short version of Orange County Granville Grants," Piedmont Wanderings (David M. McCorkle-linked abstracts of the NC Archives Granville records, with Google Drive survey images): Gv579 Thomas Collins entry (13 Oct 1761, 700 acres Dials Creek, SCC George Gibson & Paul Collins, surveyed 13 Apr 1761 by Wm Churton, SSLG 87-H, RegLn 2110); Gv131 Combs (SCC Thomas Gibson Jr & Moses Reedley); Gv091 Dennis Collins; Gv178 James Collins (Haw River); Gv139 William Reed (Eno River); Gv313 (SCC Dennis Collins, S Fork Flat River)	piedmontwanderings.blogspot.com/2023/02/test.html, retrieved Sept 16, 2026
OL10	Richard Carlson dissertation on the Saponi as summarized in the Vance Hawkins research blog series: Christian Saponi Band split Louisa Co VA / Flat River NC 1750-Revolution; Sizemore and Ridley/Riddle families joining; Moses Ridley/Riddle "an Indian man" with land bordering Tom Collins, Tom Gibson, George Gibson; white tithables c. 1750-53 reclassified Molata after Orange Co formed 1753; the half-Indian and 1/16-African classification rules	vancehawkins.blogspot.com (2013, 2014, 2018 posts), retrieved Sept 16, 2026
OL11	Jack Goins-derived material (jackgoins.blogspot.com; PowWows forum transcription; Brenda Collins Dillon reading-material page at saponitown.com): 1767 Pittsylvania Co VA tax list, "Moses Ridle (an Indian)," William Ridle, Bowlins, Sandy River entries; Collins/Gibson Flat River land sales 1767-70 and New River move; John Collins ~17 years on Flat River then Peach Bottom Creek c. 1767, Lewis and James likely his sons per Grayson tax records; 1777 Caswell Co list (Paul, Martin, Middleston, Obadiah, John Collins); Thomas Sr possibly d. Orange Co c. 1770; Riddle-family parentage claim (Margaret Ridley and Edward Buss), which comes from WikiTree (Riddle-158; "Margaret (Redley) Buss," Redley-1; OL49), NOT the Empty Branches post; the court records it cites have not been found	Retrieved Sept 16, 2026
OL12	DAR Genealogical Research System, Ancestor record A024535, COLLINS, MEREDITH: Virginia, Soldier, b. circa 1760, d. post 1841 Pike Co KY; service source Kegley, Militia of Montgomery Co, VA, 1777-1790, p. 23, Capt. James McDaniell; member application table (Nat'l Nos. 562294/505, 661999 via child William m. Molly Hatfield; 663507, 675733, 682664, 693414, 738061, 738511, 777970, 817698, 817699 via child Bradley, spouse unknown)	services.dar.org GRS, user search Sept 16, 2026; screenshot `Screenshot_2026-09-16_at_10_37_52_AM.png`
OL13	Gv579 SURVEY PLAT, primary document: Churton's record, Thomas Collins, Dial's Creek, 700 acres, surveyed 13 Apr 1761, sworn chain carriers GEORGE GIBSON and PAUL COLLINS; SSLG 87-H, Patent Book 14 p. 358. Companion: William Jones 672-ac survey, N side Flat River, 15 Aug 1763, "Entered by Jones Griffin," corner of JOHN BROWN's named. Plus three neighboring exemplar plats (Davey, Rawls, Watson)	User downloads via OL9 Drive links, Sept 16, 2026: `thomas-collins-land1.jpg` through `-land5.jpg` (land3 = Gv579; land4 = Jones)
OL14	DAR GRS member and descendant pages: application 562294 identified as EULA COLLINS CONLEY (Chapter 7028OR, joined Oct 1971); her four patriot lines (Collins A024535; Evans A037746; Hatfield A052955 with problems notice, b. c. 1735 Orange Co VA, pension *W5, scout and spy; Musick A083510 with problems notice, d. Russell Co VA, took Oath of Allegiance); short-form definition (site notes)	services.dar.org, user screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (11:08, 11:10, 11:12 AM)
OL15	DAR GRS Descendants free previews: Bradley-line full chain (Meredith + 1st wife POLLY HOLLOWAY > Bradley b. 1787 VA, d. p. 29 Nov 1850 Appanoose > Andrew b. c. 1811, m. BETSY ANN SIZEMORE 31 Mar 1838 Clay Co KY, d. c. 1875 Scott Co MO > Polly Ann b. 1849 Appanoose > Smith > Powell); William-line short form 661999 connecting to 562294 (William b. 13 Apr 1806 VA, d. 1896 Craigsville WV, Molly Hatfield, dau. Nancy Jane m. Blankenship, Logan Co WV); 675733 short form (Powell/Smith generations)	services.dar.org, user screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (11:34, 11:37, 11:39, 11:42 AM)
OL16	Piedmont Wanderings abstracts, user's systematic Brown/Collins/Riddle sweep: Gv591 (Brown, 698 ac Flat River, 14 Oct 1761, adj Watson + Thomas Gibson, SCC MOSES RIDDLE + CHARLES GIBSON, surveyed 13 Apr 1761); Gv089 (Brown, Little River 1755); Gv685 (Thompson, Camp Creek, adj Thomas Collins); Gv897 (Justice, SCC incl. Thomas Collins); Gv985 (Wharton, SCC Thomas Collins + George Gibson); finding that Moses Riddle appears only as chain carrier, never grantee	piedmontwanderings.blogspot.com/2023/02/test.html, user search Sept 16, 2026
OL17	Clay Co KY marriage register, male surnames C, 1807-1889 (user download): Andrew Collins x Betsy Ann Sizemore 31 Mar 1838; Bradley Collins x Catherine Barney Jul 1831, x Betsy Griffin 16 Feb 1833, x Elizabeth Luneford Sep 1836; Hiram Collins x Elizabeth Reed (license 1 Dec 1828 lapsed; license 1 Aug 1829; married 8 Dec 1829); Abraham Collins x Christina Poutston 1828; William Collins x Sytha Powell Jan 1832; James Collins x Martha Ann Cotton Jul 1839; Jesse Collins x Mary Reid 13 Dec 1827 on preceding page. Plus high-crop of the Mary Reid annotation ("[two short words] of James" + caps JAMES)	User records, Sept 16, 2026; annotation crop `Screenshot_2026-09-16_at_3_50_14_PM.png`
OL18	1850 census re-reads (user): Appanoose Co IA, Center Twp No. 3, sheet 29 Nov 1850: Andrew Collins 39 KY farmer + Betsy 35 VA + Lewis, Samson, Archibald(?), Polly A. 2 + BRADLEY COLLINS 63 b. NORTH CAROLINA, elders cannot read/write, counted white. Patrick Co VA: Edward Collins 46 farmer b. NC, $1,000 real estate, w. Eliza 36 VA, Davis Collins 21, Samuel Holt 24, counted white (Ned candidate)	User census reads, Sept 16, 2026
OL19	Gv591 SURVEY PLAT (John Brown, 698 ac Flat River, surveyed 13 Apr 1761, SCC MOSES RIDLE + CHARELS GIBSON; metes running with Thomas Gibson's line and the river; the western notch = Gibson's patented tract) and Gv091 SURVEY PLAT (Dennis Collins, 480 ac Cobbs Creek, surveyed 6 Dec 1753, SCC Cornelius + Francis Dollarhide, granted 8 May 1755, PB 14 p. 384)	User downloads Sept 16, 2026: `John-Brown-Moses-Riddle-Orange-NC-Land-1.jpg`, `Dennis-Collins-87-H-Land-.jpg`
OL20	Clay Co KY General Index to Marriages, R section p. 91 (FamilySearch IGN 007728051, image 91 of 814, ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BG-Q9YH-D) plus user readings of R, H, and S sections: Stephen Reed x Nancy Powell 13 Dec 1827 (SAME DAY as Jesse x Mary); Richard Reed x Kelsey Collins license Jan 1827 unsolemnized; Randolph Reed x Rhodey Hollinsworth 1825; William Reed x Lydia Langdon 1830; James Reed x Polly Silver 1839; Reed-Hollinsworth web; unsolemnized-license base rate; Lydia Bowling 1839; S section lost pre-1864; the FILE NO. column	User download and readings, Sept 16, 2026: `Clay-County-Vitals-pg91-R-section.pdf`
OL21	DAR Online Library Documents Service order page for 562294: Application PDF $15 with free "Preview: Lineage" link; Supporting Documentation $30, 25 DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE; both $45; $15 record-copy pricing note effective Mar 16, 2026 (already in effect by Sept 2026; the urging elsewhere to buy before that date is obsolete)	services.dar.org, user screenshot Sept 16, 2026 (4:57 PM)
OL22	Jesse-Mary CONSENT NOTE, 25 Nov 1827, Clay Co loose marriage files (FamilySearch Clay films; "Smeared Ink" archivist card): request to clerk Abner Baker to grant Jesse Collins license to marry Mary Reed; signed JAMES READ (author: Mary's father); attest STEPHEN READ and HIRAM(?) COLLINS	User download Sept 16, 2026: `Jesse-Marry-James-Reed-Marriage-Bond-Nov-25-1827.jpeg`
OL23	Eula Conley 562294 free lineage preview (Descendants list, gens 1-3 displaying): Samuel Collins b. 20 Sep 1861 Pike Co KY, d. 3 Oct 1937 Portland OR, m. Nebraska Rocilla Cutlip (Nicholas Co WV) 15 Oct 1891; William Collins b. 13 Apr 1806 RUSSELL CO VA, d. 30 Mar 1896 Craigsville WV, m. (2nd) Mary A Hatfield (b. 23 Jun 1834 Logan Co VA) 25 Nov 1860; Meredith + (1st) POLLY HOLLOWAY b. c. 1780 VA, m. c. 1799, d. ante 1840	services.dar.org, user screenshot Sept 16, 2026 (5:52 PM)
OL24	1840 U.S. Census, Patrick Co VA (user read): Edward Collins household all free white: 1M 30-40, 1M 15-20, 1M 10-15, 1F 30-40; adjacent Collins cluster William, Ruben, Edmund (+ Leighton, second William on page). Four 1840 VA Edward Collinses total: Tazewell, Russell, Preston, Patrick (+ Luke E., Brunswick)	FamilySearch 1840 collection, user search Sept 16, 2026; screenshot 5:17 PM
OL25	Mary B. Kegley, Early Adventurers on the Western Waters, vol. 2, The New River of Virginia in Pioneer Days, 1745-1800 (1982; reprinted 2003; archive.org item earlyadventurers0002mary), user searches: p. 218 Montgomery court martial of 23 April 1783 (Patrick Campbell's house): tour REFUSERS by company incl. "In Captain McDonnald's Company... James Cox, MEREDITH COLLINS... Jno. Robison... and John Saxton were under similar orders," Ozburn's refusers to the Chesapeake armed vessels; p. 108 land entries (Elisha Wallen Sr assignee of JOHN COLLINS, 200 ac Rocky Creek, settled 1774; Richard Wright assignee of JAMES McDANNAL, Turkey Fork of ELK CREEK, settled 1776); Buckingham minister list: Zachariah Collins m. Mary Ann McDaniel 28 Oct 1830; p. 292 Elizabeth Collins m. Jacob Hevner Jr 1836 (unplaced)	User screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (9:09, 9:14, 9:31 PM)
OL26	Pension of John Riddle (Riddley) S9069, transcription C. Leon Harris: b. c. 1750; entered 1776 under Capt. JOHN COX near Chiswell's lead mines, New River; Long Island of Holston Cherokee expedition, 4.5 months; resident 1833 Stokes-Rockingham line NC	revwarapps.org, user find Sept 16, 2026 (excerpt pasted; full read task 39)
OL27	Pension of Joseph Collins S2142 (READ IN FULL, conflation caution #3: namesake): b. 1745 Westmoreland Co VA, Bedford Co service under Capts. Leftwich (Buford), Watauga settler, King's Mountain aftermath prisoner guard, X mark, pensioned 6 months. Also W19209 (same site): tours under Capt. Salathiel Martin, Fox Knob to Cleveland on the Yadkin, Tory captures and killings; and W1044 (Salathiel Martin, widow Mary, f120NC, Will Graves; NARA M804, roll 1642, frame 0730), holding Joseph Collins's affidavit of 27 Jan 1849, Grainger Co TN (transcribed at joepayne.org), confirmed as the source for the 1780 escape of David Gibson and Lewis Collins	revwarapps.org/s2142.pdf retrieved Sept 16, 2026; w19209.pdf via search snippet; W1044 in user's hands
OL28	Kegley vol. 2, pp. 216-225 and 154 (user screenshots): court martial 23 Apr 1783 at Patrick Campbell's house, officers incl. James McDonnald, fines list, McCorkle's pay from fines, Lynch's lead-mines letter (Razor's purse: half joe, guinea, piece of 8), the vol. I pp. 137-151 Tories pointer; 24 May 1782 deer-skins tax petition; Taylor 1781 tithable analysis (109/39 cash); Quaker 1804 anti-fines petition; Findley/Juda Indian-descent freedom suits; road-work from militia rolls; Barrett and King texture petitions; p. 154 Wm. Sexton preemption certificate (1,000 ac New River, Bingeman's Bottom, assigned away)	User screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (9:50-9:52 PM + Kegley-meredith-mcdonnald0-4.png)
OL29	Montgomery Co marriage bonds and ministers' returns (Kegley vol. 2, user readings and screenshots): Wygal x Elenor Collins 1785; JOHN COLLINS x Betsy Johnston 1793; Hardy x NANCY COLLINS dau. of DANIEL 1794 (Ross return + bond); SAMUEL COLLINS x Rachel Price 1801 sur. DANIEL; Caffee x Sally Collins 1808 sur. HEZEKIAH; SAMUEL COLLINS x Permelia Gaines 1813, consent of DAVID COLLINS father; Doherty x Lucinda 1819 sur. Hezekiah; Wm x Furrow 1820; Richard x Lee 1821; Price x Nancy 1826; Benjamin x Stevens 1828; Thomas x Booth 1829	User screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (10:07, 10:13, 10:14 PM; `Samuel-Collins-Rachel-Price-Marriage.png`, `John_Collins_Betsy_Jophnston.png`)
OL30	Kegley vol. 2, final pass (user): p. 246, CAPT. JOHN COX, 400 acres on PEACH BOTTOM, settled 1774; Tories pages 298-299 and 344-346 (Shallow Ford Oct 1780; John Day pension: spy/ranger under Capt. Lyon at Parris's Fort 1779, Cloyd/Paris to Shallow Ford 1780, Preston into NC 1781; Trollinger's Moravian Towns expeditions and Continental-money loss, Pension W4087); no Gibson content in the Tories pages	User screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (10:36 PM)
OL31	1810 U.S. Census, Fauquier Co VA: David Collins (young-family household; NAMESAKE, dismissed; FamilySearch IGN 005157085, image 469, ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYYY-HJL). 1820 U.S. Census, WYTHE Co VA: DAVID COLLINS candidate household (2M<10, 1M 10-16, 1M 26-45, 2M 45+, 3F<10, 1F 26-45, 1 agriculture, free-colored columns empty; neighbors Samuel and Robert Crockett, William and Jesse Cox; IGN 005156999, image 226, ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YBS-989P)	User downloads Sept 16, 2026: `David-Collins-census-1810.pdf`, `David-Collins-Wythe-VA-census-1820.pdf`
OL32	1820 U.S. Census: Daniel Collins, HAMPSHIRE Co VA (namesake, dismissed; Thomas Collins two rows below; IGN 005156996, image 280) and Daniel Collins, PATRICK Co VA (scan unreadable; index presence logged; IGN 005157295, image 123). 1840 U.S. Census, WYTHE Co VA: David Collins (elder-male column unresolved; free-colored columns apparently blank; division of Robt. Tibbally?; IGN 005154922, image 169, ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYY1-98TL)	User downloads Sept 16, 2026: `Daniel_Collins__Hampshire_County__Virginia__census_1820.pdf`, `Daniel_Collins__Patrick_County__Virginia__Census__1820_.pdf`, `David_Collins__Wythe_County__Virginia__census__1840.pdf`
OL33	1820 U.S. Census, GILES Co VA (Pearisburg district): Samuel Collins household (tentative: includes a boy 10-16, b. 1804-10, fitting SAMUEL-OF-DANIEL m. Rachel Price 1801; user tick-read since done, OL36; IGN 005156990, image 218). 1820 U.S. Census, WASHINGTON Co VA: alphabetized C-page holding Samuel Collins (row unparsed) plus Collings Elijah and possibly others (a Washington pocket; IGN 005157295, image 214). 1840 Wythe re-read (user): David 1M 50-60 + 1F 50-60 + eight children; Samuel Holt of Wythe (lone M 30-40) = NOT the Patrick Samuel-Holt	User downloads Sept 16-17, 2026: `Samuel_Collins__ALT____Washington_County__Virginia__census_1820.pdf`, `Samuel_Collins__Giles_County__Virginia__Census_1820.pdf`
OL34	Clay Co KY Register of Marriages 1826-1827 (minister's register, water-damaged volume): Dec 1827 "Jese Collins & Mary Reed" and, directly beneath, "Stephen Reed & Nancy Powel," both minister "Same" resolving to J. AMBRES (Ambrose): the double wedding's third independent record. Also Mar 1827 Robert Asher x POLLY SIZEMORE (S-section-loss workaround: Sizemore brides under other letters); James York x Matilda Booling 1826; E. Bowling x Elizabeth Payne Jul 1827; Stephen x Elizabeth Lunceford Dec 1826	User download Sept 17, 2026: `Jesse-Collins-Mary-Reed-Stephen-Reed-Marriage-vitals.jpeg`
OL35	Wythe Co VA Register of Deaths (Commissioner of the Revenue, district of Andrew J. Huffard), line 1: DAVID COLLINS SR., white, male, d. Nov 1866, Wythe Co, dropsy, 79, farmer, b. "Wythe County," parents not given, informant a friend (= DAVID JR. of the censuses, b. c. 1787). Plus FamilySearch index screenshot: Jas. C. Collins (b. 1828 Wythe) m. Margaret L. Mabe 9 Oct 1865, parents David + Elizabeth Collins; Adam Collins (b. 1831) m. Sarah H. Mabe 19 Feb 1856, parents David + Elisa; James Collins d. 1 Nov 1890 Bland, b. 1820 Wythe; Northampton Co (Eastern Shore) Collins entries noted as a separate community	User downloads Sept 17, 2026: `David_Collins_Sr___Death_Certificate__Wythe_County__Virginia__Top_Left_Corner.jpg`; screenshot 11:28 AM
OL36	1820 census tick-reads (user): WASHINGTON Co Samuel Collins: boxes 1, 5, 7(=2), 9, 13 = 1 boy <10, man 26-45, 2 girls <10, woman 16-26, farmer (= Samuel-of-David + Permelia, strong); GILES Co Samuel Collins: boxes 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13(=2) = boy <10, boy 10-16, HEAD 45+, daughters <10/10-16/16-26, wife 26-45, two in agriculture (= Samuel-of-Daniel, strong, two grounds); Washington page also holds Elijah, Jeremiah, John Collins; both pages are alphabetized clerks' fair copies (no neighbor order)	User readings Sept 17, 2026
OL37	Consort-cell zoom of the Wythe death register: "Consort. Dead" verified by the user's letter-matching against the clerk's "daughter" (vocabulary otherwise married / not married / widow). 1830 U.S. Census, WYTHE Co VA: David Collins (box-read verified against the enumerator's total of 12; M 50-60 bracket tension logged) and Jacob Collins on one page (IGN 005156040, image 623); Brooks Collins newlywed household with John L. and William Cox on the page (image 627). User-recalled prior-session reads (citations to re-attach): 1830 Clay Co KY Hiram Collins (slave-columns ticks) with Abraham and Bradley Collins, Christopher Bowling, John Luneford; 1840 Montgomery Co INDIANA Hiram Collins (free colored household of seven) [revised 2026-09-27: very likely Morgan Co, Indiana; Ancestry collection 8057, image 36 of 116, per the Reed addendum]. 1830 Montgomery Co VA Thomas Collins newlywed household (= the 1829 Booth groom, strong)	User downloads and readings Sept 17, 2026: consort crop 12:06 PM; `David_Collins__Jacob_Collins_Wythe_County__Census__1830.pdf`; `Brooks_Collins__Wythe_County__census__1830.pdf`
OL38	1830 U.S. Census, Patrick Co VA sweep (user reads; index renders "Patrick Parish, Henry"): households of William, Daniel (M 30-40), Reuben, Edmund, Martha (widow), and on distant pages Elisha (M 50-60, Cox above) and Aris (probable widow); EDWARD ABSENT (the arrival test); index screenshot 12:54 PM	User downloads Sept 17, 2026: `Reuben__Daniel__William__Edmund__Martha_Collins__Patrick_County__Virginia__Census_1830.pdf`
OL39	1850 U.S. Census, WYTHE Co VA, the David Collins blacksmith household (user read + PDF): David 63 blacksmith, Elizabeth 63, Elizabeth Moore 35 (married within year), DOW 29, James 22, Adam 19, Madison Bowman 22, Elias Smith 23, JOHN MOORE 23 hammerman, Catherine 7 (IGN 004206472, image 180, ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6P7W-LRN)	User download Sept 17, 2026: `David_Collins_John_Moore__Wythe_County__Virginia__census__1850.pdf`
OL40	1850 U.S. Census, KNOX Co INDIANA, Hiram Collins entry (user-recalled: Hiram 46 b. VA, $500, Elizabeth 39 b. Indiana, Francis 17; MULTIPLE-HIRAMS CAUTION); statewide 1850 David screenshot (12:58 PM: Pittsylvania David R. b. 1804; Russell b. 1841; Washington b. 1822; Patrick David H. b. 1825 + David b. 1828; Wythe b. 1818)	User recall + screenshot Sept 17, 2026
OL41	1850 U.S. Census pulls: WYTHE David Collins [Jr./Sr. suffix unclear] b. c. 1818 household (Catherine 24, Charles 6, Albert 3, Lorenzo 1; IGN 004206472, image 180 vicinity, ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6P7W-LRN sheet) = DAVID III; WASHINGTON David Collins b. c. 1822 household (wagoner; Mary 25, Nancy 5, James 2, Sarah Barnett 25, Jas 18, Leonidas 12, Daniel Ryan 20 blacksmith; IGN 004206470, image 435, ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-D1ZS-4SV) = DAVID A. of the Elijah family. FamilySearch profiles [C]: "David Collins IV" 1816-1905 m. Catherine Cook 1842; David A. Collins b. 1823 m. Mary Kent 1845, son of Jeremiah, grandson of Elijah of Albemarle (d. 1840 Washington); Elizabeth Collins Moore profile: David 1787-1866 m. ELIZABETH ELIZA STEVENS 1784-1860; David's parents given as DAVID 1753-1819 m. Nancy Ann Lee 1765-1840 (Lee line to 1615 parked); Adam Marshall Collins 1831-1909 m. Sarah Elizabeth Mabe, Co. C 51st VA Infantry	User downloads and profile readings Sept 17, 2026: `David_Collins__born_1818__Wythe_County__Virginia__census_1850.pdf`, `David_Collins__born_1822__Washington_County__Virginia__census_1850.pdf`
OL42	The MOORE dossier (user images): Presgraves/Hardesty excerpt (John Harrison Moore b. 14 Jul 1858, son of John W. and Elizabeth (Collins) Moore, she a daughter of DAVID COLLINS of Wythe; John W. deputy sheriff); J.H. Moore biography sheet (Cripple Creek lands, M.D., m. Julia Virginia Huffard 1886, d. 13 May 1895 off the train into the Holston; brother James drowned Reed Creek 1893); "Was He Murdered?" clipping (Bristol News: $100 vs $3.90, forehead bruise) vs Southwestern News 24 May 1895 (inquest: drowning, valuables present, the Davis shoes); PHOTOGRAPHS: Elizabeth Collins Moore tintype (FIRST photograph of the Wythe Collins line), John W. Moore tintype (not blood), J.H. Moore portrait, Adam Marshall Collins charcoal	User uploads Sept 17, 2026: `John_W__Moore-_info-1.jpg`, `Moore_Collins_Wythe_info-2.jpg`, tintype and portrait images, murder clippings
OL43	Wythe Co VA Register of Deaths, year ending 31 Dec 1866, First District: line 1, ELIZABETH COLLINS, 76, cause unknown, parents unknown, consort of David Collins, informant WILLIAM PAINTER, SON-IN-LAW (14.26); plus the 1820 Samuel statewide triage screenshot (5:37 PM: Berryville/Frederick, Washington, Nelson, Pearisburg/Giles, Norfolk; no Montgomery head)	User image + screenshot Sept 17, 2026: `Elizabeth_Moore_Collins__death__1867.jpg`, 5:37 PM screenshot
OL44	FamilySearch tree screenshots (8:35 PM, Meredith pedigree G6DM-KN1): the Hampshire-England Thomas graft (Thomas 1713 m. Ann Blyth 1733; Samuel 1734 m. Cicely Hall; Margaret Holloway 1765-1812 as Meredith's wife) DEMOLISHED on chronology (14.26); the Spotsylvania conflation family profiles (Capt. Joseph Collins b. 1709 Essex m. Susanna Lewis; son Lewis, Granville will 1783, Kershaw SC, m. Elizabeth Davis; son James to Orange NC = the Haw River James)	User screenshots and profile readings Sept 17, 2026
OL45	THE CIVIL WAR BROTHERS (14.27): Spencer Collins muster card, 46th Regt MO Inf Vols, Co. H, Capt. Alsup, enl. 17 Aug 1864 Springfield, mustered 9 Sept, KILLED IN ACTION 3 Nov 1864 at Vera Cruz Mo (card age 44 flagged vs our Spencer b. c. 1840-42); Find a Grave: Parsons Cemetery, Ozark Co MO. Schuyler Co MO Marriage Records 1845-1883, image 131 of 432: RELASHIA (Kalaska) COLLINS m. MARGARET KING 24 Aug 1862, and Samuel Swinney m. Catharine Collins same day, both by Richard A. Collins M.G. (the second-generation double wedding)	User finds Sept 20, 2026: muster card image, FamilySearch Schuyler register screenshot
OL46	Mary B. Kegley, Militia of Montgomery County, Virginia, 1777-1790 (Dublin, Va., 1975): pp. 23-24 (images 34-35), "A List of Capt. James McDaniell Company," undated (Meredith as "Mendaby Collens," Lewis, David, George, the Sextons, James Cox); p. 50 (image 61), Kegley's introduction to the 1777-1779 oath lists, quoting James McCorkle's closing note of refusers ("Elisha Collins, Coxes Compy."); p. 51 (image 62), McCorkle's list of men who took the oath of allegiance, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777 (Cox's company: "Jno. Collens," "Samuel Collens," "Jno. (his mark) Riddle," "William Ridel," James McDaniell); p. 52 (image 63), James McGavock's separate oath list, September to December 1777 (no Collinses or Riddles); index (image 88)	FamilySearch Digital Library, book 1033071; user screenshots Sept 23, 2026
OL47	Roberta J. Estes, Jack H. Goins, Penny Ferguson, and Janet Lewis Crain, "Melungeons, A Multi-Ethnic Population," Journal of Genetic Genealogy 7(1), Fall 2011 (published April 2012): paternal lines 12 European, 8 African, 1 Native American (a Sizemore line, Q1a3a); every maternal line European; Vardy Collins's Y line R1a1, European (Table 11); the 1813 Stony Creek "harboring them Melungins" minute (Table 1)	Journal of Genetic Genealogy, online; cited in Molata v1.3
OL48	Virginia DeMarce, transcription of Orange County, Virginia, Order Book 3 (1741-1743), p. 309: the court of 27 January 1742/43, marked "[1743 NS]," with the eleven men described as Indians (John Collins, John Bowling, and Charles Griffin among them)	saponitown.com
OL49	WikiTree profiles Riddle-158 (Moses Riddle) and "Margaret (Redley) Buss" (Redley-1): the source of the claim that Moses was the son of Margaret Ridley and Edward Buss; the court records they cite have not been found	wikitree.com
OL50	Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina, 6th ed., 3 vols. (Clearfield, 2021): the print edition of the entries used from the website in OL2, OL3, and OL7	Print edition; website version at freeafricanamericans.com
OL51	Pension application of Lewis Collins, S21142, transcribed by Will Graves: aged 80, Grainger Co TN, August 1834; living on the waters of Broad River, SC, in August 1776, drafted (Capt. James Steen) against the Cherokee; 1778 crop with Charles Tompson, "not then a man of a family," drafted again and dismissed; June 1781 from his father's house in Montgomery Co VA (Capt. Gordon), High Hills of Santee, Eutaw Springs ("a severe battle"), prisoners to near Salisbury, discharged (Col. Locke)	revwarapps.org (Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Statements)
OL52	1840 U.S. census of Iowa Territory: "Tifford" Reed under "Van Buren, Iowa Territory," p. 282 (NARA M704, roll 102), with Benjamin Reed two pages away (FamilySearch indexes them under other counties)	Cited in Molata v1.3 source notes
OL53	1856 Iowa state census, Appanoose County: Tilford Reed's son Harman, about twenty, born in Iowa (Tilford there by c. 1836, whatever the 14 years' residence he gave); Benjamin Reed's household, 18 years	Cited in Molata v1.3 source notes
OL54	Molata, 1st ed., v1.3 rewrite (September 2026) and its line-by-line source audit, the basis of the READ THIS FIRST block	Project file: `Molata-1st-Ed-v1.3-rewrite-op5.5.md`

Changelog

2026-09-27 (nineteenth entry): REED PASSAGES brought into line with claude/Reed_Family_Investigation_Addendum.md and the revised master tree. READ THIS FIRST: the Reed side of the line re-marked (William Read [?], Hugh Reed Sr. [?], James b. c. 1766-75, d. c. 1841 Clay [or bef. 6 Jan 1845, Morgan Co IN]); new block "James Reed, Mary's father"; the census line moved there from "The Reeds in Iowa" and corrected for 1830 (James is the man aged 55-100 in the slave column; the free colored man in his household is aged 24-36; his wife is the one person counted white; earlier versions had James as the free colored man); a Reed item (10) added to the open leads. Hiram's 1840 household: very likely Morgan Co, Indiana, not Montgomery (notes in 14.23 and 14.24, the Hiram roster row, tasks 53 and 59, OL37). James Reed: 14.12 note, tree sidebar and roster row revised; Patsy moved off his children (more likely Stephen Reed Jr's daughter; also task 60); the Polly Silver marriage dated 1839 with no month recorded (14.12 said October). Log entries (14.x) and older changelog entries otherwise left as written, with bracketed [Revised 2026-09-27] notes.
2026-09-23 (eighteenth entry): SOURCE-AUDIT PASS after the book rewrite (Molata v1.3, OL54) and the user's reading of Kegley's Militia (OL46). Added the READ THIS FIRST block at the top (the current position, verbatim) and Section 14.29. Corrected in place: the Orange Co VA court to 27 Jan 1742/43 (1743 NS) throughout; the Sappony Creek sale to a Surry record; Christiansburg dropped; Lewis's pension summary (South Carolina in 1776, Eutaw Springs); "Rock House" for "stone fort"; the merged "c. 1782" roster split into McDaniel's list (pp. 23-24), McCorkle's 1777 oath list (pp. 50-51), and his refusers (p. 50), with Samuel and John recorded as taking the oath with Cox's company (6.1, 6.2); the Estes counts and Vardy's European Y line; John Ellingwood 1.5%; James Reed b. c. 1765 and Hugh Reed added; Hiram c. 1804-06; Jesse d. 1847; Meredith d. 1841. SETTLED and carried through Section 10, the tree, and the roster: Jesse as Meredith's son by Polly Holloway; Thomas's wife not a Riddle (Section 3, task 7). Log entries (14.x) and older changelog entries left as written, with bracketed [Superseded 2026-09-23] notes. Tasks marked done or updated: pullable end 5 (Section 7) and tasks 3, 7, 8, 13, 21, 27, 35, 40, 46, 54, 55, 58, 60, 61; stale notes marked (the 14.6 DAR-number contingency, the Brown takeover in 14.7, the March 16 price urging); the Brown-warrant transcription re-cited to OL8. Sources OL1, OL3, OL11, OL21, OL25, OL27, OL33 updated in place; OL46-OL54 added.
2026-09-20 (seventeenth entry): THE CIVIL WAR BROTHERS RESOLVED (14.27, OL45): Spencer Collins KIA 3 Nov 1864 at Vera Cruz, Douglas Co MO, eight weeks after mustering into the 46th MO Infantry at Springfield (muster card; age-44 clerk discrepancy flagged; Parsons Cemetery, Ozark Co); KALASKA SURVIVED: m. Margaret King, Schuyler Co MO (adjacent to Appanoose), 24 Aug 1862, in a SECOND-GENERATION DOUBLE WEDDING (Samuel Swinney m. Catharine Collins same day, same minister Richard A. Collins M.G.), then Co. E 118th Illinois, Vicksburg, home to wife and children. Main file's "fates unrecorded" superseded; the user's earlier "Kolaska and Lloyd" recollection corrected to Kalaska and Spencer. Sources OL43-OL45 rows added (completing the numbering flagged in 14.26); new unplaced names: Catharine Collins (Schuyler bride), Rev. Richard A. Collins. Family-history book underway in parallel (Collins_Reed_Family_History.md): chapters 1-7 drafted, these findings feeding Chapter 9.
2026-09-17 (sixteenth entry, incl. recovery of an interrupted batch): duplicate Edward roster row merged (interruption artifact). THE MOORE DOSSIER (OL42): Elizabeth Collins x John W. Moore CONFIRMED by the Hardesty excerpt (he rose to deputy sheriff); Dr. John Harrison Moore's 1895 death decoded (suspicion vs inquest); the ELIZABETH COLLINS MOORE TINTYPE logged as the first photograph of the Wythe Collins line; phenotype cautions incl. the Baltimore Medical College received-as-white point. Profile data [C]: Elizabeth's maiden-name candidate STEVENS (test = her c. 1860 death-register entry, task 61); David Jr.'s parents given as DAVID 1753-1819 m. Nancy Ann Lee (test = 1819-20 probate, task 62; Lee pedigree parked); DAVID III confirmed (m. Catherine Cook 1842, d. 1905, Fort Chiswell): the register's "Sr." definitively resolved; DOW confirmed; ADAM MARSHALL confirmed (Co. C 51st VA Infantry). THE WASHINGTON REVISION (conflation caution #4): the b. 1822 David = David A. of the Elijah-of-Albemarle family; son-of-Samuel hypothesis withdrawn; the 1820 Washington Samuel placement doubted; SAMUEL-OF-DAVID UNPLACED AGAIN (task 63). THE DAVIDS INDEX added (eight Davids, connections to Meredith stated). THE mtDNA ROUTE THROUGH FRANCES: the break-at-Holbrook premise corrected (Richard is the husband, not a transmission link); if Frances descends from Jessie Clifford through daughters, her existing 23andMe maternal haplogroup = MARY REED'S maternal line (task 60 upgraded). [Superseded 2026-09-23: Frances's father was Richard Clifford Holbrook, Jessie's son, so her mtDNA is Lucille McMillan's line; see task 60.] Tasks 57-63; sources OL38-OL42 (completing the interrupted batch); Section 14.25.
2026-09-17 (fifteenth entry): HIRAM'S ARC RESTORED to the file (14.23, OL37) from the user's prior-session work that had never landed here: 1830 Clay's slave-column ticks for Hiram and his wife (child in the white column; Abraham, Bradley, Bowling, Luneford neighbors; index mislabels Estill) and 1840 Montgomery Co INDIANA's free-colored household of seven: the family's starkest kaleidoscope, one brother slave-then-colored while the others counted white; citations to re-attach and 1850 locate tasked (53). Consort cell VERIFIED "Consort Dead" by the user's letter-matching: Elizabeth predeceased; maiden-name routes tasked (55). 1830 Wythe David box-read verified against the enumerator's total; the M 50-60 BRACKET TENSION logged with three readings; RESOLVER = the 1850 Wythe census, new top priority (54). Jacob and Brooks Collins of Wythe logged as new unplaced names (56); the 1830 Montgomery newlywed Thomas linked to the 1829 Booth marriage [strong]; the Wythe John Browns confirmed unrelated to the 1760 Orange NC John Brown. Census battle plan restated and ranked. Section 14.23; Hiram row rebuilt; Jacob, Brooks, Thomas rows added; tasks 53-56; source OL37.
2026-09-17 (fourteenth entry): DAVID JR.'S DEATH FOUND (OL35): the Wythe register's "David Collins Sr." (d. Nov 1866, dropsy, 79, farmer, parents not given, friend informant) is b. c. 1787 = David Jr. of the censuses, the "Sr." being 1866's relative label; consort column apparently deceased (confirm). His family named via free index entries: wife ELIZABETH; sons James C. (b. 1828, m. Margaret L. Mabe 1865) and Adam (b. 1831, m. Sarah H. Mabe 1856), the census mapping confirmed again; two brothers x two Mabe sisters = the double-alliance pattern; probate now dated to Wythe 1866-67. BOTH SAMUELS PLACED by the user's tick-reads (OL36): Washington 1820 = Samuel-of-David + Permelia (the exact 1820 shape of an 1813 marriage); Giles 1820 = Samuel-of-Daniel (head 45+, pre-1813 children: two independent grounds). Alphabetized-fair-copy caveat logged (no neighbor analysis for 1810/1820). Northampton (Eastern Shore) flagged as a separate community, not a lead. Working 1830 link verified (collection 1803958); census priorities restated. Section 14.22; David Jr., Samuel-of-David, and Samuel-of-Daniel roster rows; tasks 48 updated, 49 substantially resolved, 51-52 added; sources OL35-OL36.
2026-09-17 (thirteenth entry): REVISION on Wythe (14.21, OL33): the user's 1840 re-read (elder male 50-60) plus the clean 1820-to-1840 household mapping recast the Wythe head as DAVID JR. (b. c. 1780-90, wife present both years); the widower and multigenerational-Samuel readings of 14.19-14.20 WITHDRAWN; new candidate structure: DAVID SR. (b. c. 1755, cohort David's profile) as father of David Jr. and Samuel, the 1813 consenter, one of the two 1820 elder lodgers, gone by 1840; tests = 1830 Wythe and Wythe probate (task 48). Samuel Holt of Wythe 1840 distinguished from the Patrick Samuel-Holt. Giles 1820 Samuel TENTATIVELY placed as SAMUEL-OF-DANIEL (boy 10-16 predating the 1813 marriage; tick-read pending); Samuel-of-David's 1820 household reopened (Montgomery search, task 49); Washington Co Collins pocket noted. The minister's register (OL34): Jesse-Mary and Stephen-Nancy on adjacent December 1827 lines under the same minister J. Ambres: the double wedding's third independent record; POLLY SIZEMORE recovered (m. Robert Asher, Mar 1827) and the Sizemore-brides workaround logged (task 50); Bowling and Lunsford entries noted. Roster: David Sr. structure and a new David Jr. row; tasks 47 resolved, 48-50 added.
2026-09-16 (twelfth entry): THE DAVID HUNT (Sections 14.19-14.20, OL31-OL32): Fauquier 1810 David and Hampshire 1820 Daniel dismissed as namesakes; our David's 1810 absence explained by Grayson's lost schedule. WYTHE 1820 DAVID established as the candidate household (Crockett and Cox neighbors; the user's ditto-convention analysis fixed box 6 at TWO men 45+; household of ten, no woman 45+ so a widower reading; free-colored columns empty; the multigenerational Samuel-and-Permelia reading holds pending the Giles test). Daniel's PATRICK 1820 index presence logged with the Montgomery-cluster-relocated hypothesis (arbiter: 1830 Patrick). 1830 census existence corrected for the user (hub-linked collection; the decisive 1830 Patrick and Wythe schedules tasked). Samuel 1820 triaged: GILES/Pearisburg the headline (formed from Montgomery 1806) with the two-Samuels resolution hypothesis; Washington Co second. 1840 WYTHE David logged (county corrected from "White"; elder-male column is the one deciding cell: 60-70 vs 70-80 vs 80-90; free-colored blank). Tasks 44 resolved, 45-47 added; roster David row carries the 1820 household.
2026-09-16 (eleventh entry, closing the day): CAPT. JOHN COX placed on PEACH BOTTOM (400 ac, settled 1774, OL30): the two captains now bracket the family's hollows (Cox on Peach Bottom, McDaniel on Elk Creek). Tories pages read (no Gibson content; W1044 remains that source): Shallow Ford Oct 1780, Day's spy-ranger service at Parris's Fort, Preston's 1781 NC campaign, Moravian Towns expeditions, Trollinger's Continental-money loss, all logged as milieu context for the tours the refusers refused. Census link kit added to 14.18 (1810 collection 1803765, Montgomery-Wythe only, Grayson lost; 1820 collection 1803955 adding Grayson; the "all other free persons" column flagged as decisive) with the David-identification stakes stated (consent confirmation, age test, classification test, and a male-line branch for the Y-DNA question). Section 14.18, Capt. Cox roster row, source OL30.
2026-09-16 (tenth entry): Court martial DATED: 23 Apr 1783 at Patrick Campbell's house, JAMES McDONNALD sitting on the court judging his own company's refusers; reframed as the post-war accounting of the 1781-82 calls, clerk paid from the fines. Economics LOCALLY ANCHORED (OL28): the 24 May 1782 deer-skins tax petition, Taylor's 1781 list (109 tithables, 39 with cash), Razor's three-empire purse at the lead mines. Vol. I pp. 137-151 Tories chapter pointer captured (task 43). Findley/Juda Indian-descent freedom suits (Wythe/Powhatan 1813-1820) logged as regional legal context. The MONTGOMERY COLLINS MARRIAGE CLUSTER assembled (OL29, Section 14.17): Daniel (dau. Nancy 1794, likely son Samuel 1801), HEZEKIAH, John x Johnston 1793, Elenor 1785, and the headline DAVID COLLINS consenting as father for underage Samuel's 1813 marriage (candidate = our David1); cluster tagged UNSORTED with the settler-network caution; "sur." (surety) and ministers' returns decoded for the user. Wm. SEXTON's assigned-away 1,000-acre New River preemption logged: the third instance of the community's assigned-away-claim pattern. Barrett and King texture petitions logged. Sections 14.15 corrected and 14.17 added, roster rows updated (David candidate; Sexton; Montgomery cluster row), tasks 40 updated and 42-43 added, sources OL28-OL29.
2026-09-16 (ninth entry): THE REFUSAL RECORD (OL25): Kegley vol. 2 p. 218 preserves Meredith among Capt. McDonnald's-company men who REFUSED their tours c. 1780-81, threatened with Chesapeake armed-vessels duty, beside James Cox, Daniel Blevins, and John Saxton (Sexton): the second contemporaneous Revolutionary record of our man, framed with the compulsory-enrollment reading, the epidemic of refusals, and the collapsing-currency economics (militia pay in Virginia paper at ~1000:1 by late 1781; skins economy callback). McDaniel anchored to ELK CREEK via the p. 108 assignment chain (the company district = their neighborhood); John Collins Rocky Creek 1774 claim assigned to Elisha Wallen Sr logged as elder-John candidate; Zachariah Collins x Mary Ann McDaniel 1830 marriage logged. John Riddle S9069 analyzed: b. c. 1750, Capt. John Cox at the lead mines, the 1776 Cherokee expedition, resident 1833 on the Stokes-Rockingham (Goinstown) line: strong candidate for Moses's son John, Patrick-Stokes convergence flagged; Tory-William lore restated with the 1782-roster tension. Salathiel Martin W1044 confirmed as the Gibson-episode source (stone-tower detail NOT in our sources, OMM check tasked); W19209 Martin-company Tory-war texture citable. Joseph Collins S2142 read in full and cleared as a namesake (conflation caution #3). Samuel-Holt reading REVISED per user (compound name Samuel Holt Collins plausible; Holt first-wife hypothesis). Sections 14.15-14.16, roster rows updated and added (Meredith refusal; John elder; Riddle sons; Sextons; Zachariah; Capt. McDaniel), tasks 37 expanded and 38-41 added, sources OL25-OL27. [Superseded 2026-09-23: the court martial sat 23 April 1783 (see the tenth entry); the Riddles took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in 1777 (Kegley, Militia, p. 51), so there is no 1782-roster tension; the affidavit says "Rock House."]
2026-09-16 (eighth entry): THE CONSENT NOTE FOUND (OL22): James Read named as author = MARY'S FATHER [D], "of James" decoded, task 29 resolved; Stephen Read attesting (double wedding near-certain); HIRAM COLLINS attesting = first document placing Jesse and Hiram together (probable brothers). Eula preview (OL23): POLLY HOLLOWAY b. c. 1780 VA, m. c. 1799, d. ante 1840, EXCLUDING her as Bradley's mother and correcting the 14.9 reading (spouse numbering, not maternity); Bradley and Jesse half-brothers if Jesse was Meredith's [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Bradley-line papers do name Polly as Bradley's mother, wrongly; Jesse was Meredith's son, so the two were half-brothers]; WILLIAM b. RUSSELL CO VA (Jesse likely Russell-born); Hatfield marriage exact (25 Nov 1860, 2nd wife); Eula's Oregon chapter decoded via grandfather Samuel (Pike Co > Portland). 1840 Patrick Edward read (OL24): household fits 1850 continuity with a first wife and an unknown elder son; adjacent REUBEN Collins (claimed-son name); deciding test = 1830 Patrick. Full audit pass: tree wives block rebuilt, Section 8 redated, 14.11 annotation resolved, 14.3/14.4 supersession notes, roster rows updated (Meredith, Polly added, Jesse, Hiram, William, James Reed [D], Stephen Read), tasks 27/29 updated, tasks 34-37 added (bond shopping list; McDaniel chapter x2; Stephen Read + Sextons), sources OL22-OL24. Sections 14.13-14.14.
2026-09-16 (seventh entry): Both plats in hand (OL19): Gv591's metes show the western notch = THOMAS GIBSON's patented tract, the plat drawing the paper/no-paper divide in one figure; Moses Ridle and Charels Gibson signature lines; user's protective-father-in-law chain-carrier motive logged [?] [Superseded 2026-09-23: Moses was not Thomas's father-in-law]. Gv091 Dennis Collins plat (Dollarhide carriers; the Dec 1753 Churton circuit). Reed section read: STEPHEN REED m. Nancy Powell THE SAME DAY as Jesse m. Mary (13 Dec 1827), probable double wedding, Stephen a probable brother; Richard Reed x Kelsey Collins license Jan 1827 (third Reed-Collins pairing, reversed); James Reed reconstruction drafted (children marrying 1822-1830); unsolemnized-license base rate logged; Lunsford ordering corrected; Bowling presence in Clay noted; S section lost pre-1864, Sizemore rerouted to censuses. BOND ROUTE identified: the register's File No. column to the loose files in the same FamilySearch image group. Section 2 gains the two-Orange-Counties and staged-exodus note (1745 presentments corrected to Louisa); Section 3 timeline corrected to warrant/survey/grant with chain carriers. Moses landlessness analysis (no racial bar; cash, the office, and the Granville closure) and Pittsylvania sequel with the Tory-William lore flag. 1810 VA census losses noted (Patrick, Pittsylvania, Grayson, Russell, Orange). DAR order page: 25 supporting documents; $45 bundle recommended. Sections 14.12, tree Reed sidebar rebuilt, roster rows added (James Reed, Stephen Reed, Kesiah Collins; Dennis updated), tasks 29 updated and 31-33 added, sources OL19-OL21.
2026-09-16 (sixth entry): THE BROWN QUESTION RESOLVED: user located Gv591, Brown's own parallel 698-acre Flat River grant (SCC MOSES RIDDLE and Charles Gibson), disproving the takeover reading and replacing it with the documented three-day race (Brown's warrant 26 Dec 1760; Thomas's 29 Dec 1760) and the chain-carrier tragedy (Moses Riddle chaining the survey that absorbed his own improvements; never a Granville grantee). Thomas's own chain service (Wharton 1760, Justice 1763) and Camp Creek adjacency logged. Clay register haul: Andrew-Sizemore confirmed; Bradley's three 1830s marriages (five wives total); Hiram-Elizabeth Reed 1829 with the lapsed-license year; three unplaced Clay Collins men. Appanoose decode: DAR death entry = census sheet date 29 Nov 1850; Bradley b. NORTH CAROLINA (fits Wilkes 1787); Andrew's sons Lewis and Archibald as naming-pattern evidence. Polly Holloway math corrected: c. 1786 marriage keeps her fully available as Jesse's and Hiram's mother (she bore William in 1806). [Superseded 2026-09-23: Polly b. c. 1780, m. c. 1799 (Eula Conley's application; see the eighth entry).] Edward Collins of Patrick Co VA logged as Ned candidate. Mary Reid annotation re-read with ranked readings (daughter/ward/widow of James). Eula 562294 purchase endorsed with calibrated expectations. Sections 14.10-14.11, tree and roster updated, tasks 17/24/25 resolved, tasks 27-30 added, sources OL16-OL18.
2026-09-16 (fifth entry): PRIMARY DOCUMENT: the Gv579 survey plat obtained via the OL9 Drive links (chain carriers George Gibson and Paul Collins confirmed in Churton's record); Jones 1763 survey logged for the John Brown corner and the entry-assignment mechanics; Brown hypothesis test narrowed to the warrant in SSLG 87-H. DAR reconnaissance II: application 562294 identified as Eula Collins Conley herself (joined 1971), her four patriot lines logged, S icon corrected to SHORT FORM. Free Descendants previews extracted: Bradley's death (post 29 Nov 1850, Appanoose), Polly Holloway recorded as Meredith's first wife and Bradley's mother, ANDREW COLLINS m. BETSY ANN SIZEMORE 1838 Clay Co KY (third Saponi-community surname alliance; Appanoose presence by 1849 tightens the Jesse-Bradley reading as inference [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Jesse-as-Bradley's-son reading is withdrawn]), William's Nicholas Co WV colony placed (b. 13 Apr 1806, d. Craigsville 1896). Margaret Ridley / Edward Buss analysis added with the Buss = Bass hypothesis. Added Sections 14.7-14.9, Section 15 working family tree, Section 16 master community roster (36 entries), renumbered tasks to Section 17 with updates and new tasks 24-26, sources OL13-OL15.
2026-09-16 (fourth entry): DAR GRS search (user) confirmed Meredith as Patriot A024535: Virginia soldier, McDaniel's Company, service source Kegley p. 23, vitals matching ours and excluding the 1789 Boones Station namesake. Eleven-plus member applications identified through two children only: William (m. Molly Hatfield, very probably the Conley-Cline cousin network's applications) and Bradley (first wife unknown to DAR, "X X," consistent with our record; lines presumably through the pre-1817 children). No applications through Jesse. Logged the acquisition strategy (free Descendants-tab reconnaissance and notice-reading first; then one supporting-documents-flagged Bradley record copy, optionally 562294). Section 14.5, task 11 resolved, task 23 added, source OL12.
2026-09-16 (third entry): Second records sweep. Verified Gv579 from the systematic Granville abstracts (OL9): granted 13 Oct 1761, surveyed 13 Apr 1761 by Wm Churton, chain carriers GEORGE GIBSON and PAUL COLLINS, settling the discrepancy in Heinegg's favor; Moses "Reedley" reading resolves the Combs-grant chainbearer as Riddle, not Reed. Logged the John Brown warrant twist (same 700 acres, same survey date, grant dates one day apart) with the takeover hypothesis and made the SSLG 87-H shuck pull the top task. Built the Moses Riddle dossier: 1755 mulatto with wife Mary; Carlson's "an Indian man" bordering Tom Collins and the Gibsons; the 1767 Pittsylvania tax list "Moses Ridle (an Indian)"; the Margaret Ridley / Edward Buss parentage claim; his sons William and John on the 1782 McDaniel roster beside Meredith. [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Buss claim comes from WikiTree, not Empty Branches; the Riddles took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in 1777 (Kegley, Militia, p. 51) and are not on McDaniel's roster.] Added Carlson's Christian Saponi Band frame (white tithables c. 1750-53 → Molata 1755; the clerks changed, not the people) and the c. 1767-70 dispersal map (New River via John Collins to Peach Bottom Creek with likely sons Lewis and James; Pittsylvania branch with Riddle and the Bowlins; the 1777 Caswell stay-behinds incl. Paul and Middleston). New names Dennis and Paul Collins profiled; Eno River Reed grants logged as a lead. Redirected the user's Bladen County File 0126 hit as a different Thomas Collins record. Sections 14.4-14.5, tasks 17-22, sources OL9-OL11.
2026-09-16 (second entry): Online records sweep. Retrieved Heinegg's full Collins entry (OL7): Thomas1's probable sons named as Samuel, George1, Thomas Jr., and JOHN (b. say 1736), grounding the Samuel-and-John-as-brothers reconciliation and reducing the Meredith paternity fork to "which brother," with grandfather Thomas either way; logged the two-Johns tension. Obtained the full 1755 Molata roster via transcription (OL8), including Moses Riddle taxed mulatto with wife Mary. Chain carriers on Thomas's 700-acre patent identified (Paul Collins plus George Gibson or George Collins; survey image at nclandgrants.com queued to settle it). Extended the classification kaleidoscope back through 1778 Ashe estate taxes, 1787/1790 ordinary schedules, 1800 Ashe "other free" (Valentine, Vardy, Ambrose, Thomas Jr.), 1810 Grainger free colored, 1830 Hawkins/Wilson TN free colored. Logged two conflation cautions (King William/Pamunkey Collins family; the other Meredith Collins b. 1789 Boones Station KY). Added Section 14, sources OL7-OL8, restructured the task list (now Section 15) with resolutions and five new tasks.
2026-09-16: RESOLVED the 1840 Bradley Collins county question by reading the schedule page itself: the vertical left-margin annotation reads "Chariton County," Missouri (OL6). Withdrew the Callaway attribution as a multi-county reel-metadata artifact (same failure mode as 1830 "Estill" and 1840 Van Buren standardization). Conley's "Carroll" is off by one adjacent county; Samson's 1841 Chariton birthplace matches exactly. Migration finalized: Clay Co KY (1839 sale) → flatboat → Chariton Co MO (1840-44) → Appanoose Co IA (1844). Main file S50 notes should be corrected accordingly. Closed task 6; logged the right-hand-page column read as optional follow-up.
2026-09-15: Created. Compiled the origin line from the New River research (OL1), Heinegg (OL2, OL3), and project records: legal architecture (1662/1691/1705/1723, binding out) with William Reed's 1694 freedom suit as the family's proof case; the 1742 Orange Co expulsion record [27 Jan 1742/43, 1743 NS] and Fort Christanna context; Thomas Collins dossier; Flat River and New River/Indian Lands periods; the Revolutionary generation including the divided-loyalty evidence and the verified 1929 DAR plaque; Samuel and John Sr. dossiers and the paternity analysis with the brothers-reconciliation hypothesis; Ned legend with its census-bracket evidence basis; Jesse's entry point and the parentage fork [settled 2026-09-23: Meredith and Polly]; Bradley's flatboat account with the three-cornered 1840 county conflict and the beachhead hypothesis; Melungeon context including the Stony Creek 1813 first-use and the Valentine Collins connection; DNA regional breakdown verified from the composition CSV with detectability analysis; ten consolidated open tasks.

# Meredith Collins Origin Line Addendum
## READ THIS FIRST: where the research stands (23 September 2026; Reed passages revised 27 September 2026)
This block was written after the September 2026 rewrite of the book (*Molata*, 1st ed., v1.3 rewrite) and its line-by-line source audit. It is the current position. Where anything later in this file disagrees with it, this block wins: the older passages have been corrected in place or marked **[Superseded 2026-09-23]**, and the changelog at the end lists what changed. The master family tree (`Collins_Reed_Master_Family_Tree.md`) was brought into line on the same day. On 27 September 2026 the Reed passages were brought into line with the Reed investigation (`claude/Reed_Family_Investigation_Addendum.md`) and the revised master tree (`Collins_Reed_Master_Family_Tree-op5.5update.md`): the block "James Reed, Mary's father" below gives the current reading, and later passages are corrected in place or marked **[Revised 2026-09-27]**.
### The line
Thomas Collins "Molata" (c. 1700 - c. 1770) > **John Collins [or Samuel]** > Meredith Collins (c. 1760 - 1841) > Jesse Collins (c. 1804 - 1847) = Mary Reed (1804 - c. 1852) > Mary Elizabeth "Polly" Collins (1827 - 1887) = Eli Woodruff Bruner > Mariah Emma Bruner = John Marshall Clifford > Jessie Lorene Clifford = Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr. > Richard Clifford Holbrook = Lucille McMillan > Frances Fairchild Holbrook
Reed side: William Read (c. 1673) [?] > [generations missing] > Hugh Reed Sr. (d. bef. end of 1786, Rowan Co NC) [?] > James Reed/Read (b. c. 1766-75; d. c. 1841, Clay Co KY [or bef. 6 Jan 1845, Morgan Co IN]) > Mary Reed
- **Meredith's father is still open between two of Thomas's sons, John and Samuel. The book leans to John.** Lewis Collins, recorded as John's son, stands beside Meredith on musters, tax lists, and land entries for twenty years (on McDaniel's company list their names are on consecutive lines), and a daughter of Moses Riddle born c. 1740 would be the right age to have married John. Heinegg places most of the New River men under Samuel. A John and a Samuel both took the oath of allegiance with the Riddles in Captain Cox's company in 1777 (Kegley, *Militia*, p. 51), so these lists don't decide it. The deciding record would be a Montgomery County tithable list of the late 1770s showing a teenage Meredith in somebody's household.
- **Jesse was Meredith's son by Polly Holloway, not Bradley's.** Bradley was about seventeen when Jesse was born, and Jesse fits the run of Polly's children. The chain "Meredith > Bradley > Jesse" in older passages (and in some online trees) is withdrawn. Bradley and Jesse were half-brothers.
- **Thomas's wife was not a daughter of Moses Riddle.** Moses was the only taxable man in his 1755 household, and his son John Riddle was born c. 1750 (pension S9069), so Moses was born c. 1715-25, too young to be the father of the woman who bore Thomas's sons in the 1720s and 1730s. The old tradition has the right families and the wrong generation: the Riddle link most likely belongs to a daughter of Moses, born c. 1740, marrying one of Thomas's younger sons, possibly Meredith's father.
### Meredith's wives and children (current reading)
1. **First wife, unnamed in every record**, m. c. 1782-85: **Bradley** (b. 1787, on the North Carolina side of the mountains) and probably a daughter (the female aged 16-25 in the 1810 household).
2. **Polly (Margaret?) Holloway**, b. c. 1780, m. c. 1799 (Eula Conley's DAR application, national no. 562294), d. bef. 1840, probably c. 1812: **Archibald** (c. 1800), **James**, **Jesse** (c. 1804; strong evidence, no birth record), **William** (13 Apr 1806, Russell Co VA), **Hiram** (c. 1804-06). **Edward "Ned," John W., and Reuben** rest on the Conley list alone [?].
3. **Milly Johnson**, his companion in later life: a son b. c. 1818, "aged about eleven" when the Pike County court bound him out in June 1829 (summons March 1829).
Cautions: the DAR's Bradley-line papers name Polly as Bradley's mother, which can't be right, since she was about seven in 1787. In the DAR GRS listing, "BRADLEY, spouse [1] X X" is Bradley's own first wife, not Meredith's. The FamilySearch profile "Margaret Holloway 1765-1812" came in with the demolished Hampshire graft; don't use it. Older passages giving Polly's marriage as c. 1790-95 or her birth as c. 1765 are superseded.
Bradley: married at least four times, to Jane Ray in 1817 (Conley list only; county uncertain, given as Clay in the main file and Floyd in the addendum; not yet seen in a register), and in Clay County to Catherine Barney (1831), Betsy Griffin (1833), and Elizabeth Lunsford (1836); a daughter, Nancy (c. 1822), with Sarah Reid (Nancy Williams's 1909 Iowa death certificate). West in 1839 (by flatboat, per Eula Conley); 1840 in **Chariton** Co, Missouri (the census page's margin; "Callaway" was an indexing slip); Appanoose Co, Iowa, 1844; 1850 in son Andrew's household, Center Township, counted white (sheet dated 29 Nov 1850).
### The Revolution and the militia records
- **1776:** the family's record (Blackburn, Conley) has Meredith enlisting at sixteen with George, David, and Lewis. No record gives the place. Montgomery County wasn't formed until 1777 and Christiansburg wasn't founded until 1792, so "enlisted at Christiansburg, Montgomery County" in older notes is an anachronism; drop it. Lewis was living in South Carolina that year and served with the South Carolina forces; John Riddle went with the Virginians to the Long Island of the Holston (Christian's campaign) under Capt. John Cox.
- **Kegley, *Militia of Montgomery County, Virginia, 1777-1790*** (Dublin, Va., 1975; FamilySearch Digital Library, book 1033071; pages viewed by the user 23 Sept 2026):
- **pp. 23-24 (images 34-35), "A List of Capt. James McDaniell Company":** "Mendaby Collens" (Meredith) and "Lewies Collens" on consecutive lines; David Collens; George Collens; a deleted "---- Collens"; Benjamin Sexton; Charles Sexton (deleted on p. 23, re-entered on p. 24); John Sexton; James Cox. No date on the page. Kegley's note: "This list is very poorly spelled, and very difficult to read. Many names were deleted and are impossible to decipher." This is the page the DAR cites for Meredith's service. **There are no Riddles on it, no William Bowlin, and no Elisha, Samuel, or John Collins.**
- **p. 50 (image 61), Kegley's introduction to the oath lists:** Montgomery County kept lists of the men who took the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth, 1777-1779 (originals at the courthouse in Christiansburg). One was kept by **James McCorkle**, assigned "to record the names of the men who swore allegiance to the State from several companies"; its entries begin 30 September 1777, and McCorkle signed and dated it 5 December 1777. At its end he listed the refusers: "Those that refused in Capt. Ozburns Compy. Joseph Caldwell, Robert Ozburn, James Sturgill, an old innofencive Ignorant man, Elisha Collins, Coxes Compy. Solomon Reddick, Do. (Ditto), William Reddick, Do." So **Elisha's refusal is now seen in Kegley**: he refused before McCorkle as a man of Cox's company (the Collins Timeline's "30 Sept 1777" is the list's opening date). The two Reddicks are probably a different family, but note that a William Reddick refused in the same company where a "William Ridel" swore.
- **p. 51 (image 62), McCorkle's oath list itself.** Under "Capt. Coxs Compy.": David Cox, "Jno. (his mark) Riddle," John Cox, James McDaniell (swearing as one of Cox's men, before he had a company of his own), Geo. Reves, Daniel and Jno. Blevins, "William Ridel," Harman and Samwill Cox, "Jno. Collens," and "Samuel Collens"; then men "of Thompson's Compy.," "of Draper's Co.," "of Stephens Co.," "a traveller," one from "Surry Co., Car.," and "Peter Hutcheson, of my own" (McCorkle's own company); "Capt. Ozburn's Compy." heads the right-hand column. **So John and Samuel Collins and William and John Riddle took the oath of allegiance together in the fall of 1777, John Riddle making his mark.** This is an oath list, not a muster roll. Meredith, Lewis, David, and George aren't on it.
- **p. 52 (image 63):** a separate "List of persons who took state oath before James McGavock, September to December, 1777," with no Collinses or Riddles.
- **Riddles in the whole book:** the user searched every spelling on 23 Sept 2026. John and William on p. 51 are the only Riddles, and there is no Moses. The index (image 88) gives "Riddle, John, 51" and "Ridel, William, 51"; the entry just above them in the index is a different surname.
- **[Superseded 2026-09-23]** the single roster in Blackburn and in the saponitown "Collins Timeline," labeled "Osborn Company," "Osburn & Cox," or "McDaniel's Company," that puts Meredith, Lewis, David, George, Elisha, Samuel, and John Collins with Benjamin, Charles, and John Sexton, William Bowlin, and William and John Riddle. It runs together McDaniel's militia list (p. 23), McCorkle's 1777 oath list (p. 51, whose two company headings are Cox and Ozburn), and McCorkle's note of refusers (p. 50, Elisha). William Bowlin's source is still unlocated. The Riddles were Cox's men, and no list puts them beside Meredith.
- **Court martial of 23 April 1783**, at Patrick Campbell's house (Kegley, *Early Adventurers*, vol. 2, p. 218): Meredith in McDaniel's company among the men "under similar orders," just after James Cox; John Saxton also; Ozburn's refusers ordered aboard "the armed vessels for the defence of Chesapeake Bay." The older dating of this page to "c. 1780-81" is wrong.
- **Elisha Collins** refused the oath of allegiance before James McCorkle in the fall of 1777, as a man of Cox's company (Kegley, *Militia*, p. 50; see above).
- **Lewis Collins, pension S21142** (Will Graves transcription): aged 80, Grainger Co TN, August 1834. In August 1776 he was living in South Carolina, on the waters of Broad River, was drafted (Capt. James Steen), and "marched against the Cherokee Indians that were doing mischief on the frontiers of South Carolina." In 1778 he hired out to make a crop with Charles Tompson, "not then a man of a family," was drafted again, and was dismissed. He then went "to my father's house in Montgomery County," Virginia; drafted a third time in June 1781 (Capt. Gordon), he joined Greene at the High Hills of Santee, fought at **Eutaw Springs** in September 1781 ("a severe battle"), marched prisoners to near Salisbury, and was discharged there (Col. Locke). Older summaries that leave out Eutaw Springs, or say he saw no battle, are wrong.
- **Joseph Collins's affidavit**, 27 Jan 1849, Grainger Co TN, in Salathiel Martin's pension W1044 (NARA M804, roll 1642, frame 0730; transcribed at joepayne.org): in 1780 a party of Tories was taken at a "Rock House" on the New River, and "Two of said company of tories escaped the night after their capture. One of them was by the name of David Gibson the other was named Lewis Collins." The "stone fort" of older notes is a paraphrase; use "Rock House."
- **War of 1812:** the NARA index card for a Meredith Collins, 2nd Regiment of Mounted Gunmen (Williamson's), Tennessee Volunteers, belongs to a namesake. Our Meredith was about fifty-two and living in Floyd County, Kentucky. Don't use it.
### Dates and citations corrected in the audit
- The Orange County, Virginia court that described eleven men as Indians (John Collins, John Bowling, and Charles Griffin among them) sat on **Thursday, 27 January 1742/43, which is 1743 by the modern calendar** (Order Book 3, 1741-1743, p. 309; Virginia DeMarce's transcription marks it "[1743 NS]"). Not 1742.
- The 1729 sale by William Read and his wife Mary of 100 acres on both sides of Sappony Creek is a **Surry County record (Deeds, Wills &c. 8:22)**. The "Brunswick County" of older notes isn't supported (Brunswick had no court of its own until 1732); leave the county unstated unless the deed itself gives one.
- The 1755 Orange County NC tax list: Thomas and Samuel on p. 19, John on p. 15.
- The 1813 Stony Creek minute ("harboring them Melungins"): cite Estes et al. 2011, Table 1.
- Moses Riddle's supposed parents, Margaret Ridley and Edward Buss, come from WikiTree (profiles Riddle-158 and "Margaret (Redley) Buss," Redley-1), not from the Empty Branches post. The court records they cite haven't been found.
- **Estes et al., *Journal of Genetic Genealogy* 7(1), Fall 2011:** of the paternal lines assigned, 12 European, 8 African, and 1 Native American (a Sizemore line, Q1a3a); every maternal line European. Vardy Collins's Y line is R1a1, European (Table 11), not African. "Predominantly African paternal lines" in older notes is wrong.
- Heinegg, *Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina*, 6th ed., 3 vols. (Clearfield, 2021).
- Kegley, *Early Adventurers on the Western Waters*, vol. 2 is subtitled *The New River of Virginia in Pioneer Days, 1745-1800* (1982; reprinted 2003).
### James Reed, Mary's father (revised 27 September 2026)
The detail, the sources and the ranked next steps are in `claude/Reed_Family_Investigation_Addendum.md` (the Reed addendum; main file S66). The master tree's Part Two follows the same reading.
- **James Reed (Read) was Mary's father.** His note of 25 November 1827 asking the Clay County clerk to license Jesse Collins to marry "Mary Red" (OL22; main file S60) is still the only record that names her as his daughter.
- **Born c. 1766-1775,** by his census ages: 26-44 in 1810, 45 or over in 1820, 55-100 in 1830. The Attride compilation's "born about 1765" (main file S51) sits at the edge of that range.
- **His parents are unproven [?].** Only the Attride compilation makes him a son of Hugh Reed Sr. of Rowan County, North Carolina (d. bef. the end of 1786), and a James named at the 1786 sale of Hugh's estate is not thereby shown to be a son. The 1783 Rowan grant of 130 acres on Dutchmans Creek needs a man born by about 1762, so it, and perhaps the other Rowan entries, may belong to another James Reed. William Read "Malatta" (b. c. 1673) is likewise unproven as the root of this Reed family: Heinegg lists James and Stephen Reed of Ashe County only among the "other members of the Reed family" and does not trace their parents.
- **In the censuses:** head of a free colored ("other free") household of six in Ashe Co NC, 1800; a household of eleven counted white there in 1810; a free colored man 45 or over in Clay Co KY, 1820. **In 1830** (Clay Co KY, p. 172, re-read from the image on 26 September 2026; main file S65), James is the man aged 55-100 entered in the slave column, four young men of his household aged 10-24 are also in the slave columns, the one free colored man in the house is aged 24-36, and his wife, aged 50-60, is the one person counted white. Earlier versions of this file and of the main research file had James as the free colored man, which was a misreading. On the same page Hiram Collins and his wife Elizabeth are also entered in the slave columns, with their small son in the white column.
- **Where and when he died is open between two readings.**
- **(A)** He stayed in Clay County and died there c. 1841. This rests only on the Attride compilation's account of an 1841 Clay estate, appraised at about $800, with parts sold to "Mrs Reid," Samuel Reid and William Reid. Its source record has not been seen.
- **(B)** He is the James Reed who moved from Clay to Morgan County, Indiana, in 1831 and bought the SW quarter of Section 17, Township 11 North, Range 1 East, near Martinsville (the purchase deed has not been seen). His will, signed on 19 July 1836, leaves 103 acres of that quarter, his home farm, to "my two sons," Elisha and John (James in one transcription), and refers to land conveyed to "my other sons." It was recorded on 6 January 1845 (Deed Book J, p. 522), so he had died by then (JoEllen Reed's notes give December 1845; the recording date is the better evidence). He is buried in Reed's Chapel Cemetery. In 1840 he heads a free colored household of seven there, and Hiram Collins heads a free colored household on the page after his (main file S67).
- The Reed addendum leans to (B). It is not proven.
- **His wife** was born c. 1770-80 and is the one person in the 1830 household counted white. Under (A) she is the "Mrs Reid" who bought part of his estate in 1841. Under (B) she is Susannah (a Morgan County land transfer names Naaman Reed as "son of James and Susannah"), alive in 1846, and the free colored woman aged 55-100 in the 1840 household fits her age. Her maiden name is unknown; the Hollingsworth name in online trees is unsupported.
- **His children, as the master tree now has them:** Mary (proven by the consent note); Stephen, who married Nancy Powell on the day of Mary's wedding and witnessed her consent note (probable); Elizabeth, Hiram Collins's wife (probable); Benjamin, Tilford and Randolph (possible); Naaman, Elisha and John [or James] (reading B); Samuel and William (reading A); Sarah Reid, the mother of Bradley Collins's daughter Nancy [?]. Patsy Reed (m. James Hollinsworth 1822), listed in older passages as a daughter or candidate daughter, is more likely a daughter of Stephen Reed Jr.
### The Reeds in Iowa
- **Tilford Reed was the first to reach Iowa, by about 1836.** His son Harman was born in Iowa c. 1836 (1856 Appanoose County census, age about twenty). The residence figures the brothers gave in 1856 (Tilford 14 years, Benjamin 18) were round numbers from men asked how long they'd lived in a territory whose borders were still unsettled, and they understate Tilford's time. Older notes placing Tilford's arrival c. 1842, or saying Benjamin came first, are superseded. The 1840 census of Iowa Territory has "Tifford" Reed under "Van Buren, Iowa Territory," p. 282 (NARA M704, roll 102), with Benjamin two pages away (FamilySearch indexes them under other counties).
### Later generations
- **Eli Woodruff Bruner** d. 27 July 1879, Colorado City, Colorado, of rheumatic fever (1880 mortality schedule, Benton Co, Arkansas); buried with Masonic honors (*Colorado Springs Gazette*, 29 July 1879) in Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, Potters Field (Find a Grave 176564833).
- **1880, Gothic, Gunnison Co, Colorado** (28 June 1880, pp. 247-248): Emma Clifford, 26, housekeeper, with Orlando, Eli, and Jessie; E. G. Bruner, 20, blacksmith, enumerated alongside them. Older notes disagree on the line numbers and on which page ("same page, line 11" against "page 248, line 11"); settle it from the image if it ever matters.
- Emma's Clifford children: **Orlando Hines, b. 20 Oct 1873; Eli Woodrie, b. 25 Mar 1875; Jessie Lorene, b. 6 May 1876** (not c. 1874 and c. 1877).
- **1920:** Jessie heads her own household in **Grays Harbor County, Washington**, with her two sons, her mother Emma, and roomers, and is marked married, not widowed (file `Mariah-Emma-Dunlap-Bruner-Census-1920.pdf`). Not Seattle.
- **Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr.** d. 23 Sep 1923, Bismarck, Burleigh Co, North Dakota; cause unknown.
- **Richard Clifford Holbrook:** 1940 census, associate engineer, U.S. Navy (a civilian post); at Pearl Harbor by 1941 (his line is struck through on the June 1941 USS *Wharton* manifest, so the family didn't sail); in the Seabees after the attack, a lieutenant by the family's account, remembered on Midway and later Guam; June 1949, Lucille and Frances to Guam on USS *General George M. Randall*; April 1950 census on Guam; the Navy's Fena dam, the likeliest "first dam on Guam," was completed in 1951 (Guampedia); family left Guam December 1951 on USNS *General D. I. Sultan* for the Naval Ammunition Depot at Shumaker, Arkansas; d. 30 Nov 1955, Hot Springs.
- **Harriet L. Holbrook**, Frances's sister: b. Honolulu, 1941 or early 1942 (age eight on the USNS *General Edwin D. Patrick* manifest, arriving San Francisco 26 April 1950).
- **Spencer Collins** is the soldier of Co. H, 46th Missouri Infantry, enlisted at Springfield 17 Aug 1864, killed in action 3 Nov 1864 at Vera Cruz, Missouri, and buried at Parsons Cemetery, Ozark Co. The muster card's age of 44 is a slip for 24, and no later record of any Spencer who could be ours turns up. Working hypothesis: he had joined distant Collins kin in that region (Parsons Cemetery is also the burial place of Isaiah "Cuppy" Collins, son of David Collins and Thompsey Posting, the Branch A family).
- **DNA (23andMe, Sub-Saharan African):** Frances 2.1%; John Ellingwood 1.5% (older notes say 1.7%); John's sister 1.3%; Jordan's sister 1.2%; Jordan 0.5%. No Native American assignment in any test.
### Statements in the book that still need a source
- Adam Peter Bruner's service as a private in the Revolution.
- "The county's marriage book for that year didn't survive to be filmed" (Appanoose County, 1850).
- The obituary of Capt. Richard B. Holbrook Sr. (d. 1898) calling him "a man of absolute integrity."
- Bradley's 1817 marriage to Jane Ray (see above).
### Open leads, roughly in order of payoff
1. Kegley's *Militia*: search Bowlin/Bolin/Bowling (the one name from the compilers' merged roster still unaccounted for), and Collins/Collens across the other oath lists of 1777-1779, where Meredith, George, David, or Lewis may have sworn before another justice.
2. Montgomery County tithable and personal property lists, late 1770s to 1782: the household where a teenage Meredith first appears.
3. Eula Conley's 1971 DAR application (no. 562294) and its twenty-five supporting documents, in the DAR archive.
4. Court records of Margaret Ridley and Edward Buss (Bass?) in the Southside Virginia order books.
5. The 1756 Granville grant to a William Reed on the Eno River: is he one of ours?
6. Raw DNA from Grandmommie and John Ellingwood, phased, to see which side the eastern traces came from; an mtDNA test on a cousin descended in an unbroken female line from one of the Reed sisters; Y-DNA from a male-line descendant of Kalaska or Lloyd, or of Edward "Ned."
7. For the living witness: whether the family stayed in Hawaii through the war; the sukiyaki dinner photograph (who and where); Richard's Seabee battalion book (unit and rank); Harriet's exact birth date.
8. Jesse's and Mary Reed's graves (Appanoose County); Eli Bruner's Masonic lodge; Mr. Dunlap's first name; the cause of Richard Holbrook Jr.'s death at Bismarck.
9. Carlson's dissertation (Dr. Richard Allen Carlson; title not yet identified).
10. **The Reed side** (ranked in the Reed addendum, section 12): the 1850 Morgan County, Indiana, census pages around Naaman Reed's household, for James's widow Susannah, whose age would test reading (B) against the 1830 Clay wife; a letter to JoEllen Reed (Ancestry: joellenreed), who has a copy of the will; and one Morgan County records request for Deed Book J, p. 522 (the will as recorded) and the deed by which James bought the SW quarter of Section 17, which may say where he was living when he bought. The Morgan County deeds and probate for those years are on microfilm, not online.
---
**Created:** September 15, 2026
**Companion to:** `meredith_collins_research.md` (the main file, which follows the line from Meredith to Jesse to Mary Elizabeth and forward; its older Meredith → Bradley → Jesse chain is WITHDRAWN, since Jesse was Meredith's son by Polly Holloway and Bradley's half-brother) and `collins_reed_addendum_2026-09-15.md` (the Collins-Reed session work).
**Scope of this file:** everything UPSTREAM of Jesse Collins. The colonial Louisa County community, Thomas Collins "Molata," the Flat River and New River periods, the Revolutionary generation, the Samuel-versus-John paternity question for Meredith, Meredith's own arc, Bradley's westward lead, and the point where Jesse enters the story. Primary source for the New River material: Frankie A. Blackburn et al., "One More Mountain to Cross: The Collins Story" (1998, Searching for Saponitown), saved in the project as HTML [OL1]. This file exists so the deep-origin material does not get lost inside the files that focus on the later generations.
**Evidence tiers used throughout:**
- DOCUMENTED: a primary record exists (court order, deed, tax list, census, will).
- CONTEXT: established history and law of the period, applied to our people.
- TRADITION: family story, recorded as story.
- INFERENCE: our reasoning; confidence stated.
---
## 1. The legal architecture that produced our records (CONTEXT)
The colonial records of this family only make sense against four pieces of Virginia law. These are the machinery that generated nearly every document we have.
**1662, partus sequitur ventrem.** A child's status (free or enslaved) followed the mother. A child of an enslaved or free African man and a free white woman was born FREE. Paul Heinegg's central thesis [OL2] is that most free mixed-race families of colonial Virginia and North Carolina, including ours, originate from unions of African men and white servant women in the 1600s and early 1700s, made free by this law.
**1691 and 1705, punishing the mothers, binding the children.** A white woman bearing a mixed-race child faced fines or extended servitude, and the child, though free, could be bound out as a servant until age 30 or 31. The 1705 act also DEFINED "mulatto" broadly: the child of an Indian counted, as did the child, grandchild, or great-grandchild of a "negro." So the "Molata"/"Malatta"/"mulatto" labels on our ancestors are compatible with African ancestry, Indian ancestry, or both. The word does not decide the question.
**1723, the tithable act.** Free Black and mulatto women became tithable (head-taxed as laborers) while white women were not. A free family of color paid tax on its wives and daughters over sixteen that white neighbors never paid. This is a tax on visible non-whiteness, and it created a standing incentive to leave those women off the lists. "Concealing tithables" presentments are one of the most common ways free families of color appear in colonial court records at all.
**Binding out.** County courts could order the children of parents deemed too poor to support them apprenticed out. Used against poor white families too, but applied disproportionately to free families of color in Appalachia. This law reaches all the way down our line to Pike County, Kentucky in 1829 (Section 8 below).
### 1.1 The family's own proof case: William Reed's freedom suit, 1694 (DOCUMENTED; Reed side)
Reed lineage detail belongs to the main file, but the origin story is recorded here because it is the family's clearest illustration of the 1662 law working. Per Heinegg's Reed entry [OL3, page scans in project as `REED_FAMILY.pdf`]:
William Reed, born about 1673, was a mixed-race child born to a white servant woman in the Charles City County household of Robert Jones. Jones bequeathed him a cow, a gun, and his freedom from indenture at age twenty-one. Jones's executors refused to comply. William sued them in Charles City County court and WON, 3 September 1694 [Charles City Orders 1687-95, p. 522]. He was a taxable in James Ellis's household, Southwarke Parish, Surry County, 1699-1703, called "Wm Read a Malatta" in 1699. In May 1708 he began a second suit, against William Edwards in Surry County, and was awarded 1,285 pounds of tobacco on 21 September 1715.
His mother is unrecorded: name, origin, everything. CONTEXT: servant women in 1670s Charles City County were overwhelmingly young English (sometimes Irish) indentured immigrants on four-to-seven-year terms, barred from marrying without the master's consent. She will almost certainly remain anonymous.
**Lead (flagged "may have been" in Heinegg, UNVERIFIED):** William may be the William Read who, with wife Mary, sold 100 acres in 1729, north side of the Nottoway River and both sides of SAPPONY CREEK [Surry DW&c 8:22; a Surry County record, county of the land not stated]. Sappony Creek is named for the Saponi, in the same Southside country as Fort Christanna (Section 2.1). If the identification holds, the Reed line physically touches the Saponi geography. Keep as a lead.
---
## 2. The Louisa County / Orange County community, 1742-1747 (DOCUMENTED)
The earliest cluster of records places one interconnected community in the Virginia Piedmont: Collins, Gibson, Bunch, Bowling, Riddle, Branham, Hall, Donathan, and (per the wider Saponitown research) Griffin and Goins. The surnames travel together for the next century.
**27 January 1742/43 (1743 by the modern calendar), Orange County, VA court [OL1, citing Orange Order Book 3, 1741-43, p. 309; Virginia DeMarce's transcription marks it "[1743 NS]", OL48].** Eleven named men, described by the court as INDIANS, were brought in under a precept from William Russell and Edward Spencer for terrifying one Lawrence Strother and on suspicion of stealing hogs. Among the names: John Bowling, Charles Griffin, JOHN COLLINS, plus men recorded as Alexander Machartoon, Manicassa, Capt. Tom, Isaac, Harry, Blind Tom, Foolish Jack, and Little Jack. Each put up security. The court ordered their guns held until departure, they having declared to the court their intention to leave the colony within a week.
Notes for the narrative:
- A John Collins is IN the group the court calls Indians. This is the single strongest record tying the Collins surname to Indian identity, and it comes from the exact community our line descends from.
- Charles GRIFFIN is in the group. The Griffin name recurs in the family for a century (Griffin Collins Sr. b. c. 1773; Griffin Collins Jr.; Betsy Griffin who married Bradley Collins in 1833). Also of note: the schoolteacher hired to instruct Saponi children at Fort Christanna in the 1710s was named Charles Griffin. Whether the 1743 man carries that name from the teacher, or is kin, is unknown; log the coincidence, claim nothing.
- Hog-stealing accusations were chronic frontier friction (hogs ranged free; both Indians and colonists claimed them). What "terrifying" Strother consisted of is not recorded.
- Where they went is not recorded. But see Section 3: within a decade the same surnames are acquiring land on the Flat River in North Carolina. INFERENCE (moderate confidence, shared by the Saponitown researchers): the community ordered out of Virginia in 1743 reassembled in the North Carolina Piedmont by the early 1750s.
**NOTE ON THE TWO ORANGE COUNTIES (added Sept 16 for timeline clarity).** Orange County, VIRGINIA (formed 1734, seat Orange, VA Piedmont) is the county of the January 1742/43 (1743 NS) court above. Orange County, NORTH CAROLINA (formed 1752 from Granville and neighbors, seat Hillsborough) is the county of the Flat River, the 1755 Molata tax list, and the 1761 grant. Two different counties; the shared name is colonial naming fashion (House of Orange), nothing more. Related correction: the June 1745 concealed-tithable presentments of Thomas and Samuel sat in LOUISA County, VA court (Louisa, formed 1742, was the community's Virginia base), not Orange VA. TIMELINE SHAPE: the 1743 order bound the ELEVEN NAMED MEN (John Collins among them), who declared they would leave the colony within a week; the broader kin network was not under the order and wound down its Virginia affairs in stages: Louisa presentments 1745, Thomas selling the Turkey Run land 1747, Thomas on the Granville NC tax list 1750, the 1752 grant. Per Carlson (OL10) a remnant stayed in the Louisa mountains to the Revolution. Expulsion for some, staged migration over ~8 years for the rest.
**12 May 1742, Orange County, VA [OL1, citing the Wes White papers].** Reference to about twenty-six Saponi Indians inhabiting Colonel Spotswood's land. A snapshot of the Saponi remnant community two years after Spotswood's death.
**25 June 1745, Louisa County, VA [OL1; also in Heinegg].** George Gibson, Thomas Gibson, SAMUEL COLLINS, WILLIAM COLLINS, and others presented in court for CONCEALING TITHABLES. They pled not guilty. CONTEXT: under the 1723 act, this charge against families of this community is very often a racial-tax offense, an accusation of hiding wives and daughters who were legally taxed as nonwhite. The not-guilty plea is either ordinary tax-dodging denial or a contested claim about what their women legally were. Thomas Collins appeared in Louisa court the same year (main file, Purpose section).
**1747, Louisa County, VA.** Thomas Collins sold 184-186 acres on Turkey Run/Turkey Creek, south side of the South Anna River, to John Powell; the land lay near Gilbert Gibson, Thomas Gibson, and Sam Bunch land [OL1; main file]. Same year: Gilbert Gibson's will names sons Jordan, George, and Gideon. The community held adjacent land.
### 2.1 Fort Christanna and the Saponi (CONTEXT)
Alexander Spotswood, lieutenant governor of Virginia 1710-1722, established Fort Christanna in 1714 in what became Brunswick County, gathering the Saponi and allied small Siouan-speaking tribes (Occaneechi, Tutelo, Stukanox) for trade, schooling, and as a frontier buffer. Official operation ended in 1718, but the Indian community remained on and around the lands for decades; the May 1742 note above shows about twenty-six still there. Afterward the documented Saponi went mostly two directions: north (adopted with the Tutelo among the Cayuga in Iroquois country) or south (merging with the Catawba). The Saponitown project's animating hypothesis, HYPOTHESIS not proven fact, is that an undocumented remainder dissolved into the free-colored neighborhoods of the Piedmont, i.e., into exactly the Louisa/Orange community above.
### 2.2 African ancestry in the same community (CONTEXT + DOCUMENTED)
Africans had been in Virginia since 1619, more than a century before these records, and the 1600s were the window of relative legal fluidity in which free mixed families originated (Section 1). Heinegg documents the Collins, Gibson, Bunch, and Reed families as free African American families by paper trail [OL2, OL3]. The Bunch anchor in our source: Henry Bunch, b. c. 1690, described as a "Free Mulatto" in the 1763 Bertie County, NC tax list, whose daughter Rachel married a JOSEPH COLLINS [OL1].
**The file's standing position (carried over from the main file):** the Saponi explanation and the African explanation MAY BOTH BE TRUE of the same community. A free mixed-race population and a detribalizing Saponi remnant sharing the same neighborhoods and intermarrying would produce exactly the record we have: African DNA in the descendants, Indian identification in some records, and clerks who could not categorize anyone consistently.
---
## 3. Thomas Collins, born c. 1700: the documented head of the line (DOCUMENTED)
The earliest secure ancestor. Everything above him is dark.
| Date | Record |
|------|--------|
| 1745 | Louisa County, VA court appearance (with Samuel; the 1745 presentment community) |
| 1747 | Sold 184-186 acres on Turkey Run/Turkey Creek, Louisa Co, near Gibson and Bunch land |
| 1751 | (Community context) Thomas Gibson received 640 acres, south side Flat River, Granville Co NC, adjoining JOHN COLLINS on the Rocky Branch |
| 1752 | Thomas Collins received a Granville Co NC land grant on the Flat River at Dial's Creek; witnesses Paul Collins, George Gibson, Moses Riddle |
| 1755 | Taxed in Orange County, NC as a "Molata" on 3 Black tithes; Samuel Collins likewise "Molata" on 2 |
| 1760-61 | Gv579: warrant c. 29 Dec 1760 (three days after John Brown's warrant over the community's improvements), surveyed 13 Apr 1761 by Wm Churton, GRANTED 13 Oct 1761: 700 acres on Dial's Creek of Flat River; sworn chain carriers GEORGE GIBSON and PAUL COLLINS per the survey plat [OL13; corrected Sept 16 from the earlier "patented 1760" reading; see 14.10] |
The 1752 witness Moses Riddle was believed by the New River researchers to be Thomas's father-in-law [OL1]. RULED OUT on age: Moses was the only taxable man in his 1755 household and his son John was b. c. 1750 (S9069), so Moses was b. c. 1715-25, too young to be the father of the woman who bore Thomas's sons in the 1720s and 1730s. The Riddle link more likely belongs to a daughter of Moses, b. c. 1740, who married one of Thomas's younger sons, possibly Meredith's father. Thomas's wife is unknown.
The 1755 Orange County tax record is the family's foundational racial classification: "Molata," taxed on Black tithes, meaning the household's own members were being counted under the nonwhite tithe rules of Section 1. The migration Louisa VA → Flat River NC (1747 → 1751-52) tracks the 1743 expulsion inference in Section 2.
---
## 4. The New River and the Indian Lands period, 1767-1776 (DOCUMENTED)
The next move: from the North Carolina Piedmont up into the New River country, the high corner where Virginia and North Carolina meet, in present Grayson/Ashe/Wilkes counties. This is the "New River Collins" homeland from which every later branch (Meredith's, Griffin's, David's, Vardy's) descends.
**1767.** George Collins later testified (1809, in a Grayson County land dispute over Peach Bottom Creek, a New River branch) that he had settled on the land in 1767 [OL1, citing Chalkley's Chronicles, Vol. 2 p. 143]. The earliest fixed settlement date on the New River.
**1771, Botetourt County, VA tithables.** Charles Collins 1 tithe, SAMUEL COLLINS 2 tithes, JOHN COLLINS 4 TITHES [OL1]. A tithe is a male over sixteen. John's four tithes make his the largest Collins household: himself plus three grown sons or dependent men. This number matters for the paternity question (Section 7).
**1773, Botetourt County delinquent tax list.** David, Elisha, Ambrose, Samuel, John, Lewis, John Jr., George, and Charles Collins, plus Micajah Bunch, nearly all with the notation "INDIAN LANDS" after their names [OL1]. They were on the New River, outside the line marking the western boundary of the Virginia colony. This is the record behind the phrase "living on Indian land": they were delinquent precisely because they lived beyond the colony's boundary, where the treaty line with the Cherokee (Proclamation of 1763, adjusted by the Hard Labour and Lochaber treaties) placed the land outside white settlement. CONTEXT: for a family taxed as "Molata" inside the colony, settling beyond the line meant weaker courts, weaker tax enforcement, and no tithable prosecutions. Whether that was the motive is INFERENCE, but the incentive structure is documented on both sides of the line.
**Land network, 1779-1803 (selected).** The Wilkes and Ashe entry and deed books [OL1] show the community rooted on the New River: Samuel Collins living on the South Fork (1779 entry by Cleveland mentions improvements where Reubin Stringer and Samuel Collins "now lives"); George Collins's old cabins on Dogg Creek (1779); coordinated 50-acre entries by George, Elisha, Joshua, Lewis, and David all on 9 July 1791 (possibly military-service grants); Vardy Collins granted 100 acres on the South Fork in 1796; Griffin Collins entries on Elk Creek and along the Virginia line 1797-1803; Elisha's twenty-plus deeds, signed with a SIGNATURE rather than a mark (he could write; where he learned is unknown). Adjacencies to Stephen Reed and James Reed on the Laurel Fork and North Fork (Elisha's 1802-03 entries) put REED land against COLLINS land on the New River a generation before the Clay County, Kentucky intermarriages.
---
## 5. The Revolutionary generation, 1776-1783 (DOCUMENTED + CONTEXT)
**The enlistment, 1776.** Per the family's record (Blackburn, Conley), Meredith Collins enlisted in 1776, age 16, alongside GEORGE, DAVID, and LEWIS Collins [OL1; main file S1, S2]. No record gives the place (Montgomery County was formed in 1777, Christiansburg founded in 1792), and Lewis was then living in South Carolina and served with the South Carolina forces. The four remained in close contact until 1797 in Wilkes County. Whatever their exact kinship, they moved as a unit for twenty years.
CONTEXT on what they likely did: a New River man raised in late 1776 (Montgomery County was not formed until 1777) was almost certainly part of the mobilization for the Cherokee campaign of that autumn, when Col. William Christian's expedition marched from the Holston against the Overhill Cherokee towns, coordinated with the South Carolina thrust under Williamson. Lewis's pension puts him on the South Carolina side of that operation: living on the waters of Broad River, he was drafted (Capt. James Steen) and "marched against the Cherokee Indians that were doing mischief on the frontiers of South Carolina," 1776 [OL51]. John Riddle went with the Virginians to the Long Island of the Holston under Capt. John Cox; which column Meredith went with, no record says. The campaign burned towns and crops; pitched battle was limited. NOTE THE IRONY for the narrative, stated plainly: men from a community taxed as "Molata" and associated with Saponi remnants were mobilized against the Cherokee.
**No document places Meredith in a specific battle.** His service evidence is the family's record of the 1776 enlistment, the undated McDaniel's Company list (Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 23-24, OL46), the court martial of 23 April 1783 (Kegley, *Early Adventurers*, vol. 2, p. 218), and the DAR recognition. No pension application by Meredith has been found, despite his living until 1841, past the 1832 act that opened pensions to militia veterans. OPEN TASK: search Revolutionary pension/bounty files (NARA, Fold3) for Meredith Collins, Virginia; a rejected or unclaimed file would be gold.
**Lewis Collins's pension, S21142 [OL1; OL51]** is the family's one first-person Revolutionary narrative: living in South Carolina on the waters of Broad River, drafted August 1776 (Capt. James Steen, Col. Williamson) and "marched against the Cherokee Indians that were doing mischief on the frontiers of South Carolina"; in 1778 hired out to make a crop with Charles Tompson, "not then a man of a family"; drafted again (Capt. James Roan); at his father's house in Montgomery Co VA in 1781 when drafted a third time (June 1781; Capt. Gordon, Col. Malbury), joined General Greene at the High Hills of Santee, fought at EUTAW SPRINGS in September 1781 ("a severe battle"), marched prisoners to near Salisbury, and was discharged there (Col. Locke). Born 1754 in Virginia. Pension drawn in Grainger Co TN, 1834, age 80; Blackburn notes his statements at that age may be shaky.
**The divided family.** The southern backcountry was the most internally divided theater of the war, effectively a civil war between neighbors, with Tory conspiracies against the Patriot lead mines near Fort Chiswell (Montgomery Co) in 1779-80 and brutal militia suppression under Campbell and Crockett. Within our one kin group:
- Meredith, George, David, Lewis: enlisted Patriots (1776).
- ELISHA: REFUSED the Oath of Allegiance, 1777 [OL1], before James McCorkle, as a man of Cox's company (Kegley, *Militia*, p. 50) [OL46]. Not a casual opinion; oath refusers faced multiplied taxes and loss of legal standing. An official, costly stance.
- LEWIS and DAVID GIBSON: captured c. 1780 by Capt. Salathiel Martin as suspected TORIES at a "Rock House" on the New River; escaped the same night [OL1, Joseph Collins's affidavit in Salathiel Martin's pension]. Blackburn raises the obvious eyebrow: the same Lewis later drew a Federal pension.
One family, three postures. Whether split conviction, deliberate hedging, or individuals reading their own risks, the records do not say. CONTEXT: for a marginalized free family of color, either side's militia could be a threat, and enlistment could also be strategic (pay, land-bounty eligibility, proof of belonging).
**The militia and oath lists.** Capt. James McDaniel's Company (Montgomery Co militia): Meredith ("Mendaby Collens") and Lewis ("Lewies Collens") on consecutive lines, David, George, a deleted Collens entry, Benjamin, Charles, and John Sexton, and James Cox (Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 23-24, undated) [OL46]. NO Riddles, no William Bowlin, no Elisha, Samuel, or John Collins. "Jno. Collens," "Samuel Collens," John Riddle (by his mark), and "William Ridel" took the oath of allegiance with Capt. Cox's company in the fall of 1777 (James McCorkle's list of men who took the oath, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777, Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 50-51), and Elisha refused the oath there as a man of Cox's company (p. 50). The single merged roster in OL1 runs these lists together and is SUPERSEDED; William Bowlin's source is not yet located. The 1782 Montgomery personal property tax list adds Aaron, Ambros, Daniel, Martin, and Melinton Collins, each one tithe [OL1]. The community's male roster, in effect.
**The DAR plaque (DOCUMENTED, verified current as of Sept 2026).** The Pikeville Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a bronze plaque on a large stone on the Pike County courthouse grounds in 1929: "Revolutionary War Soldiers Buried In Pike County," sixteen names including MEREDITH COLLINS (the others: Atkinson, Blankenship, Childers, Dailey, Ford, Hall, Jackson, Johnson, Mims, Maynard, May, Potter, Stepp, Stewart, Trout) [OL4]. Current marker listings and the Pike County GenWeb page indicate the plaque remains at the courthouse's Main Street entrance. For the narrative, the juxtaposition is stated without embellishment: bronze in 1929, for a man the same county declared a pauper in 1838, whose son its court bound out in 1829.
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## 6. Samuel Collins and John Collins Sr.: the two candidate fathers (DOCUMENTED dossiers)
### 6.1 Samuel Collins, b. c. 1724
| Date | Record |
|------|--------|
| 1745 | Louisa Co VA, same court presentment as Thomas (concealing-tithables community) |
| 1755 | Orange Co NC, "Molata" taxable on 2 Black tithes |
| 1771 | Botetourt Co tithables: 2 tithes (himself + one male over 16) |
| 1773 | Botetourt delinquent list, "Indian Lands," New River |
| 1777 | "Samuel Collens" (this Samuel or a namesake son) took the oath of allegiance with Capt. Cox's company in the fall of 1777, beside "Jno. Collens" and the Riddles (James McCorkle's list, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777, Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 50-51); NOT on McDaniel's list |
| 1779 | Living on S side S fork New River (Cleveland's land entry mentions his residence) |
| 1787 | Probably the Samuel Collins in the Wilkes Co NC state census |
Heinegg identifies Thomas as Samuel's probable father and groups the Wilkes/Ashe Collins men (David, George, Martin, Valentine, Vardy, Ambrose, Charles, and others) as Samuel's DESCENDANTS [OL2; main file]. Meredith and Lewis are not in Heinegg's list by name but appear on the same militia and tax lists as David. FamilySearch assigns Griffin Collins Sr. (b. 1773) a father named Samuel Collins. NO DOCUMENT NAMES SAMUEL'S SONS.
### 6.2 John Collins Sr.
| Date | Record |
|------|--------|
| 1743 | (Possible, UNVERIFIED identity) the John Collins among the "Indians" in Orange Co VA court, 27 Jan 1742/43 |
| 1751 | John Collins's land on the Rocky Branch adjoining Thomas Gibson's 640-acre Flat River grant, Granville Co NC |
| 1771 | Botetourt tithables: 4 TITHES, the largest Collins household (himself + three males over 16) |
| 1773 | Botetourt delinquent list, "Indian Lands" |
| 1777 | "Jno. Collens" took the oath of allegiance with Capt. Cox's company in the fall of 1777, beside "Samuel Collens" and the Riddles (James McCorkle's list, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777, Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 50-51); also a 1782 Elk Creek Militia list |
| 1782 | Montgomery tax list. NOT on McDaniel's list: the "John Collins (Probably a Jr.)" came from the superseded merged roster (his 1777 oath with Cox's company is the row above) |
The New River researchers' claim [OL1]: Meredith was "probably son of John Collins Sr. who was son of old Thomas of Orange Co. NC then to Pittsylvania Co. VA, came from Louisa Co. VA." The same source's militia annotation calls Lewis Collins "son of John."
---
## 7. The Meredith paternity question (INFERENCE; both cases stated)
No document names Meredith's father. Both candidacies below are inference. The book presents both and LEANS TO JOHN (see READ THIS FIRST); the question stays OPEN.
**The case for Samuel:** Heinegg's grouping of the Wilkes/Ashe men as Samuel's descendants; the FamilySearch Samuel assignment for Griffin (Meredith's probable brother, per the main file Section 2); Samuel's documented forty-year presence in every place the line passes through (Louisa 1745, Orange 1755, New River 1771-1787).
**The case for John Sr.:** the explicit (if unsourced) statement in the New River research; John's FOUR tithes in 1771, the household with the most room for grown sons; "Lewis son of John" on the militia annotation, and Lewis beside Meredith on musters, tax lists, and land entries for twenty years (consecutive lines on McDaniel's list), which fits brothers or first cousins under John; and a daughter of Moses Riddle b. c. 1740 is the right age to have married John.
**Naming evidence: a shrug.** No militia list puts a Samuel beside Meredith (the "Samuel Collens" of the merged roster took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in the fall of 1777, Kegley, *Militia*, p. 51, and is not on McDaniel's list), and Meredith named no known son Samuel, and neither did Bradley or Jesse. No patterned John-naming either, and John is too common to test.
**Reconciliation hypothesis (INFERENCE, unproven, contradicted by nothing on the table):** Samuel and John Sr. were themselves brothers, both sons of Thomas "Molata," and the 1776 enlistment quartet (Meredith, George, David, Lewis) was drawn from both households. Heinegg's list (14.1) makes this the working frame: both men are counted among Thomas's sons, and the open question is which of the two fathered Meredith; the book leans to John (READ THIS FIRST).
**Pullable ends (queued):**
1. 1787 NC state census, Wilkes County: household composition for Samuel (and any John). Published transcription: Register, *State Census of North Carolina 1784-1787*; on FamilySearch (catalog: Wilkes, North Carolina > Census) and Ancestry; originals at NC State Archives (archives.ncdcr.gov).
2. Wilkes and Ashe deed books, full sweep for any conveyance FROM Samuel or John Sr. TO a younger Collins. Father-to-son land transfer is how these relationships usually surface. FamilySearch catalog, each county under "Land and property."
3. Botetourt/Montgomery tithable lists 1771-1782, year by year: a young Meredith should first appear as a tithe in SOMEONE'S household c. 1776-78. Whose column he first appears in is the closest thing to a paternity document this record set is likely to yield. Library of Virginia (lva.virginia.gov); many transcriptions free at newrivernotes.com.
4. Meredith's missing pension: NARA catalog (catalog.archives.gov) and Fold3, Revolutionary pension and bounty-land files, Collins, Virginia.
5. ~~Heinegg's full Collins entry (freeafricanamericans.com) re-read specifically for any John Collins of the Flat River generation.~~ DONE Sept 16 (14.1; task 5): John, b. say 1736, probable son of Thomas.
---
## 8. Meredith Collins, c. 1760-1841: the arc in brief (DOCUMENTED; detail in main file)
Full timeline, family table, tax and court analysis are in the main file, Sections 1-7. The origin-line-relevant spine:
Born c. 1760, Virginia. Enlisted 1776 at 16 (Section 5). First marriage c. 1782-85 (wife unnamed; children Bradley b. 1787 and probably a daughter). Second marriage c. 1799 per Eula Conley's DAR application (Polly Holloway, b. c. 1780 VA, d. ante 1840; Conley-via-Blackburn elsewhere gives d. c. 1812, compatible); Conley names sons Archibald 1800, James 1804, William 1806 (b. RUSSELL CO VA per the same application), plus Edward (Ned) and John W. as believed sons. Russell Co VA tax rolls 1799-1809. Floyd Co KY by 1810; the 1810 household of ten includes FOUR MALES UNDER 10 (b. 1801-1810), of whom Conley's names fill only three slots (Section 10 below). Bought 50 acres on Shelby Creek 1816. Pike Co (formed 1821) tax lists through 1831, three parcels, ~180 acres by 1831. Late partner Milly Johnson; their son (b. c. 1818, carrying HER surname) bound out by the Pike County court, June 1829, in the same proceeding season that named George Collins & Patsy Kirk and Martin Collins & Mary Collins, three Collins households together. Tax-exempted for age, January 1829. Declared a "poor man" 1838, Richard P. Robinson appointed his overseer; court records show Meredith accused his own sons of stealing his land and refused to live with any of them; apparently in the Robinson household at the 1840 census while an Amy Collins (possibly the first wife's daughter) heads what remains of his. Died 1841, Pike County. Name in bronze on the courthouse grounds since 1929.
**Classification note (main file Section 2, kaleidoscope table):** Meredith all-white 1810; in the colored/slave columns 1820 Floyd (never attempted white); white again 1830 Pike. The same man, three censuses, two racial identities, depending on the enumerator.
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## 9. The Edward "Ned" legend (TRADITION, with the evidence basis stated)
As told to Blackburn by Harold Keith Talbot (Weston, WV) and Vernice Trimble (Valparaiso, IN) [OL1]: Edward "Ned" Collins was said by family to be half Indian. His father was said to have married an Indian girl in an Indian ceremony; a beautiful baby boy was born; the father, knowing how hard the child's life would be, stole the baby and slipped out into the night. Talbot and Trimble also held that Ned's father may have been GEORGE Collins rather than Meredith (a George enlisted with Meredith in 1776), so even the legend's paternity is disputed.
**Evidence basis for Ned's birth date:** census brackets only. 1820 Floyd census, Edward head of household aged 20-24 (b. 1796-1800); Blackburn's bracketed research note says 1802; the 1810 reconstruction slots him as a male 10-15. True range roughly 1796-1802 with ordinary census slop. The range straddles the start of the Polly Holloway marriage (m. c. 1799, to c. 1812), which is what makes the legend chronologically awkward for Meredith; Blackburn herself speculates Meredith could have left his first family in NC during the involvement. The legend survives the chronology only by bending something (a gap we cannot see, an overlap, or George as the father).
**Interpretive note for the narrative (stated once, plainly):** this is the family's ONLY piece of oral tradition about ancestry. It is an Indian story, attached to one individual, while the written record's designations (Molata, fpc, mulatto) attach to the whole family and point at least partly to African descent. A speakable Indian story standing in front of an unspeakable mixed-race reality is a pattern historians of Melungeon and free-colored Appalachian families describe repeatedly, and Blackburn's own family script ("we were told it was Indian") follows it exactly.
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## 10. Where Jesse Collins enters (DOCUMENTED; parentage SETTLED: son of Meredith and Polly Holloway)
Jesse (b. c. 1804, m. Mary Reed, Clay Co KY, 13 Dec 1827) is the hinge between this file and the main file. What bears on him from the origin side:
- **The 1810 census slot.** Meredith's Floyd Co household contains four males under 10 (b. 1801-1810). Conley's named sons James and William fill two slots (John W. rests on the Conley list alone [?]); Jesse b. c. 1804 and Hiram b. c. 1804-06, both Polly's sons, fill the other two. This is the ONLY located record with space for both men (Collins-Reed addendum 9.9.8, 9.9.11).
- **Parentage: SETTLED (23 Sept 2026): Jesse was Meredith's son by Polly Holloway; Bradley was his half-brother.** The evidence: age math (Meredith ~44, Polly ~24 at Jesse's birth; Jesse slots into the Polly children sequence c. 1800-1806) and the 1810 household room. WITHDRAWN, the Bradley reading: Clay County marriage geography (Jesse married in 1827 where Bradley lived), requiring fatherhood at ~17, possible but strained, and it must hold twice if Hiram is also his. Corroborating records queued in the Collins-Reed addendum: Clay/Pike tax lists (whose land Jesse first appears beside), Clay court order books, the James Reed 1841 estate file.
- **Jesse ≠ James.** The Clay register clearly writes Jesse; Conley's "James b. 1804" is most likely a different (probably brother) James who married Martha Ann Cotton in Clay Co, 1839 (main file 9.0).
---
## 11. Bradley Collins: the westward lead (DOCUMENTED via Conley + census)
Conley's account [OL1], which carries weight as family knowledge rather than reconstruction: Bradley (b. 1787, probably Wilkes Co NC) sold his Clay County property in 1839 and, with wife Elizabeth (Lunsford, m. 1836) and son Andrew's family, went BY FLATBOAT down the Kentucky and Ohio rivers to Missouri; in 1844 he moved on to Appanoose County, Iowa with Andrew's family. Elizabeth is absent from the 1850 census and had probably died. Andrew's children's birthplaces track the route: Lewis b. 1837 Clay Co KY; Samson b. 1841 CHARITON Co MO; Archibald "David" b. 1844 Chariton or Appanoose; Polly Ann b. 1848 Appanoose. Andrew's wife "Betsy" Sizemore matches the March 1838 Clay County register entry (Andrew Collins and Betsy Ann Sizemore, main file S45), a clean corroboration of Conley.
**Practical picture (CONTEXT):** a flatboat from Clay County means down the Kentucky River to the Ohio, the Ohio to the Mississippi, and up the Missouri; a family dismantling a Kentucky life and floating it roughly a thousand river miles.
**The 1840 county question: RESOLVED (Sept 16, 2026). Bradley's 1840 household is in CHARITON COUNTY, Missouri.** The left-margin annotation on the schedule page itself (FamilySearch IGN 005154556, image 632 of 1,315; sheet stamped p. 309, "(No. 4.)"; division allotted to an assistant marshal whose signature reads approximately "Silas Marsh") reads, written vertically, "Chariton County" [OL6; margin detail saved as `Bradley-1840-census-left-margin-CHARITON-County-detail.png`]. The earlier "Callaway" attribution was a reel-metadata/waypoint artifact: image group 005154556 is a multi-county Missouri reel (Benton through Clark and beyond), and the FamilySearch Information panel lists every county on the reel, same failure mode as the 1830 "Estill" labeling for the Clay Co KY pages and the Van Buren/Keokuk/Jackson standardization split for the Reed brothers. Scorecard: Samson's 1841 Chariton birthplace, exact match; Conley's "Carroll," off by one adjacent county, respectable for family memory; "Callaway," metadata artifact, withdrawn. This also resolves the main file's internal conflict in Bradley's favor of the original north-central Missouri inference (Chariton/Carroll/Livingston), which was correct. The migration now reads cleanly: Clay Co KY (sold 1839) → flatboat → Chariton Co MO (1840-1844) → Appanoose Co IA (1844).
**Significance for the line:** the 1844 arrival makes Bradley and Andrew the Collins BEACHHEAD in Appanoose, four to six years before Mary Reed Collins's widowed household appears in Wells Township and six years before Mary Elizabeth's 1850 marriage there. NARRATIVE HYPOTHESIS (INFERENCE, plausible, undocumented): word from Bradley's established Appanoose household drew Jesse's family (or, after 1847, Jesse's widow) toward the same county, alongside the documented Reed-brother draw (Tilford in Iowa by c. 1836, the first to arrive; Benjamin by 1838; see READ THIS FIRST). Two kin magnets, one county. No letter or record documents the summons; the geography and dates merely permit it.
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## 12. Melungeon context (CONTEXT)
"Melungeon" names the mixed-ancestry families of the Newman's Ridge / Vardy Valley area of Hancock Co TN and adjacent Lee Co VA, and by extension similar Appalachian communities. Core surnames are our record's surnames: Collins, Gibson, Goins, Mullins, Bunch, Bowling. VARDY COLLINS of our New River group (granted 100 acres on the S fork New River, 1796; well documented in Melungeon research per Blackburn) is remembered in local tradition as a founding patriarch of the Newman's Ridge settlement.
- **First documented use of the word:** minutes of Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church, Scott Co VA, 1813, recording a complaint about "harboring them Melungins" [Estes et al. 2011, Table 1; OL47]. OUR CONNECTION: the New River research places Valentine Collins in that very congregation, received by experience 1801, dismissed by letter 1803, a decade before the word appears in its minutes [OL1].
- **Etymology (unsettled):** leading candidates are French *mélange* (mixture), Afro-Portuguese *melungo*, and Kimbundu (Angolan) *malungu*, "shipmate." Given the Angolan segments in the family DNA (Section 13), the Kimbundu candidate is worth a footnote, no more. Older romantic theories (Portuguese shipwrecks, Turkish sailors) flourished because families needed origin stories that were not African; treat them as historiography, not history.
- **Genetics:** the Melungeon DNA study (Estes et al., *Journal of Genetic Genealogy* 7(1), Fall 2011, published 2012 [OL47]) assigned 12 European, 8 African, and 1 Native American (a Sizemore line, Q1a3a) paternal lines, and every maternal line was European: a substantial African paternal share (8 of 21), not a predominance, consistent with Heinegg's archival thesis.
- **Historically a slur, later reclaimed.** Blackburn (1998) deliberately set the "Melungeon factor" aside as beyond her scope while acknowledging the designations "fpc" and "mulatto" beside her family's names, the photographs in her grandmothers' albums, the total absence of oral history, and, in her phrase, the record as "an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colors." Her closing personal note: she had been told the dark skin and high cheekbones were Indian, but that could not explain the fpc and mulatto designations on Griffin Sr.'s and Jr.'s families; she is proud of her heritage whatever it is and would not wish her family any other way.
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## 13. The DNA and the African/Indian question (DOCUMENTED test data + CONTEXT)
**The measured line (main file):** Frances Fairchild Holbrook 2.1% Sub-Saharan African; John Ellingwood 1.5%; John's sister 1.3%; Jordan's sister 1.2%; Jordan Ellingwood 0.5%; no Native American assignment in any of the five tests. Consistent with Mary Elizabeth Collins at roughly a quarter to a third non-European (main file 9.06).
**Regional breakdown (verified from `Jordan_Ellingwood_ancestry_composition_0_5.csv`, Sept 15 2026):** the African segments assign as one Nigerian, one Angolan & Congolese, one Congolese & Southern East African, one West African, and two broadly Sub-Saharan African. CONTEXT: Virginia's enslaved population drew heavily from the Bight of Biafra (modern Nigeria, especially Igbo) and West Central Africa (Angola/Congo). The segments point at the two principal source regions of the actual Virginia trade. NOTE: the test is an early-generation 23andMe composition; regional assignment at trace percentages is approximate.
**What the DNA can and cannot say about the Saponi question:**
- It CONFIRMS African ancestry in the direct line, consistent with the Molata/Malatta/mulatto paper trail on both the Collins and Reed sides.
- It CANNOT rule out a small, deep Saponi strand. A single full Native ancestor c. 1700-1750 sits eight to ten generations back, expected contribution roughly 0.1-0.4%, and because inheritance is chunky, entire contributions at that depth are routinely LOST to recombination; a real ancestor can leave zero detectable DNA. Early chips and reference panels were additionally weak on trace Native assignment.
- The asymmetry is the point: the African signal survives because Mary Reed Collins was recent and substantially African-descended; a colonial-era Saponi ancestor would be neither. Absence of Native DNA is weak evidence at that depth; presence of African DNA is strong evidence. Both-explanations (Section 2.2) remains the file's position for the COMMUNITY; for our specific line, African descent is proven, Saponi descent is possible and unproven.
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## 14. Findings from the September 16, 2026 online records sweep (supplements Sections 3, 6, 7, 12)
### 14.1 Heinegg's full Collins entry obtained: Thomas's probable sons named (DOCUMENTED via Heinegg) [OL7]
The complete Collins family entry at freeafricanamericans.com (Church-Cotanch section) was retrieved and read in full. Its key content beyond what the main file's S52 summary carried:
**Heinegg lists FOUR probable sons of Thomas1 Collins (b. say 1700):** Samuel (b. say 1724), George1 (b. about 1728), Thomas2 Jr. (b. say 1734), and **JOHN (b. say 1736)**, the last a "Molata" taxable in Orange County NC on 1 Black tithe in 1755. This substantially grounds the Section 7 reconciliation hypothesis: SAMUEL AND JOHN WERE PROBABLE BROTHERS, both sons of Thomas. Whether Meredith's father was Samuel (Heinegg's descendants grouping) or John Sr. (Blackburn's claim), his grandfather is Thomas "Molata" either way. The paternity question narrows from "which family" to "which brother."
**Two-Johns tension (log, unresolved):** Heinegg's John b. say 1736 sits awkwardly with (a) the John Collins holding Flat River land adjoining Thomas Gibson's 1751 grant (a landholder that early implies birth by c. 1730) and (b) the 1771 Botetourt John with 4 tithes (himself plus three males over 16, i.e., sons born by 1755, impossible for a man born 1736). Either there were two Johns (an elder John, possibly Thomas's brother or the 1742/43 (1743 NS) Orange Co VA "Indian" John, plus Thomas's son John), or some 1771 tithes were not sons. The Blackburn claim "John Collins Sr.... son of old Thomas" may preserve a memory of the elder John. OPEN.
**Thomas's 1745 presentments, sharpened:** the Louisa court presented him for failing to list a tithable "who was probably his wife" (Heinegg's reading: the concealed tithable was the WIFE, confirming the racial-tax interpretation in Section 2), and separately on 26 November 1745 for profane swearing. He was in John Wade's Granville Co tax list in 1750.
**Samuel's record, expanded:** same failing-to-list-a-tithable presentment (probably HIS wife) 28 May 1745; sued by Richard Vernon 25 November 1746 for £16.9 and 14 pounds of DEER SKINS (a window into the hunting economy); he and William Collins presented 24 February 1746/7 for FISHING AND HUNTING ON THE SABBATH. His 1787 Wilkes state census household: 1 male 21-60 and 1 female, an aging couple with all sons out of the household (closes the household-composition part of the old task 1; it names no sons).
**Heinegg's Wilkes/Ashe descendants of Samuel, with classifications:** George2 (a HUNTER with a cabin in present-day Ashe when the first land grants were issued in the 1780s; estate taxed at £26 in 1778; 1787 Wilkes household of 1 male 21-60, 3 males under 21, 3 free females; possibly the George Collins heading a Wilson Co TN household of 14 "free colored" in 1830); David1 (estate £41, Ashe, 1778; 1790 Tenth Company, Wilkes); Martin (1790 Wilkes); Valentine (1790 Wilkes; **1800 Ashe: 6 "OTHER FREE"**); Vardy/Vadery (1790 Wilkes; **1800 Ashe: 4 "other free"**; 1830 Hawkins Co TN: 8 "free colored"); Ambrose (estate £20, 1778; 1790 Wilkes; **1800 Ashe: 4 "other free"**); Charles1 (estate £44, 1778). Thomas2 Jr.: possibly white-counted in Moore Co 1790, then **1800 Ashe: 7 "other free."** Grainger Co TN 1810: Griffin 11 "free colored," Lewis 10 "free colored," Joseph 9 "free colored."
**Kaleidoscope extension (adds to the main file's classification table):** 1755 Orange NC: Molata. 1787 state census and 1790 Wilkes: counted in the ordinary (white) schedules. **1800 Ashe: Valentine, Vardy, Ambrose, and Thomas Jr. all "other free" (free colored).** 1810 Grainger TN: Griffin, Lewis, Joseph free colored. 1830: Vardy (Hawkins TN) and possibly George (Wilson TN) free colored. The pre-1810 generation shows the same oscillation as the post-1810 one.
**Conflation caution #1:** Heinegg treats the King William County, Virginia Collins family (Revolutionary sailor Mason Collins, John Collins of Williamsburg, later members allotted land on the PAMUNKEY RESERVATION, the Smithsonian-photographed Simeon Collins) as a SEPARATE family, possibly originating near James City County. Do not merge King William/Pamunkey Collins records into our Piedmont/New River line.
### 14.2 The 1755 Orange County NC "Molata" roster in full (transcription) [OL8]
The Historical Melungeons research blog transcribes the complete community roster from the 1755 list (task 10's target document): Gedion Bunch 1 tithe (mulatto); Micajer Bunch 1 (mulatto); **Thomas Collins 3 tithes (mulatto); Samuel Collins 2 (mulatto); John Collins 1 (mulatto)**; **Moses Ridley (Riddle) 1 tithe AND WIFE MARY (mulattoes)**; Thomas Gibson 3 (mulatto); Charles Gibson 1; George Gibson 1; Mager Gibson 1. Notes: Moses Riddle, the possible father-in-law of Thomas (Section 3), was himself taxed as a mulatto, with his wife Mary tithable, exactly the female-tithability regime of Section 1; if Thomas's wife was a Riddle, her family carried the same classification. Original image still wanted, but the transcription satisfies the roster question. [Superseded 2026-09-23: Moses (b. c. 1715-25) was too young to be Thomas's father-in-law; the Riddle link more likely runs through a daughter of Moses, b. c. 1740, married to one of Thomas's younger sons. See READ THIS FIRST.]
### 14.3 The chain carriers on Thomas's 700-acre patent (task 3 substantially answered) [OL7, OL8]
The prediction in the research plan held: the survey names the chain carriers, and they are family. Heinegg (citing the NC Archives MARS database) names them as **Paul Collins and George Gibson**; the Historical Melungeons transcription of the same grant (dated 1761 there, 29 December 1760 in Heinegg) names **George Collins and Paul Collins, both noted "(mulattoes)"**. The two sources disagree on whether the second carrier was George GIBSON or George COLLINS; Heinegg lists George1 (b. c. 1728) as a probable SON of Thomas, so the Collins reading would put a son on his father's chain. Either way, PAUL COLLINS (also a witness to the 1752 grant) is confirmed as close kin physically present at the survey, and the discrepancy is resolvable by pulling the actual survey image at nclandgrants.com [RESOLVED Sept 16: plat obtained, Section 14.7; GEORGE GIBSON confirmed], which now hosts data and images for ALL Granville District grants (about a third directly linked to images). Related transcribed items from the same neighborhood: a 1756 grant to William Combs on Flat River adjoining Thomas Gibson, JOSEPH COLLINS, and John Wade (chainbearers Thomas Gibson Jr. and Moses Ridley); and a 26 December 1760 John Brown warrant for 700 acres on Flat River that "includes Bolins, Riddles and Collins Improvements," documenting Bowling, Riddle, and Collins households as squatters whose improvements were absorbed by another man's grant.
### 14.4 Second sweep, September 16: Gv579 verified, Moses Riddle identified, the dispersal mapped [OL9, OL10, OL11]
**Thomas's grant, from the systematic Granville abstracts (Piedmont Wanderings, abstracting the NC Archives records):** "Collins, Thomas - Gv579. Granville to Thomas Collins, 13 Oct 1761, 700 acres on Dials Creek of Flat River, SCC: GEORGE GIBSON & PAUL COLLINS, surveyed on 13 Apr 1761 by William Churton, SSLG 87-H, RegLn 2110." This settles the chain-carrier question in Heinegg's favor (George GIBSON, not George Collins) and corrects the dates: surveyed 13 April 1761, granted 13 October 1761 (Heinegg's "29 December 1760" is likely the warrant/entry date). William Churton, Granville's principal surveyor and the founder of Hillsborough, ran the chain lines himself. Same source, Gv131 (the 1756 Combs grant adjoining Joseph Collins): SCC "Thomas Gibson Jr & Moses REEDLEY," resolving the Reed-versus-Riddle reading of that chainbearer: Reedley = Ridley = Riddle, not Reed.
**The John Brown warrant twist (INFERENCE, high interest, needs the shuck to confirm):** the transcribed Brown item reads: warrant 26 Dec 1760, 700 acres on the Flat River, "includes Bolins, Riddles and Collins Improvements," with survey 13 April 1761 and deed 14 Oct 1761 attached. Those are THE SAME acreage, THE SAME survey date, and a grant date one day apart from Thomas Collins's Gv579. Two readings: (a) the transcriber ran two records together; (b) Brown's December 1760 entry over the squatters' improvements and Thomas's 1761 grant are the SAME 700-acre transaction chain, meaning the tract entered by Brown over the community's improvements was ultimately surveyed and GRANTED TO THOMAS COLLINS, i.e., Thomas answered the threat to the settlement by securing the paper himself, ten months after Brown's warrant. If (b) holds, the 1760-61 grant is not routine land acquisition but a successful legal defense of the community's homes, with a Gibson and a Collins kinsman dragging the chain. The warrant document inside shuck SSLG 87-H decides it; if the warrant in the file is in Brown's name, reading (b) is proven. THIS IS NOW THE TOP DOCUMENT PULL. [SUPERSEDED SAME DAY: Section 14.10 resolves the question; Brown's was the parallel grant Gv591 and reading (a) was correct.]
**Moses Riddle, substantially answered (mix of DOCUMENTED, scholarship, and family-researcher TRADITION):**
- 1755 Orange Co: taxed 1 tithe with wife Mary, both mulatto (Section 14.2).
- Richard Carlson's dissertation on the Saponi (as reported in the Hawkins research summaries) describes the Flat River settlement as the CHRISTIAN SAPONI BAND community, split between the Louisa County, VA mountains and the Flat River from 1750 to the Revolution, joined by the Sizemore and Ridley/Riddle families, and names Moses Ridley/Riddle explicitly as "an Indian man" whose land bordered Tom Collins, Tom Gibson, and George Gibson.
- 1767 Pittsylvania County, VA tax list of John Wilson (per Jack Goins's research): "Moses Ridle (AN INDIAN)," with William Ridle, listed among the Bowlin families; the group had land entries on the Sandy River. A tax clerk writing "an Indian" beside his name is the closest thing to a contemporary identity document anyone in this community received.
- Parentage per Riddle-family researchers (TRADITION, court records claimed but not yet seen): Moses thought to be the son of MARGARET RIDLEY, an indentured servant woman, and EDWARD BUSS, a mulatto man, with court records of the relationship. If verified, Moses's origin mirrors William Reed's exactly: the 1662 law's free child of a servant mother. [Source corrected 2026-09-23: the claim comes from WikiTree (Riddle-158; "Margaret (Redley) Buss," Redley-1; OL49), not the Empty Branches post cited in OL11; the court records have not been found.]
- The loop closed: William and John Riddle, "sons of Moses," stand on the 1782 McDaniel's Company roster beside Meredith (Section 5). The Riddles of the New River militia are the sons of the Flat River Indian of 1755. If Moses was Thomas's father-in-law, William and John Riddle mustered beside their kinsman Meredith. [Superseded 2026-09-23: William and John Riddle took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in the fall of 1777, John by his mark (James McCorkle's list, Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 50-51); they are not on McDaniel's list, and no list puts them beside Meredith. Moses was not Thomas's father-in-law. See READ THIS FIRST.]
**The classification mechanics, one layer deeper (Carlson via OL10):** in the first few years on the Flat River the community was enumerated as WHITE tithables; after Orange County was formed from Granville in 1753, the new county officials chose to count them as "Molatas." The legal fractions: half Indian ranked as mulatto and less than half could pass as white in Carolina practice, while Virginia's rule made 1/16 African ancestry "mulatto" regardless of the rest. So the kaleidoscope's earliest panels now read: white tithables c. 1750-53, Molata 1755, and the change was a change of CLERKS, not of people.
**The dispersal, c. 1767-1770 (secondary sources OL8, OL11):** the Collins and Gibson families began selling their Flat River land in 1767-70 and moved to the New River backwoods. Per Brenda Collins Dillon's research: a John Collins appears in the Granville/Orange records about 1750, lived on the Flat River about 17 years, and moved to the New River c. 1767, settling on PEACH BOTTOM CREEK (the very creek where George Collins testified in 1809 that he had settled in 1767, Section 4); Grayson County tax records suggest LEWIS and JAMES Collins were sons of this John. This is the elder-John thread of Section 14.1 given substance: Flat River John → Peach Bottom Creek 1767 → sons including Lewis ("son of John" on the militia annotation), which, if Blackburn's Meredith-son-of-John claim holds, would make Lewis one of Meredith's brothers in the 1776 enlistment quartet. A branch (Moses Riddle, Bowlins, some Collins) went instead to Pittsylvania County, VA before 1767, which finally explains the stray "then to Pittsylvania Co. VA" fragment in the One More Mountain account of Thomas's line. Thomas Collins Sr. himself may have died in Orange County around 1770 (secondary claim, unverified). Those who STAYED on the Flat appear on the 1777 Caswell County tax list: Paul Collins (the chain carrier), Martin, Middleston, Obadiah, and John Collins, and the rare name Middleston/Melinton recurs on the 1782 Montgomery Co VA list and the 1793 Wythe list, a name-thread between those who stayed and those who left.
**New names entering the roster:** DENNIS COLLINS (Granville grant Gv091, 480 acres on Cobbs Creek, 8 May 1755; chain carrier on Gv313 on the SOUTH FORK OF THE FLAT RIVER, 4 Dec 1753, squarely in the neighborhood); PAUL COLLINS (1752 witness, 1761 chain carrier, 1777 Caswell taxpayer, the constant); and a caution pile for JAMES COLLINS of the Haw River (Gv178, 1756, with his own "Collins Creek" and non-community chain carriers, probably a separate family, though a James Collins chain-carried in 1753 on land adjoining Joseph Collins, so not fully separable yet). Also logged as a LEAD with a common-surname caveat: Granville grants to WILLIAM REED (Gv139, 292 acres, branches of the ENO RIVER, 1756) and Robert Reed (Gv293, Piney Mountain Creek), plus a John Reed chain carrier (Gv170): Reed-surname landholders one watershed east of the Flat River cluster in the 1750s. Whether any connect to Heinegg's Reed line is untested; if one did, the Collins-Reed adjacency would begin in 1750s Orange County, a century before the Clay County marriages.
### 14.5 DAR GRS: Meredith confirmed as Patriot A024535; two proven child lines (Sept 16, user search) [OL12]
The user located Meredith in the DAR Genealogical Research System Ancestor database: **COLLINS, MEREDITH, Ancestor # A024535. Service: VIRGINIA, rank SOLDIER. Birth: circa 1760. Death: post 1841, Pike Co., Kentucky. Service source: Kegley, *Militia of Montgomery Co, VA, 1777-1790*, p. 23. Service description: Capt. James McDaniell, Montgomery Co Militia.** Vitals match our man exactly (and exclude the 1789 Boones Station Meredith). The accepted service proof is the same McDaniel's Company roster in OL1, via Mary Kegley's published militia abstracts [Corrected 2026-09-23: Kegley pp. 23-24 is not the OL1 roster, which runs together McDaniel's list (p. 23), McCorkle's 1777 oath list (p. 51), and his note of refusers (p. 50)]; no pension or additional service record sits behind the DAR verification. Task 11 RESOLVED; the plaque and the GRS record rest on documented militia service.
**The member applications (from the GRS results table, screenshot Sept 16):** at least eleven verified applications descend from Meredith, through exactly TWO children:
- **WILLIAM, spouse [1] MOLLY HATFIELD** (Nat'l Nos. 562294 with Additional Volume 505, and 661999, both with supporting-documents flags). Per OL1, Eula Conley herself descended from William's second wife Mary Ann "Molly" Hatfield, so these are very probably the Conley-Cline cousin network's own applications; their supporting documents may hold Conley-era family records.
- **BRADLEY, spouse [1] "X X" (unknown)** (Nat'l Nos. 663507, 675733, 682664, 693414, 738061, 738511, 777970, 817698, 817699; supporting-documents flags on 663507, 675733, 777970). Nine-plus vetted lineages through OUR branch. The "X X" confirms the DAR also has NO name for Bradley's first wife; since Andrew (b. 1811) predates the 1817 Jane Ray marriage, these lines almost certainly run through children of the unnamed first wife.
- **Negative finding:** NO applications through Jesse (or Archibald, Edward, Reuben, John W.). The DAR files cannot settle Jesse's paternity directly.
**Acquisition strategy (logged as task 23):** free first: read the "i" notice comments on each row; use the GRS DESCENDANTS tab to reconstruct each application's name-chain to Meredith at no cost, identifying which Bradley child each line runs through. Then purchase ONE Bradley-line record copy that carries the supporting-documents flag (663507, 675733, or 777970, chosen after the reconnaissance), with its supporting documents, and optionally 562294 (earliest number, Additional Volume, William/Hatfield line) for possible Conley source material. Caveat: pre-1984 applications frequently lack supporting documentation (returned to members on request), which is why the flag governs the choice. Kegley p. 23 itself is independently accessible (published booklet; WorldCat; much of the list material transcribed at newrivernotes.com). [2026-09-23: Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 23-24 (images 34-35), pp. 50-52 (images 61-63), and the index (image 88) now seen on the FamilySearch Digital Library, book 1033071 (OL46).]
### 14.6 Smaller findings and cautions
- **Conflation caution #2:** a genealogy of a separate, apparently white Collins family (vaiden.net) documents ANOTHER Meredith Collins, born 13 March 1789 at Boones Station, Kentucky, of the Boonesborough-associated line. Any Kentucky index hit, DAR record, or online tree for a Meredith Collins must be checked against birth year (~1760 vs 1789) before use.
- **1802 Lower Russell County VA tax list** (the district that became Scott Co): Valentine Collins, a dozen Gibsons, and two Bolins listed, recorded WHITE on the Russell/Scott lists per Jack Goins's research; Jesse Bolin became pastor of Stony Creek church in 1802. Context for the Stony Creek/Melungeon material in Section 12 and for Valentine's 1801-03 membership.
- **Charles Gibson pension R3995** (applied Hawkins Co TN, 19 January 1839, son of Thomas Gibson of the 1755 roster): a community-member Revolutionary pension worth reading for neighborhood testimony (revwarapps.org).
- The DAR GRS could not be queried directly from this session (JavaScript application); user instructions provided in conversation. If Meredith has NO ancestor number, the 1929 plaque rested on chapter-level identification rather than a vetted application, itself an informative outcome. [Moot: the user found Meredith's ancestor number, A024535 (14.5).]
### 14.7 The Gv579 survey plat obtained: primary document in hand (Sept 16, user download via OL9's Drive links) [OL13]
Five plat images retrieved from the Piedmont Wanderings Google Drive folder. The third (`thomas-collins-land3.jpg`) is THE document: Churton's survey record for Gv579. Content: a tract surveyed for Thomas Collins on Dial's Creek, beginning at a red oak, thence North 75 chains to a red oak, East 93 chains 40 links to a pine, South 75 chains to a black oak, then West crossing the creek 93 chains 40 links to the first station, containing seven hundred acres, surveyed the 13th day of April 1761, signed W. Churton, with **Sworn Chain Carriers: GEORGE GIBSON, PAUL COLLINS**. Caption sourcing: SSLG 87-H, Patent Book 14, page 358. The chain-carrier question is now settled on the PRIMARY document, not an abstract. The tract is roughly 1.9 km by 1.5 km of the Dial's Creek drainage, creek crossing the western line.
Companion image (`thomas-collins-land4.jpg`): William Jones's 672-acre survey, north side of the Flat River, surveyed 15 Aug 1763, chain carriers Thomas Person and Jno. Ligon(?), header noting "Entered by Jones Griffin" with an assignment. Two evidentiary uses: (a) its boundary runs to a post oak at a corner of JOHN BROWN's, independently proving Brown held Flat River land near the community by 1763; (b) the entered-by-one-man, surveyed-for-another mechanics on its face demonstrate that entry assignment was routine local practice, the exact mechanism the Brown-to-Thomas hypothesis (14.4) requires. [Superseded same day: 14.10 disproved the Brown-to-Thomas hypothesis (Gv591).] The other three images (Davey on Mayo Creek 1761, Rawls on New Hope Creek 1762, Watson on the Stoney and Jordans forks of the Haw 1763) are unrelated neighboring files, retained as exemplars of the form.
**Brown hypothesis status: UNTESTED by the plat** (surveys do not name warrant holders). Deciding documents: the WARRANT inside shuck SSLG 87-H, and John Brown's own Orange County Granville file for comparison. If Thomas's shuck holds a warrant in Brown's name, the takeover reading is proven; if it holds Thomas's own December 1760 warrant, Brown's was a parallel 700 acres and the OL8 transcription ran two records together. [Superseded same day: 14.10 resolved it; Brown's was his own parallel grant, Gv591.]
### 14.8 DAR reconnaissance II: Eula Conley identified; the free lineage previews (Sept 16, user screenshots) [OL14, OL15]
**Application 562294 is Eula Collins Conley herself.** The Descendants list for A024535 displays her name unrestricted (deceased members display; living members show "Name Restricted"): "Eula Collins Conley (#562294)." Her member page: Chapter 7028OR, joined October 1971, with FOUR verified patriot lines, which are her own ancestry (not our line beyond Meredith):
- COLLINS, MEREDITH (A024535), child William / [1] Molly Hatfield, Additional Volume 505;
- EVANS, WILLIAM (A037746), child Ferrell H. / [1] Phoebe Musick, Add Vol 485, Virginia soldier;
- HATFIELD, JOSEPH (A052955), b. circa 1735 ORANGE CO VIRGINIA, d. 29 Aug 1832 Campbell Co TN, pension *W5 with bounty land warrant, service as scout and spy under Capts. Thompson, Sevier, Scott, Dickenson and Col. Chrisman; carries the red notice "PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED WITH AT LEAST ONE PREVIOUSLY VERIFIED PAPER";
- MUSICK, ELEXIOUS (A083510), b. 1718 Virginia, d. before 28 Aug 1798 RUSSELL CO VIRGINIA, Patriotic Service: TOOK OATH OF ALLEGIANCE (source VA Mag of Hist and Bio vol 9 p 142); same problems notice.
Notes: the problems banner is DAR's flag that at least one previously accepted paper for that ancestor contains errors; new applicants cannot reuse the flagged paperwork without fresh proof. Narrative mirror worth keeping: Musick's qualifying "service" was taking the very Oath of Allegiance that Elisha Collins refused in 1777. Joseph Hatfield of Orange Co VA is presumably Molly Hatfield's forebear, the Hatfield clan line.
**CORRECTION to 14.5:** the yellow S icon means SHORT FORM APPLICATION (site hover text), not supporting documents. A short form piggybacks on an earlier member's full paperwork without re-recording the line (the site's red note on such lists: submitted using a DAR Short Form and did not record the full line; connects to an earlier national number). 661999 is a short form connecting to 562294; 675733 is a short form connecting to an earlier Bradley-line number (cut off in screenshot, presumably 663507). Purchases with real documentation are therefore the FULL FORMS: 562294 and the full form behind the Bradley chain.
### 14.9 What the free Descendants previews yielded (extracted Sept 16) [OL15]
The public Descendants lists display the actual generational chains, restricted only for living or recent generations. Extracted content:
**Bradley line (full-form chain):** Meredith Collins, b. c. 1760 VA, d. post 1841 Pike Co KY, and his recorded (1st) wife **POLLY HOLLOWAY** → **BRADLEY COLLINS, b. 1787 VIRGINIA, d. (post) 29 NOV 1850, APPANOOSE CO IOWA**, first wife unnamed → **ANDREW COLLINS, b. c. 1811 KY, m. BETSY ANN SIZEMORE (b. c. 1815 VA, d. 1870 Pike Co MO) on 31 MAR 1838 at CLAY CO KY**, d. c. 1875 Scott Co MO → Polly Ann Collins, b. 1 Sep 1849 APPANOOSE CO IA, m. Phillip Newton Smith 26 Mar 1871 Scott Co MO, d. 4 Jan 1940 Scott Co MO → Nora (Lewis) Smith (1882-1973) m. Charles David Powell (1878, Mississippi Co MO - 1945/49) → restricted.
Extractions of consequence:
1. **A terminus for Bradley, later DECODED (see 14.11):** the application's "(post) 29 November 1850, Appanoose County" is the DATE OF THE 1850 CENSUS SHEET enumerating Andrew's household with Bradley in it; the applicant used last-seen-alive at the census, not a discovered death record. Bradley's actual death date remains unknown; place presumably Appanoose.
2. **DAR records Polly Holloway as Meredith's (1st) wife on the Bradley-line form.** CORRECTED Sept 16 evening (see 14.13): the "[1]" is the application's spouse NUMBERING on Meredith's line, not a claim about Bradley's mother. Eula Conley's own application dates Polly b. c. 1780 VA, married c. 1799, d. ante 1840, which excludes her as mother of Bradley (b. 1787) and restores the Section 8 structure: unnamed first wife (early 1780s) mothers Bradley; Polly (m. c. 1799) is the natural mother of the 1800s cohort (Archibald, Jesse, William, Hiram) if they were Meredith's sons. [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Bradley-line papers DO name Polly as Bradley's mother, which is wrong (she was about seven in 1787); the cohort, Jesse and Hiram included, is now read as Polly's. See READ THIS FIRST.]
3. **Andrew Collins married a SIZEMORE, in Clay County, in 1838.** Third allied Saponi-community surname to marry into the family (after the Riddles of the muster roster and the Reed sisters) [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Riddles took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in 1777 (Kegley, *Militia*, p. 51) and are on no roster with Meredith; any Riddle marriage is a daughter of Moses with one of Thomas's younger sons, unproven]; Sizemore is a family Carlson names as joining the Christian Saponi band, famous in Melungeon studies for its Native American Y-DNA haplogroup line. Same county as Jesse-Mary Reed (1827); the project's Clay Co vitals marriage pages (already on file) should contain the 1838 entry.
4. **Andrew's household was in Appanoose by 1849** (Polly Ann born there Sept 1849): father Bradley, son Andrew, and Jesse's widow's family all present in Appanoose together. INFERENCE: the cluster migration tightens (without proving) the Jesse-as-Bradley's-son reading; if so, Andrew was Jesse's brother. [Superseded 2026-09-23: Jesse was Meredith's son by Polly and Bradley's half-brother, so Andrew was Jesse's nephew.] Andrew later moved on to Scott Co MO (the Bootheel), a third Missouri destination for the family.
**William line (661999 short form, connecting to Eula's 562294):** **WILLIAM COLLINS, b. 13 APR 1806 VA, d. 30 MAR 1896 CRAIGSVILLE (Nicholas Co) WV**, wife Mary A "Molly" HATFIELD, b. 23 Jun 1834 VA, d. 28 Apr 1899 Craigsville, m. c. 1860 → Nancy Jane Collins, b. 4 Jul 1865 PIKE CO KY, m. Thomas W. Blankenship 12 Sep 1883 LOGAN CO WV (Hatfield country), d. 16 Oct 1918 Craigsville. This places the Nicholas County, West Virginia Collins colony (William's branch) and explains why Brenda Collins Dillon's research site is a Nicholas County site: that branch writing its own history. William's precise birthdate (13 Apr 1806) fits the known William, son of Meredith and Polly.
**Purchase strategy, final form:** the previews delivered the lineage FACTS free; a record copy now buys the SOURCE CITATIONS and any supporting documents behind Bradley's death date, the Holloway identification, and the Sizemore marriage. Order of value: (1) 562294, Eula Conley's own full form; (2) the full form behind the Bradley chain (663507 pending confirmation of the connecting number). Record copies rise from $10 to $15 on March 16, 2026 (site banner); purchase before spring. [Obsolete: the order page already showed $15 on Sept 16 (14.12, OL21).]
### 14.10 Gv591 found: the Brown question RESOLVED, and the replacement story (Sept 16 evening, user search of OL9 abstracts) [OL16]
**John Brown's Flat River grant located: Gv591, Granville to John Brown, 14 Oct 1761, 698 acres on Flat River, adjoining James Watson and Thomas Gibson, sworn chain carriers MOSES RIDDLE and CHARLES GIBSON, surveyed 13 Apr 1761 by William Churton, SSLG 85-H.** Setting Gv591 beside Gv579 decodes the OL8 transcription completely: the 26 Dec 1760 warrant "including Bolins, Riddles and Collins Improvements," the 13 Apr 1761 survey, and the 14 Oct 1761 deed all belong to BROWN'S OWN grant. **The takeover hypothesis (14.4 reading b) is DISPROVEN**: Thomas did not capture Brown's paper; the two men held parallel tracts.
What replaces it, all documented or near-documented:
1. **The three-day race.** Brown's warrant over the community's improvements: 26 Dec 1760. Heinegg's date for Thomas (reinterpreted as his warrant): 29 Dec 1760, THREE DAYS LATER. Thomas could not undo Brown's claim on the improved bottoms, but within days of the threat he filed on the adjacent Dial's Creek land. Both tracts then ran through the system in lockstep: surveyed by Churton the same day (13 Apr 1761), granted one day apart (13 and 14 Oct 1761). Gv579 reads as an immediate DEFENSIVE filing. The 87-H warrant would confirm the 29 Dec date (task 17, narrowed again).
2. **Moses Riddle carried the chain on the survey that absorbed his own improvements.** The sworn chain carriers on Brown's Gv591 were Moses Riddle and Charles Gibson. On 13 April 1761 Churton ran both surveys with two crews drawn entirely from the community: Gibson + Collins chaining Thomas's defensive 700, Riddle + Gibson chaining the 698 that took the improvements. Readings of Moses's service (not exclusive): knowing exactly where the lines fell; the first act of a tenancy under Brown; paid work not refusable. However read, it is one of the most humanly loaded documented details in the corpus.
3. **Moses Riddle appears in the Granville index ONLY as a chain carrier, never as a grantee** (user's systematic search of the abstracts). He held by improvement alone, which is why his was absorbable; the sequel is his departure to Pittsylvania by 1767, where the clerk wrote "an Indian." The man who never got paper.
4. **Thomas as neighbor's chainman:** Gv985 (Wharton, Deep Creek, surveyed 21 Jun 1760, SCC Thomas Collins + George Gibson) and Gv897 (Justice, Deep Creek, surveyed 14 Aug 1763, SCC Thomas Striplin + Thomas Collins); and Gv685 (Thompson, Camp Creek of Flat River, 1762) ADJOINS Thomas Collins, pinning his holdings into the Deep Creek / Camp Creek / Dial's Creek geography. Reciprocity: everyone chained for everyone.
5. Brown context: Gv089 (1755, 210 ac, Little River) shows Brown as a Little River settler expanding toward the Flat; plat geometry of Gv591 (river-hugging, both banks in its lower half) is bottomland geometry, exactly where cleared improvements lay. Corrections to the user's plat reading from the abstract: 698 acres, surveyed 13 Apr 1761, granted 14 Oct 1761.
### 14.11 Clay County register haul; the Appanoose decode; Edward of Patrick County (Sept 16 evening, user records) [OL17, OL18]
**Clay Co KY male-C marriage register, 1807-1889, downloaded by user.** Confirmed and new [D]:
- **Andrew Collins m. Betsy Ann Sizemore, 31 Mar 1838** (license same day). CONFIRMED in the register; task 24 resolved.
- **Bradley Collins m. Catherine Barney, Jul 1831; m. Betsy Griffin, 16 Feb 1833; m. Elizabeth Luneford (Lunsford?), Sep 1836.** Almost certainly OUR Bradley (the only Bradley in Clay; ages 44-49). Stacked on the unknown first wife and Jane Ray (1817): FIVE wives, the frontier signature of women dying young. By the 29 Nov 1850 census he is wifeless in Andrew's household. Probate/guardianship records for these wives could name unknown children (task 30).
- **Hiram Collins m. Elizabeth REED, 8 Dec 1829**: second documented Reed-Collins marriage. License saga: first license 1 Dec 1828, never returned as solemnized; fresh license 1 Aug 1829; married 8 Dec 1829. Probable mechanics: a license unsolemnized within its validity window lapses (preacher's circuit, consent not in order if Elizabeth underage, or family objection outlasted); the couple marrying anyway a year later reads as obstacle overcome. A surviving marriage BOND for either license would name a bondsman (usually the bride's father or brother) (task 29).
- Unplaced Clay Collins men, new roster rows: Abraham Collins m. Christina Poutston/Poulston (1828; register shows a license-after-marriage order oddity, probably a register artifact, one more look due); William Collins m. Sytha Powell (Jan 1832; NOT William son of Meredith, whose path ran to WV); James Collins m. Martha Ann Cotton (Jul 1839).
- User can pull other male-surname sections: REED (the third sister; the family structure), SIZEMORE (Betsy Ann's kin in Clay), HOLLOWAY (task 28).
**The Mary Reid annotation, re-examined (user's high-crop screenshot):** "Mary Reid" clear; block-caps JAMES beneath is a later clerk's/indexer's clarification, so the NAME James is certain even where the cursive is not. The small phrase before "of James" is two short word-shapes not conclusively "d/o." Ranked readings: (1) "dau'r of James" or similar, the standard paternity/consent annotation, which with Elizabeth's 1829 marriage would make JAMES REED father of the Reed sisters; (2) "ward of James," the guardian-consent formula (father dead, James her protector and likely kinsman); (3) "widow of James," which would make Mary a remarrying widow and unsettle her maiden name, worth ruling out precisely because of its consequences. Settling it: maximum-resolution crop of the cell; the license/bond record for Jesse-Mary; and the same clerk's annotation formula on other lines of the page (task 29). ~~File standing until then: Mary tied by the register to a James, relationship word uncertain, "daughter of" most probable.~~ **RESOLVED Sept 16 evening (14.13, OL22): the loose consent note shows JAMES READ himself requesting the license; "of James" is the clerk's cross-reference to that consent; James Read = Mary's father [D].**
**The Appanoose census, decoded from the user's prior read:** Andrew Collins, 39, farmer, b. KY, cannot read/write, counted white; wife Betsy, 35, b. VA; children Lewis, Samson, Archibald(?), Polly A. (2); and **BRADLEY COLLINS, 63, b. NORTH CAROLINA**, cannot read/write; Center Township No. 3, Appanoose, **sheet dated 29 NOV 1850**. Consequences:
1. The DAR "d. post 29 Nov 1850" is the CENSUS DATE: last-seen-alive, not a death record (14.9 item 1 corrected).
2. **Bradley born NORTH CAROLINA, c. 1787**, against the DAR's "VA." NC is the better fit: 1787 is precisely the year the family cohort is documented in WILKES CO NC (Samuel's 1787 state-census household), so Bradley was likely born in the Wilkes-Ashe settlements before the Kentucky move, which also quietly corroborates Meredith's residence on the NC side c. 1787.
3. **Naming-pattern evidence:** Andrew's sons LEWIS and ARCHIBALD carry names straight from Meredith's generation and claimed-children list; soft but real binding of Andrew's household to the wider family. Samson is a new name to watch. Polly A., age 2, matches the DAR chain exactly.
4. The tableau: Bradley, Andrew, Betsy the Sizemore, and Jesse's widow's family in one Iowa county, all counted white, the elders unable to read or write.
**Edward "Ned" candidate: 1850 Patrick Co VA (user's FamilySearch find) [OL18]:** Edward Collins, 46 (b. c. 1804), farmer, **b. NORTH CAROLINA**, $1,000 real estate; Eliza Collins, 36, b. VA; Davis Collins, 21, laborer; Samuel Holt, 24, laborer; color column blank (counted white). Assessment: birth c. 1804 sits just past the legend's 1796-1802 census-bracket estimate, within normal slack. NC birth fits the network: both candidate fathers were on the NC side in the window (the cohort's Wilkes-Ashe presence; George Collins "the hunter" in Ashe under the alternate-father version). Patrick Co sits on the NC line two counties west of Pittsylvania (the Riddle-Bowlin destination) and adjacent to the Stokes-Rockingham corner that held the GOINSTOWN tri-racial community; geographically at home for a mixed-heritage Collins. Davis is young enough to be Edward's son by an earlier wife (Edward ~25 at his birth), Eliza a second wife; Holt reads as hired hand or Eliza's kin. Grade: genuine [?] candidate. Tests (task 27): Patrick marriage records (Edward x Eliza), 1840 Patrick census incl. free-colored columns, 1860 follow-up, the deed behind the $1,000 farm.
### 14.12 Second evening wave: both plats in hand; the Reed section; the DAR order page (Sept 16) [OL19, OL20, OL21]
**Gv591 plat obtained (`John-Brown-Moses-Riddle-Orange-NC-Land-1.jpg`).** Metes: beginning at a hickory on JAMES WATSON's line, North 42 ch 50 li to a hickory on THOMAS GIBSON's line, then his line East 4 ch to a hickory on the riverbank, then WITH GIBSON's up the waters of the river N15W 35 ch to a red oak on the east bank, then East 95 ch to a stake, South 76 ch 50 li to a post oak, West 90 ch crossing the river to the start; 698 acres; surveyed 13 Apr 1761; sworn chain carriers MOSES RIDLE and CHARELS GIBSON in Churton's record. **The notch reading corrected and sharpened:** the western notch is THOMAS GIBSON'S PATENTED TRACT; Brown's survey bends around Gibson's lines and runs with them along the river. The plat thereby draws the legal divide in one figure: a man with paper got a notch cut AROUND his land; men without paper (Riddle, Bowlin, Collins improvements) got the line run THROUGH their clearings. User's motive hypothesis logged [?]: if Moses was Thomas's father-in-law, serving as sworn carrier was also boundary-watching, ensuring Brown's lines stopped where they lawfully had to and crept no further into what the family could still save. [Superseded 2026-09-23: Moses (b. c. 1715-25) was not Thomas's father-in-law.]
**Gv091 plat obtained (`Dennis-Collins-87-H-Land-.jpg`).** Dennis Collins, 480 acres both sides of Cobbs Creek, surveyed 6 DEC 1753 by Churton, sworn chain carriers CORNELIUS and FRANCIS DOLLARHIDE; granted 8 May 1755; SSLG 87-H, Patent Book 14 p. 384. Two days after Dennis chain-carried on Gv313 (4 Dec 1753): a December 1753 Churton circuit through the neighborhood, prefiguring the April 1761 one. Dollarhide: a non-core surname to watch.
**Clay Co register, R and H sections (user reading; page 91 image on file) [OL20]:**
- **DOUBLE-WEDDING FINDING: STEPHEN REED m. NANCY POWELL, 13 DEC 1827, THE SAME DAY as Jesse Collins m. Mary Reid.** Same-day marriages in one register overwhelmingly indicate a joint ceremony, and joint ceremonies indicate siblings: Stephen marrying alongside his sister Mary [INFERENCE, strong]. The name doubles back a generation: Elisha Collins's Ashe land adjoined STEPHEN and JAMES REED on the New River; a James fathering a Stephen fits the naming recycle exactly.
- **Working Reed reconstruction:** JAMES REED (the register's "of James"), children marrying in Clay 1822-1830: Patsy (m. James Hollinsworth 1822) [candidate], Randolph (m. Rhodey Hollinsworth 1825) [candidate], MARY (m. Jesse Collins 13 Dec 1827) [D], STEPHEN (m. Nancy Powell 13 Dec 1827) [strong], ELIZABETH (m. Hiram Collins 8 Dec 1829) [D], William (m. Lydia Langdon 1830) [candidate]. Children marrying 1822-30 places James's birth c. 1775-85. [Superseded 2026-09-23: James Reed/Read was b. c. 1765, d. c. 1841, son of Hugh Reed of Rowan Co NC; over forty-five in the 1820 Clay census.] James Reed m. Polly Silver (1839; no month recorded) = the widowed father remarrying OR a son James; test. [Revised 2026-09-27: James's census ages put his birth c. 1766-75, and Hugh Reed as his father rests only on the Attride compilation [?]. He died either in Clay c. 1841 (reading A) or in Morgan Co, Indiana, before 6 Jan 1845 (reading B); under (B) the 1839 Polly Silver groom is another James. Patsy is more likely a daughter of Stephen Reed Jr; Elizabeth is a probable daughter; Randolph is a possible son, and William a son under reading (A) only. See READ THIS FIRST and `claude/Reed_Family_Investigation_Addendum.md`.]
- **Richard Reed x KELSEY (Kesiah?) COLLINS, license Jan 1827, unsolemnized:** a THIRD Reed-Collins pairing in the record, direction reversed (Reed groom, Collins bride), eleven months before Jesse-Mary. Kesiah Collins = new unplaced Collins woman (roster row).
- **Base-rate recalibration:** unsolemnized licenses are COMMON in this register (John Reed 1819; Richard Reed 1823, 1827; Willis Reed 1849; several Hollinsworths). Some reflect certificates never returned rather than weddings that never happened. Hiram's 1828 gap stays distinctive only because he RE-LICENSED in 1829.
- The Reeds' primary allied family in Clay = HOLLINSWORTH (three pairings). Lunsford correction: Bradley m. Elizabeth Luneford Sep 1836 PRECEDES John Hollinsworth's failed Apr 1837 license for an Elizabeth Lunesford; therefore almost certainly two different Elizabeth Lunsfords (the surname is thick in the register). Lydia BOWLING m. Clem Hurd 1839: the old Flat River allied surname present in Clay. No Holloways in H; the register begins 1806, so Meredith's 1780s-90s Virginia/Carolina marriages are structurally out of its range. S section lost before 1864: Betsy Ann Sizemore's Clay kin must be traced via the 1820-1840 Clay census schedules instead (task 32).
- **BOND ROUTE FOUND: the register's rightmost column is FILE NO.**, pointing to the loose marriage file (bond, license, consent). The loose files are typically filmed in the same FamilySearch image group (IGN 007728051, 814 images; the General Index is only its front) or sibling Clay County sets, else KDLA Frankfort microfilm or the Clay County Clerk, Manchester. Jesse-Mary's File No. is the direct path to the bond and to the "of James" answer (task 29 updated).
**Census infrastructure notes:** FamilySearch 1840 collection search: familysearch.org/en/search/collection/1786457 (Patrick Co Edward Collins test); 1860 via the census hub wiki page; **Virginia's 1810 census is LOST for Patrick, Pittsylvania, Grayson, Russell, and Orange counties**, exactly this project's counties; no 1810 sweeps there can succeed.
**Moses Riddle, why no land (analysis):** no formal racial bar existed (Thomas the "Molata" received 700 acres). The stack: cash (entry, survey, patent fees, then perpetual quitrents, in an economy of hunting and improvements); the office (distant, notoriously corrupt, and a place a taxed-as-mulatto Indian man had reason to avoid); and timing, the cruelest: after Brown's grant absorbed his improvements 1760-61, the Granville office effectively ceased granting in the mid-1760s (Granville d. 1763) and no grants issued again until the state office of 1778, a decade after Moses left. One chance at the paper economy; the paper went to another man. Pittsylvania sequel: Sandy River ENTRIES (entries again, patents unproven), the 1767 "an Indian" tax line; then task 33: Pittsylvania entry/deed books, and the UNVERIFIED Riddle-family lore thread connecting son William to the Tory-outlaw William Riddle hanged on the New River, to be tested, not assumed.
**DAR order page for 562294 [OL21]:** Application PDF $15 (page carries a free "Preview: Lineage" link, click first); Supporting Documentation $30 with **25 DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE**; both $45. Twenty-five surviving documents behind Eula Conley's four-patriot application is a small archive at ~$1.20/document; some will serve her Evans/Hatfield/Musick lines, but her Collins proofs for Meredith, Polly Holloway, and William are inside, possibly including family records existing nowhere else. RECOMMENDATION: the $45 bundle; instant download via Download Purchased Items.
### 14.13 THE CONSENT NOTE FOUND: James Read named as Mary's father; and Eula's preview data (Sept 16 evening) [OL22, OL23]
**The Jesse-Mary loose file located (user, FamilySearch Clay Co films; archivist's "Smeared Ink" card on the frame).** Transcription (phonetic spellings original): "November the 25 1827. Mr Abner Baker Sir ples to grant Jesse Collens lisens to marrey Mary Red and oblige them. atest: Stephen Read, Hirom(?) Collins. [signed at right:] James Read." Abner Baker was Clay County's longtime clerk; the note is a request TO the clerk to issue the license, written eighteen days before license and marriage (13 Dec 1827). Decoding:
1. **The author-signatory of such a note is the person whose permission the clerk needed on file: the bride's father (occasionally guardian). JAMES READ = MARY'S FATHER [D].** The register's "of James" annotation (14.11) is the clerk's cross-reference to this consent; that question is RESOLVED. James wrote (or at least signed) the note: literate, or at minimum signature-literate.
2. **Stephen Read attesting his sister's license request**, eighteen days before marrying Nancy Powell on the same day Mary married: the double-wedding reading upgrades to near-certainty, one family event planned from late November.
3. **The second attester reads HIRAM COLLINS** (cursive capital H yields the "Fl/Cl" impressions; user considered Fleiom/Cleonee before landing on Hiram). A Collins man witnessing Jesse's license request in 1827 who then marries a Read daughter in 1829 is almost certainly Jesse's brother: the FIRST DOCUMENT PLACING JESSE AND HIRAM TOGETHER, quiet but real sibling evidence.
4. On the all-male signatures: bonds and consent notes were male legal instruments (capacity to be bound, property behind the penalty); wives were never listed. James appearing alone says NOTHING about widowhood; the Polly Silver 1839 question stays open on its own merits.
5. The file for this marriage may also hold a formal penal bond and the minister's return; photograph everything adjacent on the film.
**Eula Conley's free lineage preview (descendants list, generations now displaying) [OL23]:**
- **POLLY HOLLOWAY: b. c. 1780 VA, married c. 1799, d. ante 1840** per Eula's own application. CONSEQUENCE: Polly CANNOT be Bradley's mother (b. 1787 when Polly was ~7). The Bradley-line form's "[1] Polly Holloway" was spouse NUMBERING on Meredith's line, not a maternity claim (14.9 point 2 corrected accordingly). Section 8's structure is restored and refined: unnamed first wife (c. 1782-85) mothers Bradley; Polly, marrying c. 1799 at ~19, is the natural mother of the 1800s cohort (Archibald 1800, Jesse c. 1804 with Polly ~24, William 1806, Hiram c. 1806-08) IF they were Meredith's sons. [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Bradley-line papers do name Polly as Bradley's mother, wrongly; Hiram is c. 1804-06; the cohort, Jesse included, is Meredith and Polly's. See READ THIS FIRST.] Jesse and Bradley, on this reading, are HALF-BROTHERS. Eula's "d. ante 1840" is census-derived; Conley-via-Blackburn's "d. c. 1812" sits inside it; both retained.
- **WILLIAM COLLINS b. 13 Apr 1806 at RUSSELL CO VA**, locking onto Meredith's Russell tax years (1799-1809). By extension JESSE (b. c. 1804) was very likely RUSSELL-BORN. Eula also has the Hatfield marriage exact (25 Nov 1860) and correctly labels Molly the (2nd) wife, Mary Mullins first: her precision against the short forms.
- **Eula's own arc decoded:** her grandfather Samuel Collins (b. 20 Sep 1861 Pike Co KY) married Nebraska Rocilla Cutlip of Nicholas Co WV (1891) and died in PORTLAND, OREGON (1937): hence Eula's Oregon chapter (7028OR). Pike County > Nicholas County > Portland.
- Purchase case STRENGTHENED: the free skeleton contains Polly's vitals; the application's citation column and the 25 supporting documents hold whatever "married c. 1799" rests on, which is fork-relevant evidence. [2026-09-23: the fork is settled; the packet remains open lead 3.] $45 bundle stands recommended.
### 14.14 The 1840 Patrick County read; Stephen Read flagged (Sept 16 evening) [OL24]
**Edward Collins, 1840 Patrick Co VA (user read):** all free WHITE columns; 1 male 30-40 (Edward, fits b. c. 1804), 1 male 15-20 (b. 1820-25), 1 male 10-15 (fits DAVIS, b. c. 1829), 1 female 30-40 (b. 1800-1810). Analysis adopted: the 1840 wife (b. 1800-1810) is a FIRST wife of the right age for the early-1820s boys; Eliza (b. c. 1814, who would be female 20-30) replaces her by 1850: Edward remarried in the 1840s. REVISED Sept 16 late (user correction): within normal census age slack (plus or minus a year), Samuel at 24 in 1850 (b. c. 1825-26) FITS the 1840 male 15-20; and the 1850 entry's hyphenated "Samuel-Holt" with no surname ditto reads plausibly as a COMPOUND GIVEN NAME, i.e. SAMUEL HOLT COLLINS, Edward's son, with "Holt" preserving a family surname, most naturally the 1840 FIRST WIFE'S maiden name (Holt) [?]. Alternative (unrelated laborer named Samuel Holt) retained. Tests: Patrick marriages for Edward Collins x a HOLT bride c. 1820-25; the 1860 census (Samuel H. Collins vs Samuel Holt); the enumerator's surname-blank habits on the 1850 page.
**The Patrick cluster:** adjacent Collins households on the page: William, RUBEN, Edward, Edmund, plus Leighton Collins and a second William elsewhere on it. REUBEN is a claimed-son name of Meredith's in the Conley material, adjacent to Edward, another claimed son. Two readings: (a) two of Meredith's Virginia-staying sons side by side (pattern boost for Ned); (b) a long-standing LOCAL Patrick Collins family whose common names coincide (caution). **DECIDING TEST: the 1830 Patrick census.** Cluster present in 1830 and earlier = likely local family, Ned case weakens; Edward and Reuben appearing between 1830 and 1840 = arrival, and arrival fits the legend (task 27 updated).
**Stephen Read flagged for tracing (task 37):** marrying Dec 1827 puts his birth c. 1800-07: generationally Mary's SIBLING (too young for James's father; a much-younger brother of James not excluded but unfavored; his attesting Mary's consent fits brother). Routes: 1830/1840 Clay censuses; 1850 census (Stephen Reed b. c. 1800s KY, wife Nancy); the Powell connection doubling (Nancy Powell; Sytha Powell m. William Collins of Clay 1832).
### 14.15 Kegley, Early Adventurers on the Western Waters vol. 2 (archive.org earlyadventurers0002mary): the REFUSAL RECORD and the Elk Creek anchor (Sept 16 night, user searches) [OL25]
**THE REFUSAL RECORD, p. 218 (Montgomery Co COURT MARTIAL OF 23 APRIL 1783, held at the house of Patrick Campbell; date confirmed by user from the page).** Officers present include Walter Crockett (president), Jehu Stephens, James Newell, William Love, **JAMES McDONNALD himself** (sitting on the court that processed his own company's refusers), John Adams, James Finley, and others. The record orders captains to enlist a sixteenth of their companies as cavalry, excuses various men for infirmities, and then lists, company by company, men who "had refused to serve their present tours of duty," the refusers from Capt. Ozburn's company to be sent aboard "the armed vessels for the defence of Chesapeake Bay," and: **"In Captain McDonnald's Company, Joel Stamper, Daniel Blevins, William Minyard, JAMES COX, MEREDITH COLLINS, Stephen Austin, Robt. Briggs, Jno. Robison, Moses Indicut, Zachariah Simmons, Wm. Hill and JOHN SAXTON were under similar orders."** Context corrected: this is the POST-WAR ACCOUNTING of the 1781-82 calls (the Chesapeake threat belongs to those calls); Yorktown was eighteen months past, the peace being signed that spring, yet the court was still clearing delinquencies: p. 219 records dozens fined for missing general muster, "Captain McDonnald's men" fined WITHOUT NAMES RECORDED, and clerk James McCorkle paid fifteen pounds OUT OF THE FINES IMPOSED (Montgomery County Loose Papers 23680, Court Martials 1781-1783, LVA). This is only the SECOND contemporaneous Revolutionary document naming our Meredith (after the Kegley p. 23 enrollment roster), and it records him REFUSING AN ACTIVE TOUR. Interpretive frame: refusal was epidemic across every company on the page (a frontier county resisting orders to strip its own defenses for the Tidewater, in harvest, with Cherokee and Tory threats at home, for pay in collapsing paper); it completes rather than contradicts the belonging frame: enrolled as citizens, refusing as the same stubborn self-directed men of the 1747 Sabbath-hunting presentments. DAR wrinkle: his Patriot verification rests on the enrollment roster from the same records that preserve the refusal. Allied names beside him: JAMES COX (see 14.16, Capt. John Cox thread), Daniel BLEVINS (New River Blevins family), JOHN SAXTON (= SEXTON, the allied family refusing alongside).
**p. 108 land entries:** "Elisha Wallen, Senr. assignee of JOHN COLLINS, 200 acres on north side of Rocky Creek, settled 1774": a New River-era John Collins settlement claim assigned to a WALLEN (the longhunter family): candidate elder-John record. Same page: "Richard Wright assignee of JAMES McDANNAL... 400 acres on Turkey Fork of ELK CREEK, settled 1776": Capt. James McDaniel's land dealings sat on ELK CREEK waters, the Peach Bottom / Elk Creek country where the Collins settled: THE COMPANY DISTRICT WAS THEIR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD, confirmed.
**Other Kegley catches:** 28 Oct 1830, ZACHARIAH COLLINS m. MARY ANN McDANIEL (Richard Buckingham's minister list): a Collins-McDaniel marriage a generation on; Zachariah unplaced (roster row; task 38). p. 292: Elizabeth Collins m. Jacob Hevner Jr. 1836, Montgomery Co (nine sons; family to Indian Territory; Jacob Jr. and eldest son said hanged 1863 by Jayhawkers near Heavener OK): UNPLACED, low priority (our line left Montgomery by c. 1810). CAUTION: most "Meredith" hits in the volume are the HUGH MEREDITH family (surname), not our man. Search-term list for this volume and siblings (vols 1 and 3 on archive.org): Collins, Gibson, Riddle/Ridley/Reedley, Sexton AND Saxton, Bowlin/Bolen, Cox, Blevins, Osborn/Ozburn, Wallen, lead mines, court martial, delinquent, insolvent, oath, Elk Creek, Peach Bottom, Merida, Meredy.
**Militia pay context (for the incentives reading):** wages were owed in Virginia currency pounds (a money of account distinct from and discounted against sterling); almost no coin circulated (British specie restrictions, no mints), the working hard money being the Spanish milled dollar (the model for the 1792 US dollar); wartime emissions by Congress ("Continental dollars") and Virginia collapsed, Virginia's official depreciation scale reaching ~1000:1 against specie by late 1781; militia pay ran years in arrears in this paper or in certificates. The frontier's real exchange ran on skins (cf. Samuel Collins's 1746 deer-skin debt; "buck" for dollar derives from buckskins), tobacco notes eastward, whiskey, and land claims. A 1781 tour meant abandoning farm and exposed family for months of despised duty paid in dissolving paper: refusal was economically rational, and the page's epidemic of refusals shows the county knew it.
### 14.16 Pension finds: John Riddle S9069; the Martin file confirmed; a Joseph Collins namesake cleared (Sept 16 night) [OL26, OL27]
**John Riddle (Riddley) S9069 (user find, transcription by C. Leon Harris):** aged 83 in Sept 1833 (b. c. 1750); entered service 1776 under **CAPT. JOHN COX** "near Chissels lead mines" on the New River; marched to the LONG ISLAND OF HOLSTON against the Cherokee, serving 4.5 months: THE SAME 1776 CHEROKEE EXPEDITION Meredith's cohort joined from Christiansburg, mustered from the same lead-mines neighborhood. Residence 1833: the STOKES-ROCKINGHAM COUNTY LINE, NC: the GOINSTOWN tri-racial corridor, one county from Patrick where the Edward/Ned candidate farms. Age and profile fit MOSES RIDDLE'S SON JOHN (the 1782 McDaniel-roster John Riddle) [strong candidate, common-surname caveat: other Riddles lived in Stokes]. The Patrick-Stokes convergence of Riddle and Collins descendants is flagged [?]. Also: Capt. John Cox connects to JAMES COX beside Meredith on the refusal list: Cox family on the watch list. [Superseded 2026-09-23: no record gives the place or column of Meredith's 1776 service (Christiansburg was founded in 1792); John Riddle is not on McDaniel's list: he took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company, by his mark, in the fall of 1777 (James McCorkle's list, Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 50-51).]
**Tory William Riddle lore, restated with its tension:** regional history records Tory leader William Riddle kidnapping Col. Benjamin Cleveland at the Old Fields of New River, April 1781; Cleveland rescued within days; Riddle captured and hanged (Wilkes "Tory Oak" tradition). Riddle-family researchers identify him with MOSES'S SON WILLIAM: UNVERIFIED, and the 1782 roster's William Riddle argues against it UNLESS Kegley's 1777-1790 list is cumulative and captures a pre-1781 enrollment. [Superseded 2026-09-23: "William Ridel" is not on a 1782 roster; he took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in the fall of 1777 (James McCorkle's list, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777, Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 50-51). That oath predates the April 1781 kidnapping, so it does not argue against the identification.] Task 33 unchanged.
**Salathiel Martin W1044 confirmed** as the Gibson-episode source (widow Mary, f120NC, Will Graves transcription; user has it): read in full for the Joseph Collins affidavit on Lewis and David Gibson's 1780 capture and escape; transcribe verbatim. NOTE: the "stone tower, escaped in the night" detail in the user's memory is NOT in our collected sources; check the One More Mountain telling. [Resolved 2026-09-23: Joseph Collins's affidavit (27 Jan 1849, Grainger Co TN; NARA M804, roll 1642, frame 0730; transcribed at joepayne.org) has the Tories taken at a "Rock House": "Two of said company of tories escaped the night after their capture." "Stone fort/tower" was a paraphrase.] Companion texture now citable: pension W19209 (same site) describes tours under Capt. Salathiel Martin from FOX KNOB (present Grayson) over the Brushy Mountains to Hunting Creek and Col. Cleveland on the Yadkin, then the Mulberry Fields, capturing "one Roberts a tory who afterwards made his escape," parts of the detachment killing three others: the Tory war as small mounted parties hunting neighbors. The Gibsons persisted after 1780: Charles Gibson's R3995 (Hawkins 1839), the 1802 Russell list, and Gibson as a core Newman's Ridge surname.
**Conflation caution #3: Joseph Collins S2142 (read in full Sept 16)** is a NAMESAKE, not ours: b. 1745 Westmoreland Co VA, raised Prince William / Stafford / Bedford, served from Bedford under Capts. Leftwich (Buford's command), settled the Watauga, marched toward King's Mountain arriving just after the battle, guarded prisoners and saw some hanged; illiterate, X mark; pensioned six months. Geography excludes both the Flat River Joseph (landholder by 1756) and the New River affidavit Joseph. Do not merge.
### 14.17 Kegley vol. 2, second pass: economics anchored, the Montgomery marriage cluster, the Sexton certificate (Sept 16 late night, user screenshots and readings) [OL28, OL29]
**Economics, now locally documented:** (a) Montgomery petition, 24 May 1782 (p. 222): specie "almost unknown," what existed "securely kept by the few"; hundreds of poor mountain families whose means of obtaining supplies "was by the use of DEER SKINS," petitioning that skins be made TAX-PAYABLE (the skins economy stated by their own county in their own year). (b) John Taylor's 1781 tithable list analysis (p. 220): 109 tithables, only 39 with any cash; the district's gold itemized coin by coin (louis d'or, half Johannes, guinea, silver dollars). (c) Col. Charles Lynch's letter from the LEAD MINES, 20 June 1783 (p. 219): Razor, held "on suspicion of being a Tory... a dangerous man being a Dutch [German] man," his purse holding "a half joe, a guiney, and a piece of 8": Portuguese, British, and Spanish coin in one frontier pocket, none of it American. (d) Book's own pointer: for the TORIES see *Early Adventurers* vol. I, pp. 137-151 (task 43); militia rolls also served as the road-work assignment lists (p. 225).
**Regional legal context, the Indian-descent freedom suits (pp. 223-225):** Rachel Findley, "a woman of color," recovered her freedom (Powhatan Superior Court, May 1820) on the grounds of MATERNAL DESCENT FROM AN INDIAN brought into the country when Indians could not lawfully be enslaved; her daughter Juda and co-plaintiffs (suing John Draper Sr. from 1813, heard 1820, Wythe) recovered theirs the same way, with supporting records back to a 1770 jury finding. The same maternal-line legal logic as William Reed's 1694 suit, running through THIS region's courts into the 1820s: context for how Indian ancestry functioned in Virginia law.
**The MONTGOMERY COLLINS MARRIAGE CLUSTER (bonds and ministers' returns; "sur." = SURETY, the bond's guarantor kinsman; "Returns by [name], M.G." = a Minister of the Gospel's list of marriages performed):**
- 14 Feb 1785: Boston Wygal x ELENOR COLLINS (sur. John Wiley, Meredith Raines: the given name Meredith in the Raines family noted)
- 12 Aug 1793: **JOHN COLLINS x Betsy Johnston**, dau. of William Johnston (sur. John Paden Jr): candidate = JOHN JR of the muster [?] [Superseded 2026-09-23: no John Collins is on McDaniel's list; "John (probably Jr.)" came from the merged roster. "Jno. Collens" took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in the fall of 1777 (Kegley, *Militia*, p. 51).]
- 4 Feb 1794 (Ross return; bond p. 129): Thomas Hardy x **NANCY COLLINS, DAUGHTER OF DANIEL COLLINS** (sur. Parker Lucas)
- 25 Jul 1801: **SAMUEL COLLINS x Rachel PRICE, sur. DANIEL COLLINS** (likely Daniel's son)
- 9 Mar 1808: James Caffee x Sally Collins, sur. HEZEKIAH COLLINS
- 8/11 Mar 1813: **SAMUEL COLLINS x Permelia Gaines, sur. John Gaines, CONSENT OF DAVID COLLINS AS FATHER** (underage groom, b. c. 1792-95): THE HEADLINE ENTRY: if this David is OUR David (1776 enlistee, 1782 muster, Ashe 1778), we have his son and his 1813 residence [? strong lead]
- 4 Nov 1819: Doherty x Lucinda Collins, sur. Hezekiah Collins; 7 Oct 1820: William Collins x Polly Furrow; 6 Feb 1821: Richard Collins x Evelina Lee; 3 Oct 1826: Adam PRICE x Nancy Collins; 1828: Benjamin Collins x Kitty Stevens; 1829: Thomas Collins x Elizabeth Booth; 28 Oct 1830: Zachariah Collins x Mary Ann McDaniel (14.15).
CAUTION, stated as firmly as the lead: Daniel and Hezekiah are names ABSENT from the Flat River and muster sets, and the surety-spouse network (Wygal, Price, Gaines, Furrow, Johnston, Lucas) is the German-English settler web of Walker's Creek and Reed Creek, not the community surnames. Either stay-behind kin marrying into the county mainstream, or a SEPARATE Montgomery Collins family. Sorting tests (task 42): 1810/1820 Montgomery-Wythe censuses for Daniel, David, Hezekiah Collins households (free-colored columns); presence in 1782 company lists and Grayson tax rolls. PRICE double-link noted (Rachel 1801, Adam 1826).
**The Sexton certificate (p. 154) [OL28]:** "October 11, RICHARD MUSE, assignee of John Hays, assignee of WM. SEXTON, Commissioner's preemption certificate, 1,000 acres on New River below a branch of Bingeman's Bottom." A settlement right earned by residence, papered, and ASSIGNED AWAY through middlemen: the third allied family showing the same pattern (Moses Riddle's absorbed improvements; John Collins's Rocky Creek claim to Wallen). The assigned-away preemption is emerging as the community's signature relationship to the land system.
**Texture sources logged (pp. 216-217):** Elizabeth Barrett's 1826 petition (husband in the penitentiary for stealing a horse from a Grayson man; six small children; house burned; "waring cloath"; "deep and uncommon distress"; petition rejected) and the Catherine King dower litigation: the county's poverty-and-law texture from the inside, for the book's milieu chapters.
### 14.18 Late-night close: Cox on Peach Bottom; the Tories pages read (Sept 16, final) [OL30]
**CAPT. JOHN COX, 400 acres on PEACH BOTTOM, settled 1774 (Kegley p. 246).** The captain John Riddle served under in 1776 was the Collins family's neighbor on their own creek (John Collins settled Peach Bottom 1767; George Collins there from 1767 per his 1809 testimony). The two captains now bracket the family's world: COX on Peach Bottom, McDANIEL on Elk Creek waters; the companies were the adjoining hollows, each under its creek's biggest landholder.
**Tories pages (pp. 298-299, 344-346) read; NO Gibson content (W1044 remains that source).** Context captured for the milieu chapter: the SHALLOW FORD fight on the Yadkin (Oct 1780, ~400 British and Tories, sixteen enemy dead, one colonial killed, the county's "perfect marksmen"); John Day's pension (Morgan Co KY 1833): 1776 Cherokee Towns tour; May 1779 enrolled Montgomery as volunteer SPY OR RANGER under Capt. Lyon, stationed at PARRIS'S FORT on the New River; 1780 under Col. Joseph Cloyd and Capt. George Paris to Shallow Ford; 1781 under Col. William Preston into NC against the British; Trollinger the gunpowder maker's expeditions against the Moravian Towns Tories, "some of whom they whipped and others they hanged," and his powder paid for "in Continental money which turned out to be of little or no value" (Pension W4087): the tours the 1781-82 calls demanded and the refusers refused, plus one more pension-documented instance of the worthless-paper economy.
**Census link kit (for task 42 and the Ned tests):** 1810: familysearch.org/en/search/collection/1803765 (Collins, residence Montgomery then Wythe, Virginia; Grayson 1810 LOST); 1820: familysearch.org/en/search/collection/1803955 (add Grayson); 1840: collection 1786457 (already in use). The decisive column on 1810/1820: "ALL OTHER FREE PERSONS." Finding DAVID would: confirm the 1813 consenter, age-test him against our David (b. c. 1755-60), classification-test the cluster, and, if identified, open a MALE-LINE Collins branch (son Samuel b. c. 1792-95) for the long-horizon Y-DNA question.
### 14.19 The David hunt, first returns: Fauquier 1810 dismissed; WYTHE 1820 candidate found (Sept 16, last finds of the day) [OL31]
**1810 Fauquier Co David Collins: NAMESAKE, dismissed.** Fauquier sits in the northern VA Piedmont, ~200 miles from the New River; a Fauquier man would not consent to a Montgomery marriage in 1813. User's ticks (boxes 1, 4, 6, 8 of the 1810 layout: FWM <10, 10-15, 16-25, 26-44, 45+; FWF same five; other free; slaves) read as a young family (boy <10, man 26-44, girl <10, woman 16-25), far-right marks ambiguous on the headerless sheet. Our David's ABSENCE from 1810 is uninformative: GRAYSON'S 1810 SCHEDULE IS LOST, and Grayson (Elk Creek / Peach Bottom country after 1793) is exactly where a stay-behind cohort man would have been enumerated.
**1820 WYTHE Co David Collins: THE CANDIDATE.** Page neighbors: Samuel and Robert CROCKETT (family of Walter Crockett, president of the 1783 court martial) and William and Jesse COX: the lead-mines / Reed Creek neighborhood, one county from the 1813 consent. Column map (1820: FWM <10, 10-16, 16-18, 16-26, 26-45, 45+ = boxes 1-6; FWF <10, 10-16, 16-26, 26-45, 45+ = boxes 7-11; foreigners = 12; AGRICULTURE = 13). User's ticks: box1 = 2, box2 = 1, box5 = 1, box6 = ditto (value uncertain), box7 = 3, box10 = 1, box13 = 1. Reconstruction: TWO BOYS UNDER 10 (b. 1810-20), ONE BOY 10-16 (b. c. 1804-10), ONE MAN 26-45, POSSIBLY MEN 45+, THREE GIRLS UNDER 10, ONE WOMAN 26-45 (b. 1775-94), ONE FARMER; NOTHING in the free-colored columns: counted entirely white.
**The deciding cell:** if box 6 (males 45 and upwards) holds a genuine mark, this is a MULTIGENERATIONAL household: old David (our David, b. c. 1755, would be ~65) + son SAMUEL (b. c. 1792-95, m. Permelia Gaines 1813) as the 26-45 man + Permelia as the 26-45 woman + their five small children (b. 1810-20): exactly what the 1813 consent should look like seven years on. If box 6 is empty, this David is a YOUNGER David (b. 1775-94), still cluster-relevant but not our cohort man. CAVEAT on the user's "ditto = 2": ditto marks repeat the CELL DIRECTLY ABOVE (Jacob Capp's row), whose value is unverified; the stroke may not be a ditto at all. TASK 44: zoom the single intersection, David Collins row x column six.
**If confirmed:** the 1813 consenter placed and aged; the Montgomery cluster gains its first documented household; the 1820 classification reads WHITE (kaleidoscope panel); and Samuel-son-of-David's sons (b. 1810-20) constitute a MALE-LINE Collins branch for the Y-DNA question. Follow-ups: search 1820 for a separate SAMUEL COLLINS head in Wythe/Montgomery (his absence as head supports the multigenerational reading); check 1830 WYTHE for David (1830's brackets: a man 70-80 nails or breaks the cohort identification in one glance). **[Box 6 RESOLVED by user's re-examination: see 14.20.]**
### 14.20 Second returns on the cluster hunt: the ditto resolved, the Samuels triaged, Daniel in Patrick, the 1840 Wythe David (Sept 16, closing) [OL31, OL32]
**1820 Wythe David, finalized reading (user's ditto-convention analysis accepted and documented):** the enumerator dots zeros and dittos repeat the nearest POSITIVE value above (here Robert Cranston's 2, skipping Capp's dot-zero), so box 6 = **2: TWO MEN 45 AND UP**. Full household of ten: 2 M under 10, 1 M 10-16, 1 M 26-45, 2 M 45+, 3 F under 10, 1 F 26-45; "1 in agriculture" is an occupation count, not an eleventh person; free-colored columns empty, counted WHITE. Consequences: **NO WOMAN 45+**: neither old man has a wife present; if our David is one, he was a WIDOWER by 1820, folded into the younger family. The TWO ELDERS question open: father + father-in-law (user's suggestion), two brothers, or David + an aged cohort kinsman.
**Daniel Collins triage:** 1820 HAMPSHIRE Co (Potomac drainage, ~200 mi north; a Thomas Collins two rows below = Hampshire's own Collins cluster): NAMESAKE, dismissed. 1820 PATRICK Co Daniel: scan overexposed and unreadable, but the INDEX PRESENCE matters: a Collins named Daniel in Patrick twenty years before the 1840 cluster. HYPOTHESIS, held loosely: Patrick lies two counties from Montgomery via Floyd; the MONTGOMERY Daniel may have MOVED, making the 1840 Patrick cluster (William, Reuben, Edward, Edmund) partly the Montgomery cluster relocated, which reshapes without settling the Edward/Ned question. Arbiter: the 1830 PATRICK schedule.
**1830 census EXISTS (the user's search filter hid it):** on FamilySearch as its own collection, linked from the census hub wiki page; first census with ten-year age brackets. 1830 PATRICK (cluster test) and 1830 WYTHE (David age test) are the two decisive schedules (task 46).
**Samuel Collins 1820 triage (user's four hits):** skip Frederick (N Shenandoah) and Nelson (central Blue Ridge). WASHINGTON Co: second priority (borders the Russell country). **PEARISBURG, GILES CO: THE HEADLINE**: Giles was formed FROM MONTGOMERY in 1806, Pearisburg on the New River immediately downstream of the family's old ground. Two-Samuels resolution hypothesis: if the Giles head is SAMUEL-OF-DANIEL (m. Rachel Price 1801, b. c. 1775-80: a man 26-45 with children from the early 1800s), then SAMUEL-OF-DAVID (m. Permelia 1813) remains the 26-45 man INSIDE David's Wythe household, both Samuels placed in one stroke; if the Giles household shows only post-1813 children, it is Samuel-and-Permelia living separately and the Wythe reading changes. Household shape decides (task 45).
**1840 WYTHE David Collins (user's "White County" corrected: the citation reads Wythe; division of Robt. Tibbally?):** continuity in the same county as the 1820 hit. Visible on the printed form: a knot of marks in the young-adult male columns, ONE elder-male mark in the middle-elder columns (exact column unresolved from this scan), women's marks, and the FREE COLORED columns of his row apparently BLANK (white again). THE ONE COLUMN THAT DECIDES (task 47): the elder male's bracket: 60-70 = a David b. 1770-80 (NOT cohort David; plausibly one of 1820's two elders grown old); 70-80 = boundary; 80-90 = b. 1750-60, OUR DAVID alive at ~85. User to count the printed column headers to the tick, as with the ditto.
### 14.21 REVISION on Wythe; the Giles Samuel placed (tentative); the minister's register (Sept 17, first finds) [OL33, OL34]
**The 1840 Wythe re-read (user's careful count) and what it REVISES.** 1840 David Collins household: 1M 5-10, 2M 10-15, 2M 15-20, **1M 50-60**, 1F 10-15, 2F 20-30, **1F 50-60**. The head is b. 1780-90: NOT cohort David. But the 1820 and 1840 households map onto each other as ONE FAMILY AGING TWENTY YEARS: the 1820 M 26-45 = this same head (a **DAVID JR., b. c. 1780-90**); the 1820 F 26-45 = his wife (the WIDOWER reading of 14.20 is WITHDRAWN); 1820 boys under 10 = 1840 males 15-20; 1820 girls under 10 = 1840 females 20-30; the 1840 younger children born after 1820. THEREFORE the multigenerational casting of 14.19 is also WITHDRAWN: the 26-45 man of 1820 was the head himself, not Samuel-of-David. The TWO MEN 45+ of 1820 = elder lodgers in David Jr.'s household. NEW CANDIDATE STRUCTURE [?, to verify, not conclude]: a DAVID SR., b. c. 1755, father of both David Jr. (b. ~1785) and Samuel (b. ~1793), = the 1813 consenter, = one of the two 1820 elders, dead or gone by 1840 (no 80-90 male). David Sr. b. c. 1755 = cohort David's exact profile. TESTS (task 48): 1830 Wythe (David Jr. 40-50; any M 70-80 in household = the old man living) and WYTHE PROBATE for a David Collins estate 1820s-1840.
**Samuel Holt of Wythe 1840 (same page): a DIFFERENT man** from the Patrick 1850 Samuel-Holt (Wythe: lone M 30-40, b. 1800-10; Patrick: b. c. 1826). The Patrick compound-name question (14.14) is UNAFFECTED; minor note added: Holt households sat near Collins households in Wythe too.
**Giles 1820 Samuel Collins, TENTATIVE:** the row appears to include a BOY 10-16 (b. 1804-10); if confirmed by the user's tick-read, the children predate 1813, EXCLUDING Samuel-of-David (m. 1813) and fitting **SAMUEL-OF-DANIEL (m. Rachel Price 1801)**: one Samuel placed. Consequence: Samuel-of-David's own 1820 household is UNFOUND; next look = MONTGOMERY 1820 (task 49). Washington Co 1820 page: alphabetized C-list with at least one other Collings household (Elijah, possibly more): a Washington Collins pocket noted; Samuel's row unparsed from this scan, user tick-read requested.
**The minister's register page (Clay Co, Register of Marriages 1826-1827) [OL34]:**
- Right column, December 1827: "Jese Collins & Mary Reed," minister "Same," and DIRECTLY BENEATH, "Stephen Reed & Nancy Powel," minister "Same": adjacent lines, same month, ditto resolving to the same minister, **J. AMBRES (Ambrose)**. One preacher, two weddings, recorded consecutively: the DOUBLE WEDDING now rests on three independent records (shared date in the index, the consent note's attesters, the minister's register adjacency).
- **BONUS RECOVERY: March 1827, Robert Asher & POLLY SIZEMORE**: a Clay Sizemore marriage recovered despite the lost S-section, because Sizemore WOMEN appear as brides under other letters' grooms. WORKAROUND logged (task 50): sweep the registers for SIZEMORE BRIDES; Polly (m. 1838-minus-11 years before Betsy Ann) is the first candidate kinswoman.
- Smaller: James York x Matilda BOOLING 1826; E. BOWLING x Elizabeth Payne Jul 1827 (Bowlings marrying in Clay through the 1820s); Stephen Lunceford x Elizabeth Lunceford Dec 1826 (the Lunsford thickness).
### 14.22 David Jr.'s death found; both Samuels placed; the alphabetized-copy caveat (Sept 17) [OL35, OL36]
**Wythe death register, line 1 (Commissioner of the Revenue mortality register):** David Collins Sr., white, male, d. Nov 1866, Wythe County, DROPSY, age 79, FARMER, born "Wythe County," parents NOT GIVEN, informant a FRIEND (designation Friend); consort column appears to read consort deceased (user to confirm at zoom). Age 79 at Nov 1866 = b. c. 1787: **this is DAVID JR. of the 1820/1840 censuses, not the cohort elder.** The register's "Sr." is 1866's community label (the elder of the Davids then living, relative to a younger David, likely a son or nephew), not our generational label. The friend-informant could not name his parents (the column we most wanted, empty). "Born Wythe County" is loose-but-fine for a c. 1787 birth in ground cut from Montgomery in 1790.
**David Jr.'s family named (free index entries, user screenshot):** Jas. C. Collins, b. 1828 Wythe, m. MARGARET L. MABE 9 Oct 1865, parents DAVID COLLINS and ELIZABETH COLLINS; Adam Collins, b. 1831, m. SARAH H. MABE 19 Feb 1856, parents David and Elisa. So DAVID JR.'S WIFE = ELIZABETH; sons James C. (b. 1828 = the 1840 M 10-15) and Adam (b. 1831 = the 1840 M 5-10); the census mapping keeps confirming. TWO BROTHERS MARRIED TWO MABES (Margaret L., Sarah H., almost certainly sisters): the double-alliance pattern again (cf. the Reed sisters). James Collins d. 1 Nov 1890 Bland Co, b. 1820 Wythe: candidate third son (the 1840 M 15-20). Free reconstruction route (task 51): harvest every Wythe marriage/death index entry naming David Collins as parent. Probate sharpened (task 48): WYTHE ESTATE BOOKS 1866-67.
**Both Samuels placed (user tick-reads, OL36):**
- WASHINGTON Co 1820 Samuel (boxes 1, 5, 7=2, 9, 13): 1 boy <10, 1 man 26-45, 2 girls <10, 1 woman 16-26, 1 farmer: the exact 1820 shape of an 1813 marriage: **SAMUEL-OF-DAVID + PERMELIA** [strong candidate] (he b. c. 1792-95; she b. c. 1795; children b. 1814-20). Washington borders Russell: inside the family's range. Montgomery 1820 search DOWNGRADED to optional.
- GILES Co 1820 Samuel (boxes 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13=2): 1 boy <10, 1 boy 10-16 (b. 1804-10), **HEAD 45+ (b. by 1775)**, daughters <10 / 10-16 / 16-26, wife 26-45, two in agriculture: **SAMUEL-OF-DANIEL** on two independent grounds (pre-1813 children AND the head's age excluding Samuel-of-David) [strong].
**Method caveats and small notes:** the surviving 1810/1820 federal copies are often clerks' ALPHABETIZED FAIR COPIES (hence all-C pages): original visitation order destroyed, so NO neighbor-adjacency analysis is possible for those years (unlike 1840/1850). Washington Co pocket noted: Elijah, Jeremiah (Geremiah), John Collins on the Samuel page; Washington borders Russell; one future look. NORTHAMPTON Co Collinses (Eastern Shore, 400 miles east, its own historic free communities): NOT our line; conflation caution, not a lead. The working 1830 collection link: familysearch.org/search/collection/1803958. Census priorities restated: (1) 1830 Wythe David (any M 70-80 = David Sr. alive); (2) 1830 Patrick sweep; (3) 1830 Washington Samuel; (4) 1830/1840 Clay Hiram; (5) 1860 Patrick Edward + the Samuel H. test; plus, outside the censuses, Wythe probate 1866-67.
### 14.23 Hiram's classification arc RESTORED; the consort cell verified; the 1830 reads and the bracket tension (Sept 17) [OL37]
**HIRAM'S CENSUS ARC (restored from the user's prior-session work, which had not reached this file; citations to re-attach, task 53):**
- **1830 CLAY CO KY** (index mislabels it Estill; neighbors prove Clay: Abraham Collins, Bradley Collins, Christopher Bowling, John Luneford): Hiram's household shows a free white male under 5, and on the schedule's second page the enumerator ticked **HIRAM AND HIS WIFE IN THE SLAVE COLUMNS** (M 24-36, F 10-24). A free man cannot be a slave: the page records a Clay enumerator forcing a free family of color into the only non-white columns at hand, the small child left in the white column of the same household.
- **1840 MONTGOMERY CO, INDIANA** [Revised 2026-09-27: very likely MORGAN Co, Indiana, misread as Montgomery. The Reed addendum finds Hiram free colored on Morgan Co image 36 (Ancestry collection 8057), the page after James Reed's; to confirm, Reed addendum section 12, item 10]: Hiram's household the ONLY one on its page marked FREE COLORED: 2M <10, 1M 10-24, 1M 24-36, 2F <10, 1F 24-36; seven people, en route (per the prior conclusion) from Clay toward Appanoose.
- Reading: the family's kaleidoscope at its most compressed: in the same decade Jesse's widow, Bradley, and Andrew are counted WHITE in Appanoose while Jesse's brother Hiram (Bradley's half-brother) is counted COLORED in Indiana, having been ticked a SLAVE in Kentucky. Also confirms register-Abraham as a Clay resident (near Hiram and Bradley, 1830).
**The consort cell VERIFIED (user paleography):** the clerk's D matched against his own "daughter" elsewhere on the page; his vocabulary otherwise married / not married / widow; David Jr.'s cell reads **"Consort Dead"**: ELIZABETH PREDECEASED Nov 1866. Maiden name UNKNOWN; routes (task 55): her own entry in the Wythe death registers 1853-1866 (parents named); the David-Elizabeth marriage bond c. 1805-12 (Montgomery/Wythe series); children's later records (James d. 1890 Bland; any child surviving past 1912 gets a certificate naming the mother's maiden name).
**1830 WYTHE David Collins (user box-read, verified against the enumerator's own total of 12):** M: 2 under 5, 1 of 5-10, 1 of 10-15, 2 of 20-30, **1 of 50-60**; F: 1 of 5-10, 1 of 10-15, 2 of 15-20, 1 of 40-50; no colored columns marked. Forward mapping to 1840 mostly clean (the under-5 boys = 1840's M 10-15; the girls 10-20 = 1840's F 20-30; grown sons out). **THE BRACKET TENSION:** M 50-60 = b. 1770-80, against 1840 (b. 1780-90) and the death register (b. c. 1787). Readings, none forced: (a) informant age-slop; (b) the 50-60 man is an ELDER RELATIVE (possibly David Sr.) with headship passing to David Jr. by 1840; (c) a tick one column off. **RESOLVER = the 1850 WYTHE census** (every person named with exact age and birthplace: David ~63, ELIZABETH by name, younger children listed): NEW TOP CENSUS PRIORITY (task 54), 1860 behind it. Page notes: JACOB COLLINS, new Wythe name (household: several sons and daughters, head c. 40-50); Samuel Crockett again; TWO John Browns, UNRELATED to the 1760 Orange Co NC land-office John Brown (user's instinct confirmed: seventy years, two hundred miles).
**BROOKS COLLINS, 1830 Wythe:** 1M 20-30 + 1F 15-20, total two (enumerator-verified): a brand-new household, likely newlyweds; John L. and William COX on the page; distinctive given name (reads like a mother's surname passed down); UNPLACED, roster row.
**THOMAS COLLINS, 1830 Montgomery:** 1M 20-30 + 1F 20-30, total two, childless: almost certainly **the 1829 Montgomery groom THOMAS COLLINS x ELIZABETH BOOTH (14.17)** one year on [strong]: the bond cluster materializing in the censuses.
**Census battle plan, restated and ranked (Sept 17):** (1) 1850 WYTHE David Collins (the resolver); (2) 1830 PATRICK all Collins (the arrival test); (3) 1830 MONTGOMERY all Collins (the cluster in motion; watch for any M 70-80 = a separate David Sr., the smoking gun); (4) 1830 GRAYSON all Collins (the stay-behind New River kin); (5) 1830 WASHINGTON and GILES Samuels forward; (6) HIRAM in 1850.
### 14.24 The 1850 forge; the Patrick arrival result; Knox County logged with caution; Saponi-evidence routes (Sept 17) [OL38, OL39, OL40]
**1850 WYTHE, David Collins household (the resolver, user read):** DAVID 63 (b. c. 1787: THIRD independent record of the birth year; the 1830 tick confirmed as age-slop, the user's reading adopted), **BLACKSMITH**, $100 real estate, b. VA, literate; ELIZABETH 63, b. VA, cannot read/write; Elizabeth Moore 35 (b. c. 1815, MARRIED WITHIN THE YEAR); [illegible: Lo_/Don?] Collins 29 (b. c. 1821; name to re-zoom); JAMES 22 (b. c. 1828 = the 1865 Mabe groom, CONFIRMED); ADAM 19 (b. c. 1831 = the 1856 Mabe groom, CONFIRMED); Madison Bowman 22; Elias Smith 23; JOHN MOORE 23, **HAMMERMAN** (the smith's striker); Catherine Collins 7, in school. READING: a WORKING SMITHY: the old master, his striker, young labor, grown sons. The Moore marriage: most economical, Elizabeth (nee Collins) m. JOHN MOORE within the year (enumerators often ticked one spouse only); the absent-husband alternative not excluded; the Wythe 1849-50 marriage register decides in one line (task 58). Catherine 7 = probable GRANDDAUGHTER (Elizabeth 63 excluded as mother), parent unknown. 1860 GAP: David lived to Nov 1866 and should appear; strategy = search 1860 Wythe for ADAM, JAMES, JOHN MOORE, ELIZABETH Collins (he may sit inside a child's household or under a mangled index), else browse the images.
**1850 statewide David triage (user screenshot):** (1) **WYTHE, David Collins b. 1818**: a second Wythe David, the age of David Jr.'s 1830 M 10-15, almost certainly a SON, and THE MAN RELATIVE TO WHOM THE 1866 REGISTER SAYS "SR.": pull first (DAVID III candidate). (2) **WASHINGTON, David Collins b. 1822**: in Samuel-of-David's county, inside his household window: candidate SON OF SAMUEL named for grandfather David (the naming pattern performing): pull second. Patrick Davids (b. 1825, 1828) = cluster next-gen, lower; Pittsylvania David R. (b. 1804) = note only (the Riddle-Bowlin destination county); Russell b. 1841 = a child, skip.
**1830 PATRICK SWEEP RESULT (user reads; index localities render as "Patrick Parish, Henry"):** present 1830: WILLIAM (2M<5, 1M 20-30, 1F 50-60: young father with a probable widowed MOTHER, no young wife), DANIEL (1M<5, 1M 30-40, 2F<5, 1F 5-10, 1F 30-40), REUBEN (1M 30-40, 1F 10-15, 1F 30-40), EDMUND (young household, read garbled, approximate), MARTHA (2M<5, 1F 30-40: WIDOW, of whom unknown); on distant pages ELISHA (3M 20-30, 1M 50-60 b. 1770-80, 1F 15-20, 1F 50-60; a COX above him) and ARIS Collins (probable widow: 1F 5-10, 1F 10-15, 1F 30-40). All counted white. **THE ARRIVAL TEST: EDWARD IS ABSENT IN 1830 AND PRESENT BY 1840: the one cluster member who ARRIVES in the 1830s, exactly the Ned-candidate signature** (our Edward, b. c. 1804, was raising his young first family elsewhere in 1830). CLUSTER ORIGIN revised: the Patrick DANIEL (b. 1790-1800) is far too young to be the Montgomery Daniel (daughter married 1794): the relocation hypothesis WEAKENED (at most a son); the outliers ELISHA (the oath-refuser's name, a generation on, Cox-adjacent) and REUBEN read like NEW RIVER COHORT DESCENDANT names: the cluster smells cohort-descended rather than Montgomery-bond-descended, still unsorted.
**KNOX CO INDIANA 1850 Hiram (user-recalled from prior sessions; MULTIPLE-HIRAMS CAUTION ACTIVE):** Hiram 46 b. VA, $500, wife Elizabeth 39 **b. INDIANA**, Francis 17 b. Indiana, in school. TENSIONS stated: our Clay Hiram m. Elizabeth REED (KY, 1829); the 1840 Indiana household (Montgomery Co in this entry; very likely Morgan Co, per the 2026-09-27 note in 14.23) held seven incl. five children who do not map to a three-person 1850 household with a c. 1833 Indiana-born 17-year-old. Either a DIFFERENT Hiram (the user's prior chat concluded two or three Hirams existed and tracked them: THAT WORK IS NOT IN THIS FILE and must be re-imported, task 59) or the same man with a second wife and scattered household. The user's wife-ancestry speculation logged as ONE reading among several: classification varied by enumerator and local knowledge (the kaleidoscope itself), and appearance varied among siblings; the marks record how clerks saw the household, not ancestry arithmetic.
**Saponi-evidence routes (user request):** DOCUMENTARY (already strong): the 1742/43 (1743 NS) Orange VA court record NAMES A COLLINS AS AN INDIAN in a colonial court: the anchor; plus Carlson's Christian Saponi Band identification (its FOOTNOTES = the highest-value add, task 18), Moses Riddle "an Indian" 1767, the white-to-Molata reclassification. GENETIC: (a) the user's 0% Native autosomal argues NOTHING: a single Saponi ancestor 7-9 generations back contributes an expected fraction under 0.5% and small segments wash out by recombination as often as not; (b) check the CLOSER tested generations (Frances 2.1% SSA; John 1.5%) for any trace Native component [done 2026-09-23: no Native American assignment in any of the five tests] (each generation closer doubles expected signal); (c) **mtDNA, the power play**: the candidate Saponi ancestors are WOMEN (Thomas's possible Riddle wife; Moses's wife Mary; Mary Reed's maternal line) [Superseded 2026-09-23: Thomas's wife was not a Riddle; the Riddle candidate is a daughter of Moses, b. c. 1740, married to one of Thomas's younger sons]: trace an unbroken daughter-to-daughter line from one to a living cousin and test (a Native haplogroup A/B/C/D/X would be near-proof); the user's own line breaks female continuity at Richard C. Holbrook, so a COUSIN is required (task 60); (d) Y-DNA cannot see wives but the new male lines (David Jr.'s sons; Samuel-of-David's sons) could anchor the surname to the Core Melungeon Collins cluster.
### 14.25 The Moore dossier; the Davids index; the Washington revision; the mtDNA route through Frances (Sept 17) [OL41, OL42]
**The Moore marriage CONFIRMED and enriched (Hardesty/Presgraves excerpt + FamilySearch profiles):** "his mother was a daughter of David Collins, also of Wythe county": ELIZABETH COLLINS m. JOHN W. MOORE, the 1850 household's 23-year-old HAMMERMAN, who rose to DEPUTY SHERIFF and magistrate of Wythe Co. Their son **DR. JOHN HARRISON MOORE** (b. 14 Jul 1858 Cripple Creek; Baltimore Medical College; merchant then physician; m. Julia Virginia HUFFARD 1886, the same family whose Andrew J. Huffard's revenue district recorded David Jr.'s death) died 13 May 1895, aged 37, off a train into the Holston at Marion. The two newspaper accounts reconciled: the Bristol News piece records the SUSPICION ($100 collected that day, $3.90 found, forehead bruise, "Was He Murdered?"); the Southwestern News/Richmond Times piece records the INQUEST'S CONCLUSION (watch, pistol, pocketbook still on the body; post-mortem verdict drowning; the shoes he carried for Capt. Davis found on the embankment): officially accident, locally doubted, the missing money never explained. His brother James Moore drowned in Reed Creek c. 1893: two brothers drowned in two years. **PHOTOGRAPHS: the ELIZABETH COLLINS MOORE TINTYPE = the first photograph of anyone in the Wythe Collins line**; the John W. Moore tintype is NOT a blood Collins (user's own correction); the J.H. Moore portrait is half-Collins. PHENOTYPE CAUTIONS logged: Baltimore Medical College in the 1880s was a white institution in Jim Crow Maryland (Black physicians of the era trained at Howard, Meharry, Leonard), so admission implies he was RECEIVED AS WHITE; reception is not ancestry arithmetic, faces and clerks are unreliable instruments (the project's central lesson), and this branch's connection to our family still hangs on the unproven David Sr. link: no ancestry conclusions from these portraits in either direction.
**FamilySearch profile data on the Wythe line [C-grade, testable]:** David Jr.'s wife = **ELIZABETH ELIZA STEVENS, 1784-1860** (MAIDEN-NAME CANDIDATE; test: her own entry in the Wythe death registers c. 1860, which would name her parents, task 61; her 1784 vs the census's c. 1787 = normal slop). David Jr.'s parents per the profile = **DAVID COLLINS b. 1753, d. 1819, m. NANCY ANN LEE (1765-1840)**: b. 1753 fits COHORT DAVID's profile almost exactly; d. 1819 CONFLICTS with the 1820 two-elders reading (one of the two is wrong); test = Wythe/Montgomery PROBATE 1819-20 for a David Collins estate (task 62). The Lee pedigree to a William Hugh Lee of 1615 = classic tree-grafting onto a famous surname: PARKED, unweighted (user's own suspicion endorsed). **ADAM MARSHALL COLLINS (1831-1909, m. Sarah Elizabeth Mabe) CONFIRMED = our Adam; Company C, 51st VIRGINIA INFANTRY (Confederate service in the Wythe branch noted); charcoal portrait exists.** DOW COLLINS: the 1850 household's 29-year-old's name confirmed.
**DAVID III confirmed (the profile's "David Collins IV"):** b. 3 Apr 1816, d. 1 Oct 1905 Wythe; m. **CATHERINE COOK, Jan 1842, Wythe**; 1850 household (Catherine 24, Charles 6, Albert 3, Lorenzo 1); 1860 Raleigh Co; **1870 back at FORT CHISWELL** (the lead-mines ground) with sons incl. David C. (b. 1860) and STONEWALL J. (b. c. 1863) and Cassandra C. The 1866 register's "Sr." on his father is DEFINITIVELY relative to him.
**THE WASHINGTON REVISION (conflation caution #4):** the Washington Co David b. 1822-23 = **DAVID A. COLLINS, m. MARY KENT 1845 Montgomery; son of JEREMIAH (m. Margaret Campbell), grandson of ELIJAH COLLINS of ALBEMARLE (b. 1760-70, d. Nov 1840 Washington Co)** [C]: the Elijah and Jeremiah of the 1820 Washington page: the Washington pocket is a SEPARATE Collins family out of central Virginia. My son-of-Samuel hypothesis for this David: WITHDRAWN. CASCADE: the 1820 Washington "Samuel" (14.22) is now DOUBTED as Samuel-of-David (probably Elijah kin): **SAMUEL-OF-DAVID IS UNPLACED AGAIN**; the Montgomery 1820 search RE-UPGRADED (task 63). His 1850 household read (user): David 28 WAGONER, Mary 25, Nancy 5, James 2, Sarah Barnett 25, Jas Collins 18, Leonidas 12, Daniel Ryan 20 blacksmith (a boarder; a wagoner's household with a smith lodging, not a second forge).
**THE DAVIDS INDEX (as of Sept 17):** (1) COHORT DAVID, b. c. 1750s: 1776 enlistee, 1782 muster, 1780 Tory-suspect capture and escape [corrected 2026-09-23: that was DAVID GIBSON, with Lewis Collins (W1044 affidavit), not David Collins], Ashe 1778, Wilkes 1790; documented cohort kin of Meredith (brother or first cousin per the fork). (2) DAVID SR., the 1813 consenter [hypothesis]: father of Samuel-of-Permelia and probably of David Jr.; candidate identity = the profile's David b. 1753 d. 1819 m. Nancy Ann Lee [C]; the question is whether he IS (1). (3) DAVID JR., the Wythe BLACKSMITH, c. 1787 - Nov 1866; wife Elizabeth (Stevens? [C]); children Elizabeth (Moore), David III, Dow, James C., Adam Marshall; connection to Meredith RIDES ENTIRELY on identifying (2) with (1). (4) DAVID III ("IV"), 1816-1905, m. Catherine Cook 1842; Fort Chiswell; the register's relative "Sr." (5) DAVID A. of Washington, 1822-1905?, wagoner, m. Mary Kent 1845: SEPARATE FAMILY (Elijah of Albemarle) [C]. (6) Fauquier 1810 David: namesake, dismissed. (7) David R. of Pittsylvania (b. 1804): noted only. (8) Patrick Davids (b. 1825, 1828): cluster next-gen, unworked.
**THE mtDNA ROUTE THROUGH FRANCES (correcting the break-at-Holbrook premise):** Richard Holbrook is Jessie Clifford's HUSBAND, not a link in maternal transmission; [Superseded 2026-09-23, see task 60: Frances's father was Richard Clifford Holbrook, Jessie's SON, so her mtDNA is Lucille McMillan's line, not Mary Reed's; the break at Richard C. Holbrook stands, and the Reed mtDNA needs a cousin in an unbroken female line from one of the Reed sisters. "Thomas's possible Riddle wife" below is also withdrawn.] the chain runs through the women: **MARY REED > Mary Elizabeth Collins > Emma Bruner > Jessie Clifford > (IF Frances was Jessie's daughter, or connects through mothers only) > FRANCES.** Every child inherits the mother's mtDNA; only daughters pass it on; a male at the END of a chain still carries it. THEREFORE: if that one link holds, **Frances's maternal haplogroup = MARY REED'S maternal haplogroup**, and 23andMe reports maternal haplogroup as a standard result: the answer may ALREADY SIT in Frances's existing account. A haplogroup in the A2/B2/C1/D1/X2a families = a Native maternal line, near-proof, for the REED side (itself one of the "Malatta" families and a fully legitimate target). The Collins-side candidate women (Thomas's possible Riddle wife; Moses's wife Mary) still need cousin lines someday. ACTION (task 60 upgraded): confirm Frances descends from Jessie through daughters, then read the haplogroup off her results.
**Phenotype-inference note (user question, Sept 17):** the geometry, stated precisely: David Sr., if = cohort David, is Meredith's BROTHER or FIRST COUSIN, collateral, not ancestral; the common ancestor of our branch and the Wythe branch would be SAMUEL (b. 1724) or THOMAS himself, the Molata-labeled generation, which is why both branches' appearance bears (weakly) on the same node. But the dilution arithmetic disarms the instrument: Thomas to John Harrison Moore is five generations; with European marriages along the way (Stevens, Lee, Moore), J.H. Moore carried ~1/32 to 1/64 of whatever Thomas was: invisible in a face EITHER WAY, so the branch's white-passing 1880s appearance cannot discriminate African from Indian in the c. 1700 ancestor. What discriminates, honestly: the documentary Indian case (the 1742/43 record, Carlson, Riddle, Sizemore) AND the 2012 Melungeon Core DNA study's finding of AFRICAN-origin paternal haplogroups in the core Newman's Ridge Collins lines (incl. Vardy's), largely European mtDNA in those tested [Corrected 2026-09-23: Estes et al. (Fall 2011, published 2012; OL47) assigned 12 European, 8 African, and 1 Native American paternal lines; Vardy Collins's Y line is R1a1, EUROPEAN (Table 11); every maternal line was European]: the supported synthesis is TRI-RACIAL, both-and, varying line by line, with Saponi descent plausibly entering via women and allied families. Our branch's own Y-line is UNTESTED (the long-horizon task) and the Frances maternal-haplogroup check (task 60) is the live genetic move. Polly Holloway's ancestry: no record speaks to it; open unknown.
### 14.26 Elizabeth's death entry; the paternity instruments ranked; the Spotsylvania conflation family identified (Sept 17 evening) [OL43, OL44]
**ELIZABETH'S DEATH ENTRY FOUND (Wythe register, year ending 31 Dec 1866, First District; user image):** Elizabeth Collins, age 76 (b. c. 1790), cause UNKNOWN, parents UNKNOWN, **consort of DAVID COLLINS**, informant **WILLIAM PAINTER, SON-IN-LAW**. Consequences: (1) the two registers CORROBORATE: Elizabeth d. earlier in 1866, David d. Nov 1866 "consort dead": husband and wife within months, two districts' books. (2) The register route to the maiden name is CLOSED (parents unknown to the informant): STEVENS stays [C], testable via the c. 1805-12 marriage bond and children's later records (task 61 updated). (3) **A SECOND DAUGHTER m. a PAINTER**: William Painter son-in-law = a daughter we did not have; the Wythe marriage index (Painter x Collins) would name her (task 64); Catherine the 1850 granddaughter possibly theirs. Wythe PROBATE access reality: the will-book films are FamilySearch-Library-restricted online; alternates = a FamilySearch Center or affiliate library, Library of Virginia microfilm, or the Wythe clerk.
**1820 Samuel, the Montgomery absence:** no Samuel Collins heads a Montgomery 1820 household (all five index hits triaged: Frederick/Nelson/Norfolk out; Washington and Giles already read). For a man married there 1813, the likely reading = living INSIDE another household: NEXT PROBE = **JOHN GAINES, Montgomery, 1820** (Permelia's father; look for a surplus young couple with infants), then Montgomery C-pages under variant spellings; Washington held as possible despite the Elijah doubt (task 65).
**The FamilySearch tree above Meredith ASSESSED (user screenshots and profile readings):** the Thomas Collins b. 1713 HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND m. Ann Blyth (Isle of Wight, Oct 1733) graft is DEMOLISHED on chronology (cannot father Samuel b. c. 1724) and on records (a Hampshire Englishman cannot be the 1755 "Molata" patriarch of a community the 1742/43 court called Indians); Samuel + Cicely Hall undersourced. Salvage: the tree's "**MARGARET Holloway, 1765-1812**" logged as the formal name behind "Polly" [C] (its d. 1812 matches Conley). [Superseded 2026-09-23: this profile came in with the demolished Hampshire graft; don't use it. Polly was b. c. 1780; "Margaret" stays only as a query.] **CONFLATION CAUTION #5, THE SPOTSYLVANIA FAMILY, identified in full:** Capt. JOSEPH COLLINS of Essex/Spotsylvania (b. 1709, m. Susanna Lewis), eleven children incl. **JAMES who moved to ORANGE CO NC (almost certainly our HAW RIVER JAMES of Gv178)**, LEWIS (Granville will 1783; Kershaw SC; wife Elizabeth Davis; the tree's false father-option for Meredith), WILLIAM (Kershaw SC): an English-descent planter family whose records generate the region's tree-glue; recognize on sight.
**THE PATERNITY QUESTION, strategic status (user's central ask):** NOT lost, NOT yet determined, may settle at "probable" permanently; the grandfather is THOMAS on either branch of the fork (Samuel b. c. 1724 [P, Heinegg] vs John b. c. 1736 [C, Blackburn]). Instruments ranked: (1) **KEGLEY, *TITHABLES* (the volume EXISTS: cited "Kegley, Tithables, p. 16" in the Waggoner sketch, OL28): Montgomery tithable lists routinely show sons 16-21 INSIDE the father's tax household; Meredith turned 16 c. 1776: a 1776-1780 list beside Samuel or John CLOSES the fork: locate the volume, task 66**; (2) the Grayson tax lists on John's sons (task 20); (3) Eula's packet (task 23: applications sometimes record the patriot's parentage); (4) Montgomery court order books (orphan bonds, apprenticeships, road orders); (5) land-assignment chains from Samuel or John to Meredith in the Kegley abstracts (Merida/Meredy variants); (6) Heinegg's own footnotes for the Samuel grouping. Y-DNA CANNOT pick between the brothers (same line); it anchors only to Thomas's cluster. The genuinely lost boundary = BEFORE THOMAS: his c. 1700 parentage. The servant-woman surname mechanism the user described is DOCUMENTED in our tree on the REED side (William Read, b. c. 1673, mother's status and surname, freed 1694); for Collins it is Heinegg's general template, plausible, UNDOCUMENTED for our line.
### 14.27 The Civil War brothers RESOLVED: Spencer killed in action; Kalaska survived and married (Sept 20, 2026) [OL45]
**SPENCER COLLINS, KIA (muster card, user find via Find a Grave):** card reads: 46 Regt. Inf. Vols., Co. H: "Collins Spencer, Rank Pvt., Age 44, Captain Alsup Com'd'g. Enlisted Aug 17, '64, Spf'ld Mo. Mustered in Sept 9, '64, Spf'ld Mo. Remarks: **KILLED IN ACTION Nov. 3, '64, at Vera Cruz Mo.**" Vera Cruz = Douglas Co MO (Ozarks guerrilla country, the autumn after Price's Raid); buried PARSONS CEMETERY, Ozark Co MO per Find a Grave (which gives b. 1818 KY). **AGE DISCREPANCY FLAGGED:** our Spencer (son of Jesse + Mary Reed) was b. c. 1840-42 (age 10 in 1850 Wells Twp; 14 in 1856 with the Hendon family); the card's "44" is most plausibly a clerk's slip for 24 (Find a Grave's 1818 likely back-calculated from the error); identification rests on name + the 46th MO (matching the main file's prior research) + Springfield enlistment. Eight weeks from muster-in to death. Supersedes the main file's "fate unrecorded."
**KALASKA SURVIVED (Schuyler Co MO Marriage Records 1845-1883, image 131, user find):** "This is to certify that I joined in the Holy Bonds of Matrimony **KELASHIA COLLINS to MARGARET KING on the 24th day of August 1862**," recorded 25 Aug 1862, minister **RICHARD A. COLLINS, M.G.** (a Collins minister; unplaced, watch). Name note (user's reading): the register's cursive initial is a K whose top stroke connects so as to read like an R (the FamilySearch transcript renders "Relashia"); the man's name is variably spelled KOLASKA / CALASKA / KALASKA / KELASHIA across the records, the ordinary fate of a rare name carried by a likely-illiterate man through a series of clerks. Identification: the distinctive name + surname + geography (SCHUYLER CO MO borders Appanoose IA directly south: a Wells Twp son marrying across the state line). **THE ENTRY ABOVE HIS: Samuel Swinney m. CATHARINE COLLINS, THE SAME DAY, SAME MINISTER: Kalaska married in a DOUBLE WEDDING**, thirty-five years after his parents' own (Catharine unplaced: sister? cousin? minister's kin? task). Sequence: married Aug 1862; Co. E, 118th ILLINOIS Infantry (organized Camp Butler, fall 1862; Vicksburg campaign per the main file); survived, children recorded per user's prior research. Supersedes the main file's "neither brother appears after the war" for Kalaska; the earlier "Kolaska and Lloyd" recollection corrected (Lloyd did not serve so far as records show).
### 14.28 Later-generation vitals and Heck Bruner (Sept 22, 2026, user FamilySearch review)
**Vitals supplied by the user from corrected FamilySearch profiles** (entered in the master family tree, `Collins_Reed_Master_Family_Tree.md`): Jessie Lorene Clifford b. 6 May 1876 Siloam Springs AR, d. 29 Aug 1948 Yuba Co CA; Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr. b. 16 Sep 1872 San de Fuca, Whidbey Island WA, d. 23 Sep 1923 Bismarck, Burleigh Co ND; Richard Clifford Holbrook b. 12 Jul 1902 Seattle, d. 30 Nov 1955 Hot Springs, Garland Co AR (cf. the 1951 manifest's destination, Naval Ammunition Depot Shumaker, Arkansas); m. Lucille McMillan May 1927 San Jose CA (newspaper 15 May 1927); Lucille b. 17 Sep 1905 Tacoma, d. 1 Aug 1996 Lacey WA; Frances m. Richard Everett "Dick" Ellingwood Jr. 26 Mar 1955 Seattle; Thomas Harris Absolom b. 1 Apr 1867 Wolfscastle, Pembrokeshire, Wales, d. 12 Mar 1953 Contra Costa Co CA; Orlando Hines Clifford b. 20 Oct 1873 Siloam Springs, d. 25 Feb 1954 Phoenix AZ; Eli Woodrie Clifford d. 31 May 1947 Bothell WA; Delilah Susan Collins b. 15 Oct 1828 KY, d. 24 Dec 1899 Sidney MO; Matilda Collins b. 10 May 1830 Morgan Co IN, d. 9 Jan 1918 Kirksville MO (Morgan Co IN birth corroborates the 1830 Morgan Co Jesse Collins household); Bruner children: David 17 Jul 1851 - 12 Feb 1857; Elizabeth Ellen 30 Oct 1852 - 12 Feb 1905 Delta CO; Christopher Columbus 25 Dec 1855 - 25 Feb 1927 De Beque CO; Olive Marie 22 Mar 1856 - 1917 Edmonds WA; Albert Woodruff 17 May 1857 IL - 29 Nov 1935 Wenatchee WA; Eli Hickman "Heck" 13 Feb 1859 - 21 Jun 1899; James Finlay 18 Nov 1860 Mercer Co MO - 23 Oct 1942 Wenatchee WA; Mary Elizabeth 29 Oct - 7 Nov 1862 (previously unknown infant death); Georgia Ann 8 Feb 1869 - 30 Jul 1901 Seattle.
**Conflicts flagged in the supplied profile dates:** (1) Christopher Columbus (25 Dec 1855) and Olive Marie (22 Mar 1856) cannot both be right, three months apart; the 1860 census (C.C. 5) and 1870 census (Christopher 15, Olive 13) suggest Christopher c. 1854-55 and Olive c. 1857. (2) Elizabeth Ellen's 30 Oct 1852 duplicates Mariah Emma's 30 Oct 1853 exactly one year apart: possible copy error. (3) Georgia Ann's "Siloam Springs, Arkansas" birthplace conflicts with the 1870 Mercer Co MO household and her Missouri birthplace on the 1870 and 1880 censuses. (4) David's "Appanoose" birthplace sits against the 1850 Daviess Co IN newlywed household. (5) Reuben and Lloyd shown born "Iowa" 1834/1836 on FamilySearch; the 1850 census reads Indiana (ditto), and Iowa was barely open to settlement then: keep Indiana. (6) Jesse b. 1804 "North Carolina" on FamilySearch vs Mary Elizabeth's 1880 statement that both parents were Virginia-born and the Russell Co VA inference: unresolved. (7) Kalaska's bride is Margaret King per the Schuyler register, not "Mary King."
**Resolutions (user decisions, Sept 22, 2026):** (1) tree uses census estimates, Christopher c. 1855 and Olive c. 1857; the FamilySearch day-dates are dropped. (2) Elizabeth Ellen entered as c. 1853 (1860 census age 7). (3) Georgia Ann entered as born Missouri. (5) Reuben and Lloyd entered as born Indiana. (6) Jesse entered as born Virginia. (7) Margaret King kept.
**Heck Bruner, Deputy U.S. Marshal:** Eli Hickman "Heck" Bruner, Mary Elizabeth's son and the 20-year-old "E. G. Bruner, blacksmith" of the 1880 Gothic CO census page, became a Deputy U.S. Marshal riding for Judge Isaac Parker's federal court at Fort Smith in Indian Territory (the Cherokee Nation lay just across the line from the family's Siloam Springs); he is listed among the deputies credited with leading the November 1892 posse that killed Ned Christie, and he drowned 21 Jun 1899 attempting to cross the Grand River near Spavinaw (Officer Down Memorial Page). A period newspaper piece (user transcription) calls him "the United States Marshal" (he was a deputy; the marshal was a presidential appointee at Fort Smith) and tells of "Bruner's Graveyard," a rail-fenced grove south of Tahlequah said to hold 28 outlaws killed by him in the line of duty, one with a marble stone bought by his fellow horse thieves. Treat the graveyard as frontier-press legend, colorful and unverified; the deputyship, the Christie posse, and the drowning are documented.
### 14.29 The book-rewrite source audit and Kegley's Militia pages (Sept 23, 2026) [OL46 onward]
The September 2026 rewrite of the book (*Molata*, 1st ed., v1.3 [OL54]) was checked line by line against its sources, and the user read Kegley's *Militia of Montgomery County* on the FamilySearch Digital Library the same day [OL46]. The full current position is the READ THIS FIRST block at the top of this file; what changes this file is below.
- **Kegley pages seen:** pp. 23-24 (images 34-35), pp. 50-52 (images 61-63), and the index (image 88). John and William on p. 51 are the only Riddles in the book under any spelling; there is no Moses.
- **McDaniel's list (pp. 23-24, undated):** "Mendaby Collens" (Meredith) and "Lewies Collens" on consecutive lines, David, George, a deleted Collens, Benjamin, Charles, and John Sexton, James Cox. No Riddles, no Bowlin, no Elisha, Samuel, or John Collins. This is the page the DAR cites for Meredith.
- **McCorkle's oath list (pp. 50-51):** James McCorkle recorded the men of several companies who swore allegiance to the state, from 30 Sept 1777, signed and dated 5 Dec 1777. Under Cox's company: "Jno. Collens," "Samuel Collens," "Jno. (his mark) Riddle," "William Ridel," and James McDaniell himself, swearing as one of Cox's men before he had a company of his own. It is an oath list, not a muster roll.
- **McCorkle's refusers (p. 50):** "Elisha Collins, Coxes Compy." refused the oath before him in the fall of 1777 (the Collins Timeline's "30 Sept 1777" is the list's opening date). James McGavock's separate list (p. 52) has no Collinses or Riddles.
- **The merged roster explained:** the single "McDaniel's / Osborn Company" roster in Blackburn and the Collins Timeline runs together McDaniel's list, McCorkle's oath list, and his refusers; only William Bowlin's source is still unlocated. Every passage here that put the Riddles, Samuel, John, Elisha, or Bowlin on McDaniel's list has been corrected or marked.
- **Court martial:** 23 April 1783 at Patrick Campbell's house (Kegley, *Early Adventurers*, vol. 2, p. 218), not c. 1780-81.
- **Lewis Collins's pension S21142 [OL51]:** living on Broad River, South Carolina, in 1776 and drafted there against the Cherokee; 1778 crop with Charles Tompson, "not then a man of a family"; June 1781 from his father's house in Montgomery County; Eutaw Springs, September 1781, "a severe battle"; discharged near Salisbury. No record places Meredith's 1776 enlistment, and Christiansburg was not founded until 1792.
- **The Rock House:** Joseph Collins's affidavit (27 Jan 1849, in W1044, OL27) has the Tories taken at a "Rock House"; the two who escaped were David Gibson and Lewis Collins. "Stone fort" was a paraphrase.
- **Citation fixes:** the Orange Co VA court sat 27 Jan 1742/43, 1743 NS [OL48]; the 1729 Sappony Creek sale is a Surry record, county of the land unstated; the Stony Creek minute is cited to Estes Table 1 [OL47], whose paternal lines were 12 European, 8 African, and 1 Native American, with Vardy's R1a1 European; Moses Riddle's supposed parents come from WikiTree [OL49], not Empty Branches; John Ellingwood's African figure is 1.5%; Heinegg's print edition is OL50.
- **Tilford first:** Tilford Reed's son Harman, born in Iowa c. 1836 (1856 Appanoose census [OL53]), puts Tilford in Iowa before Benjamin; the 1840 Iowa Territory census has "Tifford" Reed at Van Buren [OL52].
- **Jesse SETTLED:** Jesse was Meredith's son by Polly Holloway (b. c. 1780, m. c. 1799), not Bradley's; Bradley and Jesse were half-brothers. Thomas's wife was not Moses Riddle's daughter (Moses b. c. 1715-25). Meredith's own father stays OPEN between John and Samuel; the book leans to John.
## 15. Working family tree (text diagram; add to as findings land)
Evidence tags: [D] document ties the link. [P] probable per Heinegg. [C] claimed in secondary research (Blackburn, Conley, Dillon). [?] hypothesis or unresolved.
```
ALLIED HOUSEHOLD CORE LINE
Moses Riddle "an Indian" (1767 tax) Thomas Collins "Molata", b. say 1700
wife Mary (both mulatto, 1755) Louisa Co VA 1745 > Flat River NC c. 1748
| Gv579: 700 ac Dial's Creek, 1761
|--[?] a daughter, b. c. 1740, m. a d. c. 1770, Orange Co? [C]
| younger son of Thomas [?] wife unknown (NOT Moses Riddle's daughter)
|-- William Riddle \ both took oath |
+-- John Riddle / Cox's Co. 1777 [D] |--[P] Samuel, b. say 1724
| (Wilkes 1787: aging couple)
| Heinegg groups under him [P]:
| George2 "the hunter", David1, Martin,
| Valentine, Vardy, Ambrose, Charles1
|--[P] George1, b. c. 1728
|--[P] Thomas Jr, b. say 1734
| (1800 Ashe: "other free")
+--[P] John, b. say 1736
[?] and/or an ELDER John: Flat River
c. 1750 > Peach Bottom Creek 1767 (Dillon)
|--[C] Lewis, b. 1754, "son of John"
| (pension S21142)
+--[C] James (per Grayson tax)
THE FORK: Meredith (b. c. 1760 VA) is a son of Samuel [P, Heinegg grouping]
or of John [C, Blackburn; the book LEANS TO JOHN]. Grandfather is Thomas either way.
Meredith Collins, c. 1760 - 1841, Pike Co KY. Patriot A024535.
m. (1) unnamed, c. 1782-85 [C, Section 8]: Bradley's mother
m. (2) POLLY HOLLOWAY, c. 1799 [D Eula app: b. c. 1780 VA, d. ante 1840]
| (Bradley-line DAR papers name Polly as Bradley's mother: WRONG, since
| Polly b. 1780 cannot mother Bradley b. 1787)
|-- Bradley (mother: the unnamed first wife), b. 1787, NC per 1850 census / VA per DAR
| last alive 29 Nov 1850, Appanoose census, in Andrew's household
| m. (1) unknown ("X X" to DAR too); (2) Jane Ray 1817 (Conley list only; county uncertain);
| (3) Catherine Barney 1831; (4) Betsy Griffin 1833;
| (5) Elizabeth Luneford 1836 [D Clay register; wives dying young]
| |-- Andrew, b. c. 1811 KY [D DAR]
| | m. Betsy Ann SIZEMORE, 31 Mar 1838, Clay Co KY [D register]
| | Appanoose IA by 1849 > Scott Co MO (d. c. 1875)
| | +-- Lewis, Samson, Archibald, Polly Ann (b. 1849; m. Smith 1871)
| | (Lewis + Archibald = Meredith-generation names [soft evidence])
| +-- Nancy, m. Williams [D death cert]
|-- JESSE, b. c. 1804, likely RUSSELL CO VA; mother POLLY [settled 2026-09-23];
| half-brother to Bradley; consent note 25 Nov 1827: James Read author,
| Stephen Read + HIRAM COLLINS attest [D OL22]
|-- HIRAM, b. c. 1804-06, mother Polly; Jesse's brother
| ATTESTED Jesse's 1827 consent note [D OL22]: probable brothers
| m. Elizabeth REED, 8 Dec 1829, Clay Co [D register]
| (license Dec 1828 lapsed unsolemnized; remarried license Aug 1829)
|-- William, b. 13 Apr 1806 RUSSELL CO VA [D Eula app], d. 30 Mar 1896 Craigsville WV
| m. (1) Mary Mullins [C]; (2) Mary A "Molly" Hatfield, 25 Nov 1860 [D Eula app]
| +-- Nancy Jane, b. 1865 Pike Co KY, m. Blankenship 1883 Logan Co WV
| (the Nicholas Co WV colony; Dillon's branch)
|-- Archibald (c. 1800) and James: mother Polly [C Conley]
|--[? Conley list only] Edward, Reuben, John W.
+--[legend] Ned, "half Indian," b. 1796-1802 (straddling the start of the Holloway marriage, c. 1799)
[?] candidate: Edward Collins of Patrick Co VA, 1850 census,
46, farmer, b. NORTH CAROLINA, w. Eliza (see 14.11)
Jesse Collins (c. 1804 - 1847) m. MARY REED (1804 - c. 1852), 13 Dec 1827, Clay Co KY [D]
+-- Mary Elizabeth "Polly," b. c. 1827 [D]
m. Eli Bruner, 1850, Appanoose Co IA [D]
(continues in main file: Bruner > Clifford > Holbrook > Ellingwood)
REED SIDEBAR: William Reed, b. c. 1673, freedom suit won 3 Sept 1694 [D Heinegg]
... [generations missing; the link from William to James is unproven] ...
HUGH REED, d. bef. end of 1786, Rowan Co NC [?: James's father only per the Attride compilation]
JAMES REED/READ of Clay Co [D consent note, OL22], b. c. 1766-75;
d. c. 1841, Clay Co KY [or bef. 6 Jan 1845, Morgan Co IN] (revised 2026-09-27)
children marrying Clay 1822-1830:
|-- Randolph, m. Rhodey Hollinsworth 1825 [candidate]
|-- MARY, m. Jesse Collins 13 Dec 1827 [D] \ SAME DAY:
|-- STEPHEN, m. Nancy Powell 13 Dec 1827 / probable double wedding
|-- ELIZABETH, m. Hiram Collins 8 Dec 1829 [D; probable daughter]
+-- William, m. Lydia Langdon 1830 [candidate]
(James Reed m. Polly Silver 1839: widowed father or a son James; test)
(Patsy, m. James Hollinsworth 1822, moved off 2026-09-27: more likely Stephen Reed Jr's daughter)
(Reading B, Morgan Co IN: sons Elisha, John [or James] and Naaman; see the Reed addendum)
Richard Reed x Kelsey (Kesiah?) COLLINS, license Jan 1827 unsolemnized:
third Reed-Collins pairing, direction reversed
[?] Eno River William Reed, Granville Gv139, 1756: untested (task 22)
SIZEMORE SIDEBAR: Betsy Ann Sizemore m. Andrew Collins 1838 [D DAR];
Sizemores named by Carlson among the Christian Saponi band families [OL10];
family workup pending (task 26)
```
## 16. Master roster of the early community (working table; add rows and evidence as found)
| Person | Dates | Records and classifications | Land | Movements | Standing / notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Collins Sr "Molata" | b. say 1700, d. c. 1770? | Louisa VA 1745 presentments (concealed tithable "probably his wife"; swearing); 1750 Wade's list Granville; 1755 Orange NC 3 tithes MULATTO; himself SCC for Wharton (Gv985, 1760) and Justice (Gv897, 1763) | 1752 grant (Moses Riddle witness); Gv579 700 ac Dial's Creek, warrant c. 29 Dec 1760 (3 days after Brown's), granted 13 Oct 1761, SCC George Gibson + Paul Collins; adj Thompson's Camp Creek grant (Gv685, 1762) | Louisa VA > Flat River NC c. 1748; stayed | Patriarch. Probable father of Samuel, George1, Thomas Jr, John [P]. Gv579 reads as a defensive filing against Brown's warrant (14.10) |
| Samuel Collins | b. say 1724 | 1745 Louisa presentment (wife tithable); 1746 Vernon suit, 16 pounds 9 + 14 lb DEER SKINS; 1746/7 Sabbath hunting-fishing presentment (with William C.); 1755: 2 tithes MULATTO; 1787 Wilkes census: 1M 21-60, 1F | Flat River; later Wilkes | Flat River > Wilkes NC | Probable son of Thomas [P]; Heinegg's ancestor of the Wilkes-Ashe men; candidate father of Meredith |
| John Collins (son) | b. say 1736 | 1755 Orange NC: 1 tithe MULATTO | | | Probable son of Thomas [P]; Blackburn's candidate father of Meredith |
| John Collins (elder?) [?] | b. by c. 1730? | Flat River records from c. 1750; possibly the 1743 (27 Jan 1742/43) Orange VA "Indian" John; candidate: "Elisha Wallen, Senr. assignee of John Collins, 200 ac N side Rocky Creek, settled 1774" [OL25] | Flat River adjoining Gibson 1751; Rocky Creek claim 1774 (assigned away) | Flat River c. 1750-1767 > Peach Bottom Creek, New River 1767 (Dillon) | Two-Johns tension unresolved; sons Lewis + James per Grayson tax [C] |
| George1 Collins | b. c. 1728 | | | Anson Co NC 1764 purchase per Heinegg | Probable son of Thomas [P]; candidate 1761 chain carrier if blog reading were right (plat says Gibson) |
| Thomas Collins Jr | b. say 1734 | 1755 taxable; 1800 ASHE: 7 "OTHER FREE" | | Flat River > Ashe | Probable son of Thomas [P] |
| Paul Collins | | 1752 grant witness; **1761 Gv579 SWORN CHAIN CARRIER [D plat]**; 1777 Caswell taxpayer | | STAYED on the Flat | The constant; kin of Thomas, exact link unplaced |
| Dennis Collins | | SCC on Gv313, S Fork Flat River, 4 Dec 1753; own tract surveyed 2 days later | Gv091: 480 ac both sides Cobbs Creek, surveyed 6 Dec 1753, granted 8 May 1755, SCC Cornelius + Francis DOLLARHIDE, PB 14 p. 384 [OL19 plat in hand] | | New name; in the neighborhood; link unplaced; Dollarhide surname to watch |
| Joseph Collins | | adjoined by Combs grant Gv131, 1756 | Flat River, W side | | Link unplaced |
| James Collins (Haw River) | | Gv178: 350 ac Haw River 1756, own "Collins Creek"; non-community chain carriers | Haw River | | CAUTION: probably separate family; but a James SCC'd 1753 beside Joseph Collins (Gv015), not fully separable |
| Meredith Collins | c. 1760 VA - 1841 Pike KY | McDaniel's Company list, Kegley *Militia* pp. 23-24, undated [D OL46]; **refused a tour: Montgomery court martial of 23 April 1783, "under similar orders" to Ozburn's refusers (armed-vessels duty), listed after James Cox, with Blevins and Saxton [D OL25]**; DAR Patriot A024535; white 1810, colored and slave columns 1820, white 1830, 1840 apparently in the Robinson household; 1838 pauper declaration; 1840 accusation vs sons | New River; Pike Co KY | Montgomery VA > Russell > Floyd/Pike KY | Our man. Father: Samuel [P] or John [C]. Wives: (1) unnamed c. 1782-85 (Bradley's mother); (2) Polly Holloway m. c. 1799 [D Eula app]; late partner Milly Johnson |
| Polly Holloway | c. 1780 VA - ante 1840 [D Eula app]; d. c. 1812 per Conley-via-Blackburn | m. Meredith c. 1799 [D Eula application preview] | | | Second wife; mother of Archibald (c. 1800), James, Jesse (c. 1804), William (1806), and Hiram (c. 1804-06), with Edward, John W., and Reuben on the Conley list alone [?]; NOT Bradley's mother (b. c. 1780 vs Bradley 1787), though the DAR's Bradley-line papers name her; the Ned legend (b. 1796-1802) straddles the start of this marriage |
| Lewis Collins | b. 1754 | "son of John" on muster annotation; consecutive line with Meredith on McDaniel's list (Kegley pp. 23-24); 1776 enlistment with Meredith, George, David per the family record, but by his pension living on Broad River, SOUTH CAROLINA, and drafted there against the Cherokee (Capt. James Steen); Eutaw Springs, Sept 1781; taken as a Tory at the "Rock House" 1780 with David Gibson, escaped (W1044); pension S21142 (OL51) | | | If Blackburn right, Meredith's brother |
| David Collins | | 1776 enlistment (family record); McDaniel's list (Kegley pp. 23-24) [D] | David1: Ashe estate 41 pounds 1778; 1790 Wilkes | | Heinegg groups under Samuel [P]; **CANDIDATE STRUCTURE (14.21) [?]: = DAVID SR. b. c. 1755, father of David Jr. (b. ~1785) and Samuel (b. ~1793), the 1813 consenter, one of the two elders in David Jr.'s 1820 Wythe household, dead or gone by 1840; tests: 1830 Wythe + Wythe probate (task 48)** |
| David Collins Jr. (of Wythe) [?] | b. c. 1787 (1840, 1850, death register concur; 1830 tick = slop) - d. Nov 1866, Wythe, dropsy, age 79 [D] | **BLACKSMITH** (1850: household = a working smithy with hammerman son-in-law John Moore + young labor); 1820/1830/1840/1850 Wythe heads; wife ELIZABETH (63 in 1850, b. VA, illiterate, d. before Nov 1866); children: illegible son b. c. 1821, Elizabeth b. c. 1815 (m. Moore 1849-50), James C. b. 1828 (m. Mabe 1865), Adam b. 1831 (m. Mabe 1856), granddaughter Catherine b. c. 1843; counted white throughout | | Wythe Co | Probable son of David Sr. [?]; the 1866 "Sr." relative to the WYTHE DAVID b. 1818 (David III candidate, task 57); estate = Wythe books 1866-67 |
| Samuel Collins (of David) [?] | b. c. 1792-95 | m. Permelia Gaines 1813 Montgomery (consent of father David) [D]; candidate household 1820 WASHINGTON Co: man 26-45, wife 16-26, 3 children b. 1814-20, farmer [strong, OL36] | | Montgomery > Washington Co | Male-line branch; trace forward 1830 (task 52) |
| Samuel Collins (of Daniel) [?] | b. by 1775 | m. Rachel Price 1801 Montgomery (sur. Daniel) [D]; candidate household 1820 GILES Co: head 45+, wife 26-45, children from c. 1802, two in agriculture [strong, OL36] | | Montgomery > Giles Co (Pearisburg) | Daniel's probable son; trace forward (task 52) |
| George2 Collins "the hunter" | | cabin in Ashe when first grants issued 1780s; estate 26 pounds 1778; 1787 Wilkes 1M+3M under 21+3F; possibly 1830 Wilson TN 14 FREE COLORED | Ashe cabin | > TN? | Heinegg under Samuel [P] |
| Elisha Collins | | REFUSED the Oath of Allegiance before James McCorkle in the fall of 1777 as a man of Cox's company, "Elisha Collins, Coxes Compy." (Kegley, *Militia*, p. 50); NOT on McDaniel's list | Ashe land adjoining Stephen + James REED | New River | The refuser; Reed adjacency on the New River |
| Valentine Collins | | 1790 Wilkes (ordinary schedule); **1800 Ashe: 6 "OTHER FREE"**; 1801-03 STONY CREEK church member; 1802 Lower Russell tax WHITE | | Ashe > Russell/Scott VA | The kaleidoscope in one man: white, other free, white, and at Stony Creek where "Melungin" was first written (1813) |
| Vardy Collins | | 1790 Wilkes; **1800 Ashe: 4 "other free"**; 1830 Hawkins TN: 8 FREE COLORED | | > Hawkins TN (Newman's Ridge) | Namesake of Vardy community |
| Ambrose Collins | | estate 20 pounds 1778; 1790 Wilkes; **1800 Ashe: 4 "other free"** | | | |
| Martin Collins | | 1790 Wilkes | | | |
| Charles1 Collins | | estate 44 pounds 1778 | | | |
| Griffin Collins | | 1810 GRAINGER TN: 11 FREE COLORED (also Lewis 10, Joseph 9) | | > Grainger TN | Grainger cluster |
| Middleston / Melinton Collins | | 1777 Caswell (stayed); 1782 Montgomery VA list; 1793 Wythe list | | Flat > New River | Rare name threading stayers and leavers |
| Obadiah Collins | | 1777 Caswell taxpayer | | STAYED | |
| Bradley Collins | b. 1787 NC (1850 census) / VA (DAR); last alive 29 Nov 1850 | 1820 Floyd; 1830 Clay; m. Barney 1831, Griffin 1833, Luneford 1836 (Clay register [D]); sold Clay land 1839; 1840 CHARITON MO (margin annotation, OL6); 1850 Appanoose sheet 29 Nov: age 63, in Andrew's household, cannot read/write, counted white; DAR child of Meredith + Polly Holloway | Clay Co KY farm | (Wilkes-Ashe NC birth) > KY > flatboat > Chariton MO 1840-44 > Appanoose IA 1844 | FIVE wives incl. unknown first + Jane Ray 1817; wives dying young; son Andrew; HALF-BROTHER of Jesse (the father reading is withdrawn) |
| Andrew Collins | c. 1811 KY - c. 1875 Scott MO [D DAR] | m. BETSY ANN SIZEMORE 31 Mar 1838 CLAY CO KY [D register]; 1850 Appanoose: 39, farmer, cannot read/write, counted white, children Lewis, Samson, Archibald(?), Polly A. (2), father Bradley co-resident, Center Twp No. 3 | | Clay KY > Appanoose IA (by 1849) > Scott Co MO | Bradley's son; Jesse's nephew (Jesse was Bradley's half-brother); SIZEMORE alliance; sons carry Meredith-generation names (Lewis, Archibald) |
| Jesse Collins | c. 1804, likely RUSSELL CO VA - 1847 | Consent note 25 Nov 1827 (James Read author; Stephen Read + Hiram Collins attest) [D OL22]; m. MARY REED 13 Dec 1827 Clay Co [D]; 1840 Missouri census | | Russell VA > Clay KY > Morgan Co IN (1830) > IL > St. Louis Co MO (1840) > Appanoose IA (probably by 1847) | OUR LINE. Son of Meredith and Polly Holloway [settled 2026-09-23]; half-brother to Bradley |
| Hiram Collins | b. c. 1804-06 | ATTESTED Jesse's consent note 25 Nov 1827 [D OL22]; m. ELIZABETH REED, 8 Dec 1829, Clay Co [D register]; **1830 CLAY: he and his wife ticked in the SLAVE columns, child in the white column; 1840 MONTGOMERY CO INDIANA [very likely MORGAN Co, the page after James Reed's; revised 2026-09-27, see 14.23]: household of seven, the only FREE COLORED entry on its page [OL37]; 1850 KNOX CO IN entry (Hiram 46 b. VA, wife Elizabeth 39 b. INDIANA, Francis 17) logged with MULTIPLE-HIRAMS CAUTION: tensions with the Reed marriage and the 1840 household; prior-chat Hiram-sorting to re-import (task 59)** | | Clay KY > Morgan Co IN (recorded earlier as Montgomery) > ? | Probable brother of Jesse; the family's starkest kaleidoscope arc |
| Edward Collins (Patrick Co) [?] | b. c. 1804 NC | 1850 Patrick census (14.11): 46, farmer, $1,000, counted white, w. Eliza 36 VA, Davis Collins 21, Samuel Holt 24; 1840 Patrick household (14.14); **ABSENT from Patrick in 1830 (14.24): the ONE cluster member who ARRIVES in the 1830s: the arrival test favors the Ned candidacy** | Patrick Co VA farm | NC > (elsewhere 1830) > Patrick Co VA by 1840 | CANDIDATE for Ned "half Indian" of the legend; near Pittsylvania and the Goinstown corridor; tests remaining: 1860 Patrick, marriages, the Holt hypothesis (tasks 27, 41) |
| Abraham Collins | | m. Christina Poutston/Poulston, 1828, Clay Co [D register]; license-order oddity in register | | Clay Co KY | Unplaced; new Clay name |
| William Collins (of Clay) | | m. Sytha Powell, Jan 1832, Clay Co [D register] | | Clay Co KY | Unplaced; NOT William son of Meredith (whose path ran to WV) |
| James Collins (of Clay) | | m. Martha Ann Cotton, Jul 1839, Clay Co [D register] | | Clay Co KY | Unplaced; James recurs across the family |
| William Collins | 13 Apr 1806 RUSSELL CO VA - 30 Mar 1896 Craigsville WV [D Eula app] | m. (1) Mary Mullins [C]; (2) Molly Hatfield 25 Nov 1860 [D Eula app] | | Russell VA > Pike KY > Nicholas Co WV | Meredith + Polly's son; the WV colony; Eula Conley's line (her grandfather Samuel b. 1861 Pike Co took the family to Portland OR) |
| Moses Riddle / Ridley | | 1755 Orange NC: 1 tithe + WIFE MARY, both MULATTO; Carlson: "an Indian man" bordering Tom Collins and the Gibsons; **SCC on Brown's Gv591, 13 Apr 1761, the survey absorbing his own improvements [D]**; **1767 Pittsylvania VA tax: "Moses Ridle (AN INDIAN)"** | held by improvement only: NEVER a Granville grantee (user's index sweep); improvements absorbed by Brown's 1760 warrant; Sandy River entries, Pittsylvania | Flat River > Pittsylvania VA before 1767 | NOT Thomas's father-in-law (b. c. 1715-25; son John b. c. 1750); a daughter b. c. 1740 may have married one of Thomas's younger sons [?]; not in Kegley's *Militia* (the only Riddles there are John and William, p. 51); claimed son of Margaret Ridley (servant) + Edward Buss (mulatto) per WikiTree (Riddle-158, Redley-1; OL49), court records not found [?]; Buss = Bass? [?]; the man who never got paper |
| William Riddle | | 1767 Pittsylvania list (William Ridle); **took the oath of allegiance with Capt. Cox's company in the fall of 1777 as "William Ridel" (James McCorkle's list, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777, Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 50-51) [D]** | | Pittsylvania > New River | Son of Moses; lore identifies a Tory William Riddle (kidnapped Col. Cleveland Apr 1781, hanged) with him: UNVERIFIED; his fall 1777 oath predates the April 1781 kidnapping, so it does not argue against the identification (task 33) |
| John Riddle | b. c. 1750? | took the oath of allegiance with Capt. Cox's company in the fall of 1777, by his mark ("Jno. (his mark) Riddle," Kegley, *Militia*, p. 51) [D]; **candidate = pensioner S9069: entered 1776 under Capt. JOHN COX at the lead mines, Long Island of Holston Cherokee expedition, 4.5 months; resident 1833 on the STOKES-ROCKINGHAM line NC (Goinstown corridor, adjacent Patrick) [OL26]** | | New River > Stokes/Rockingham NC? | Son of Moses; Christian's 1776 campaign (the column Meredith went with is unrecorded); Patrick-Stokes convergence flagged [?] |
| Thomas Gibson | | 1755: 3 tithes MULATTO; Flat River patents adjoining Charles Gibson, Moses Ridley, Thomas Collins | Flat River | | Gibson patriarch; son Charles pension R3995 |
| George Gibson | | 1755: 1 tithe MULATTO; **1761 Gv579 SWORN CHAIN CARRIER [D plat]** | | | On Thomas's chain |
| Charles Gibson | | 1755: 1 tithe; pension R3995 applied Hawkins TN 1839 | | > Hawkins TN | Community Revolutionary testimony source (task 15) |
| Mager Gibson | | 1755: 1 tithe MULATTO | | | |
| Gedion + Micajer Bunch | | 1755: 1 tithe each, MULATTO | | Micajah Bunch on 1773 New River "Indian Lands" list | Bunch family thread, Flat River to New River |
| William Bowlin | | on the merged OL1 roster only, NOT on McDaniel's list or McCorkle's 1777 oath list (source not yet located); Bowlin improvements in 1760 Brown warrant; Bowlins on 1767 Pittsylvania list | Flat River improvements (lost) | Flat > Pittsylvania and New River | |
| Sexton brothers (Benjamin, Charles, John) | | McDaniel's list (Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 23-24, undated) [D]; **JOHN SAXTON on the refusal list beside Meredith, court martial 23 Apr 1783 [OL25]**; **WM. SEXTON's commissioner's preemption certificate, 1,000 ac New River below Bingeman's Bottom, ASSIGNED AWAY via John Hays to Richard Muse [OL28]** | New River preemption (assigned away) | | Allied family on the roster, refusing alongside; the assigned-away-claim pattern's third instance; Saxton spelling variant; workup task 37 |
| Montgomery Collins marriage cluster (Daniel, Hezekiah, et al.) [?] | | Bonds and returns 1785-1830 (14.17): Elenor 1785; John x Betsy Johnston 1793; Nancy dau. of DANIEL 1794; Samuel x Rachel Price 1801 (sur. Daniel); Sally 1808 + Lucinda 1819 (sur. HEZEKIAH); Samuel x Permelia Gaines 1813 (consent of DAVID as father); 1820s marriages; Zachariah x McDaniel 1830 | | Montgomery-Wythe | UNSORTED: stay-behind kin in the county mainstream, or a separate Montgomery Collins family; Daniel and Hezekiah absent from Flat River and muster sets; sorting tests task 42 |
| Jacob Collins (of Wythe) | head c. 40-50 in 1830 | 1830 Wythe household (several sons and daughters) on David Jr.'s page [OL37] | | Wythe Co | New Wythe name; unplaced; candidate cluster kin (task 56) |
| Brooks Collins (of Wythe) | b. 1800-10 | 1830 Wythe: 1M 20-30 + 1F 15-20, total two (newlyweds); Coxes on the page [OL37] | | Wythe Co | New name, unplaced; "Brooks" reads like a mother's surname passed down (task 56) |
| Thomas Collins (of the 1829 Booth marriage) | b. 1800-10 | m. Elizabeth Booth 1829 Montgomery [D register, 14.17]; 1830 Montgomery: childless couple both 20-30 [strong match, OL37] | | Montgomery Co | The bond cluster materializing in the censuses; not Thomas Jr. of the old tree |
| Zachariah Collins | | m. MARY ANN McDANIEL, 28 Oct 1830, Buckingham's minister list [D OL25] | | Montgomery/Wythe area | Unplaced; documents a Collins-McDaniel marriage a generation after the company (task 38) |
| Capt. James McDaniel (McDonnald/McDannal) | | Commanded the company on Kegley, *Militia*, pp. 23-24 (undated: Meredith, Lewis, David, George, the Sextons); in the fall of 1777 he swore the oath of allegiance as one of Cox's men, before he had a company of his own (Kegley, *Militia*, p. 51); in the Elk Creek Turkey Fork land-assignment chain, settled 1776 [OL25]; sat on (Walter Crockett presided) the court martial of 23 April 1783 that listed his men "under similar orders" | Elk Creek waters | | The company district = the Peach Bottom / Elk Creek neighborhood; profile task 35 |
| Capt. John Cox | | Commanded John Riddle's 1776 Cherokee-expedition tour from the lead mines (S9069, OL26); **400 acres on PEACH BOTTOM, settled 1774 [OL30]** | Peach Bottom Creek | | The Collins family's neighbor on their own creek; JAMES COX beside Meredith on the 1783 refusal list; the two captains bracket the family's hollows |
| Betsy Ann Sizemore | c. 1815 VA - 1870 Pike MO | m. Andrew Collins 1838 Clay Co [D DAR] | | | Sizemore = Christian Saponi band family per Carlson; workup pending |
| James Reed/Read (of Clay) [D] | b. c. 1766-75 (census ages); d. c. 1841, Clay Co KY [or bef. 6 Jan 1845, Morgan Co IN]; son of Hugh Reed (d. bef. end of 1786, Rowan Co NC) per the Attride compilation only [?] (revised 2026-09-27) | AUTHOR-SIGNATORY of the 25 Nov 1827 consent note to clerk Abner Baker [D OL22]: MARY'S FATHER, literate or signature-literate; children marrying Clay 1822-1830 (reconstruction, 14.12); James Reed m. Polly Silver 1839 (father remarrying or son James; task open); 1830 Clay: himself in the slave column (55-100), four young men also in the slave columns, one free colored man 24-36, his wife the one person counted white [D] | | Clay Co KY [> Morgan Co IN, reading B] | Father of Mary [D], probable father of Elizabeth, Stephen + candidates Randolph, William (Patsy moved off 2026-09-27: more likely Stephen Reed Jr's daughter); name echoes the Ashe adjacency (Stephen + James Reed) |
| Stephen Read/Reed | b. c. 1800-07 | ATTESTED Jesse-Mary consent note 25 Nov 1827 [D OL22]; m. NANCY POWELL, 13 DEC 1827, Clay Co [D register]: THE SAME DAY as Jesse x Mary; double wedding near-certain | | Clay Co KY | Probable brother of Mary [strong]; flagged for census tracing (task 37); name from the Ashe-adjacency generation |
| Kelsey (Kesiah?) Collins | | Richard Reed license for her, Jan 1827, unsolemnized [D register] | | Clay Co KY | Unplaced Collins woman; third Reed-Collins pairing, direction reversed; whose daughter? (task 31) |
| William Reed (Eno) [?] | | Gv139: 292 ac Eno River branches, 1756; also Gv322 adjacency, Robert Reed Gv293, John Reed SCC Gv170 | Eno River | | LEAD ONLY, common surname; test vs Heinegg Reed entry (task 22) |
## 17. Consolidated open tasks (origin line)
1. ~~1787 NC state census, Wilkes: Samuel (and John) household composition.~~ PARTIALLY RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.1): Samuel's 1787 household was 1 male 21-60 and 1 female per Heinegg; sons already out. Remaining: check the published 1787 Wilkes list for any John Collins household.
2. Wilkes/Ashe deed sweep for Samuel-to-son or John-to-son conveyances.
3. ~~Granville grant packets for Thomas's surveys.~~ SUBSTANTIALLY RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.3): chain carriers identified (Paul Collins plus George Gibson or George Collins, sources disagree). RESOLVED Sept 16 (14.7, OL13): the Gv579 plat names GEORGE GIBSON and PAUL COLLINS.
4. Botetourt/Montgomery tithables 1771-1782: whose household Meredith first appears in. UNCHANGED, still the highest-value paternity test.
5. ~~Heinegg Collins entry re-read for a Flat River John.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.1): John, b. say 1736, Molata taxable 1755, probable son of Thomas; two-Johns tension logged.
6. ~~1840 Callaway image heading re-read; 1840 Carroll + Chariton Collins surname search.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16, 2026: left-margin annotation on the image reads "Chariton County" (Section 11, OL6). Optional follow-up only: read the right-hand page of the same sheet for Bradley's full column entries and the free colored columns.
7. ~~Moses Riddle → Thomas Collins father-in-law lead.~~ RULED OUT 23 Sept 2026: Moses (b. c. 1715-25) was too young. REDIRECTED: a daughter of Moses, b. c. 1740, marrying one of Thomas's younger sons, possibly Meredith's father (bears on task 4).
8. William Read / Sappony Creek 1729 identification (a Surry County record, DW&c 8:22; county of the land unstated) (Reed side lead logged here for its Saponi geography).
9. Milly Johnson's son (b. c. 1818, bound out 1829, mother's surname): any trace under Johnson in later Pike records.
10. ~~Orange Co NC 1755 tax list: obtain image of the Thomas/Samuel "Molata" entries.~~ TRANSCRIPTION OBTAINED Sept 16 (Section 14.2, full roster); original image still wanted (T&C box 1, p. 15 and 19, NC Archives).
11. ~~DAR GRS ancestor lookup for Meredith Collins.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.5): Patriot A024535, service proof Kegley p. 23 (McDaniel's Company); eleven-plus member applications through William (m. Molly Hatfield) and Bradley (wife unknown, "X X"); none through Jesse.
12. NEW: FamilySearch Full-Text Search sweeps (Louisa orders; Granville/Wilkes/Ashe deeds; Russell, Floyd, Pike, Clay courts; every Meredith spelling).
13. ~~NEW: pull Thomas Collins's Granville survey image at nclandgrants.com (settles the chain-carrier George question).~~ DONE Sept 16 (14.7, OL13): plat obtained; GEORGE GIBSON confirmed.
14. NEW: LVA Chancery Records Index search, Collins, in Grayson, Wythe, Montgomery, Russell counties.
15. NEW: read Charles Gibson pension R3995 (Hawkins Co TN 1839) for New River community testimony.
16. Meredith pension/bounty search (NARA catalog, Fold3): unchanged; no application located despite his surviving well past the 1832 militia-pension act. An absence, a rejection, or an unclaimed bounty warrant would each be informative.
17. ~~Gv579 warrant as Brown-hypothesis test.~~ HYPOTHESIS RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.10): Brown's was his own parallel grant, Gv591. Remaining, downgraded to documentation: pull the Gv591 plat image (Moses Riddle's chain-carrier signature line) and the Gv579 warrant (to confirm the 29 Dec 1760 date and the three-day-race sequence).
18. NEW: obtain Richard Carlson's dissertation on the Saponi/Christian Saponi Band (the source behind the Hawkins summaries in OL10) for the Flat River chapter and its footnoted primary records (white-tithable lists c. 1750-53, the Moses Ridley land records).
19. NEW: 1767 Pittsylvania Co VA tax list (John Wilson's list) original image: "Moses Ridle (an Indian)," William Ridle, the Bowlins; plus the Sandy River land entries. Library of Virginia / published Pittsylvania tithables.
20. NEW: Grayson County, VA tax records establishing Lewis and James Collins as probable sons of John Collins of Peach Bottom Creek (per Dillon); bears directly on the Meredith paternity fork via the elder-John thread.
21. NEW: the claimed court records of Margaret Ridley (indentured servant) and Edward Buss (mulatto), Moses Riddle's asserted parents; targeted search Sept 16 returned nothing public; locate via the citations on the WikiTree profiles the claim comes from (Riddle-158; "Margaret (Redley) Buss," Redley-1; OL49; not the Empty Branches post) and the Halifax/Pittsylvania/Lunenburg VA order books. Test the Buss = BASS hypothesis (Nansemond-descended free family, Heinegg's Bass entry). If Margaret was the servant mother, she was almost certainly white (the 1662 mechanism, as with William Reed), placing any Indian descent through Buss, through Moses's wife Mary, or through community identity.
22. Test the Eno River William Reed (Granville Gv139, 1756) against Heinegg's Reed family entry; a match would push the Collins-Reed adjacency back to 1750s Orange County.
23. DAR purchases, final strategy (14.8-14.9): buy full forms only, (1) 562294 Eula Conley's own application, (2) the full form behind the Bradley chain (663507 pending the connecting-number check on 675733's short-form note). Short forms (661999, 675733) carry no independent documentation. Before March 16, 2026 ($10 becomes $15). [Obsolete: the page already shows $15 (14.12, OL21).]
24. ~~Clay Co vitals check for Andrew-Sizemore 1838.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.11): confirmed in the register, license and marriage 31 Mar 1838.
25. ~~Appanoose 1850 images for Andrew's household.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16 (Section 14.11): user had already read it; Andrew 39 with Betsy, four children, and Bradley 63 (b. NC) co-resident; sheet dated 29 Nov 1850, decoding the DAR death entry.
26. NEW: Sizemore family workup: Betsy Ann's parents; the Grayson/Ashe Sizemores (incl. "Old Ned" Sizemore) among the Christian Saponi band per Carlson; the Sizemore Y-DNA line (Native American haplogroup) in the Melungeon DNA literature as context.
27. UPDATED: 1840 Patrick Edward READ (14.14); the **1830 Patrick census** test is DONE (14.24, OL38): Edward absent in 1830 and present by 1840, the arrival signature (Reuben was already there in 1830). Also still: Patrick marriages (Edward x Eliza, c. 1840s), the RUSSELL and Tazewell 1840 Edward Collinses (Russell = the family's own county), 1860 Patrick follow-up, the farm deed, the missing elder son (b. 1820-25).
28. NEW: pull further Clay Co male-surname register sections from the user's download source: REED (the third Reed-Collins marriage; the sisters' family structure), SIZEMORE (Betsy Ann's kin), HOLLOWAY.
29. ~~Locate the Jesse-Mary license/bond and decode the annotation.~~ RESOLVED Sept 16 evening (14.13, OL22): consent note found, James Read author, "of James" decoded, Mary's father named. Follow-ons moved to task 34.
30. NEW: Clay Co probate/guardianship sweep for Bradley's wives (Barney, Griffin, Luneford) and any children of those marriages; estate or guardian records could name unknown siblings of Andrew.
31. NEW: identify Kelsey (Kesiah?) Collins of the Jan 1827 Richard Reed license: whose daughter (Bradley's? a cousin's?); any later marriage or census trace.
32. NEW: Sizemore-in-Clay via the 1820-1840 Clay Co census schedules (the S register section is lost pre-1864); Betsy Ann b. c. 1815 VA, so her household arrived from Virginia between c. 1815 and 1838.
33. NEW: Moses Riddle after 1767: Pittsylvania Co entry and deed books for the Sandy River entries (patented or lapsed?); trace to death; TEST, not assume, the Riddle-family lore identifying son William with the Tory-outlaw William Riddle hanged on the New River.
34. NEW, the bond shopping list (loose files, same film series as OL22), in yield order: (1) Stephen Read x Nancy Powell, Dec 1827 (shared attesters / hand / adjacent file numbers = double-wedding closure); (2) Hiram x Elizabeth Reed, BOTH files, 1828 and 1829 (James Read consent would document Elizabeth as another daughter; differences may explain the year's gap); (3) Andrew x Betsy Ann Sizemore, 1838 (consent names Betsy's father); (4) Richard Reed x Kelsey Collins, Jan 1827 (consenter identifies her household); (5) Bradley's three, 1831/1833/1836 (bondsmen map his network; the Griffin bond especially); (6) Randolph Reed 1825 and William Reed 1830 (test as James's sons); also photograph any formal bond and minister's return in the Jesse-Mary file itself.
35. NEW, McDaniel chapter: profile Capt. James McDaniel via Kegley (*Militia*, FamilySearch Digital Library book 1033071: pp. 23-24, 50-52, and the index SEEN 23 Sept 2026, OL46; what remains there is Bowlin/Bolin/Bowling and any Collins entries on the other 1777-79 oath lists; plus the *Early Adventurers on the Western Waters* series) and Montgomery/Wythe/Grayson records: his land, the company's district, the source of the merged roster's William Bowlin.
36. NEW, McDaniel chapter: sweep revwarapps.org for OTHER Montgomery Co / McDaniel-company pension declarations (search McDaniel, Montgomery, lead mines, Preston): neighbors' narrated tours reconstruct the company's actual service (musters, lead-mines guard, Tory suppression 1779-80, Cherokee 1776); plus the Montgomery court order books 1777-82 (oath refusals, militia fines, Tory prosecutions) and Preston's papers in the Draper MSS for the lead-mines defense.
37. NEW: trace Stephen Read/Reed (b. c. 1800-07): 1830/1840 Clay censuses, 1850 census with wife Nancy; the Powell double-connection (Nancy Powell; Sytha Powell m. William Collins 1832). Also the Sexton family workup (the roster's third allied family: Benjamin, Charles, John Sexton/Saxton; John Saxton on the refusal list; Kegley searches under both spellings; Grayson tax lists; revwarapps S-surname browse; 1810/1820 Grayson and 1800 Ashe censuses).
38. NEW: Zachariah Collins (m. Mary Ann McDaniel 1830): which Collins line; 1830/1840 Montgomery-Wythe-Grayson censuses.
39. NEW: John Riddle S9069 full read (remaining pages beyond the user's excerpt: later tours, officers, family statements); trace him in Stokes/Rockingham censuses 1800-1840; test identity with Moses's son John; map his residence against Goinstown and Patrick (the Riddle-Collins convergence flag).
40. UPDATED: session date RESOLVED (23 Apr 1783, Patrick Campbell's house, 14.15). Remaining: run the 14.15 search-term list through vols 1-3 (insolvent and delinquent lists especially); ~~read W1044 and transcribe the Joseph Collins affidavit~~ DONE 23 Sept 2026: affidavit of 27 Jan 1849, Grainger Co TN (NARA M804, roll 1642, frame 0730; transcribed at joepayne.org): Tories taken at a "Rock House"; "stone tower/fort" was a paraphrase.
41. NEW: Samuel Holt Collins hypothesis tests (14.14 revised): Patrick marriages for Edward Collins x a HOLT bride c. 1820-25; 1860 census for Samuel H. Collins vs Samuel Holt; the 1850 enumerator's surname-blank habits.
42. NEW: sort the Montgomery Collins marriage cluster (14.17): 1810/1820 Montgomery and Wythe censuses for DANIEL, DAVID, and HEZEKIAH Collins households (free-colored columns); check the 1782 company lists and Grayson tax rolls for Daniel/Hezekiah; map the Wygal-Price-Gaines-Furrow surety network's geography (Walker's Creek, Reed Creek). The David-consent 1813 entry is the priority identification.
43. NEW: read *Early Adventurers* vol. I, pp. 137-151 (the TORIES chapter, per vol. 2's own pointer) for the Gibson and Riddle context; order or view the Montgomery County Loose Papers item 23680 (Court Martials 1781-1783) at the Library of Virginia for the original of the 23 Apr 1783 refusal record; note the Findley/Juda Indian-descent freedom-suit literature (Wythe/Powhatan, 1813-1820) as regional legal context.
44. ~~Zoom the 1820 Wythe box 6.~~ RESOLVED by user's ditto-convention analysis (14.20): TWO men 45+; household finalized.
45. NEW: pull the 1820 GILES CO (Pearisburg) Samuel Collins household (the two-Samuels test, 14.20) and second-priority the Washington Co Samuel; skip Frederick and Nelson.
46. ~~NEW: the 1830 census (collection linked from the census hub wiki page): 1830 PATRICK Collins sweep (the cluster-arrival test: present 1830 = local family reading; absent 1830, present 1840 = arrival reading) and 1830 WYTHE David Collins (ten-year brackets age-test the Davids).~~ DONE Sept 17: 1830 Wythe David read (14.23, OL37); 1830 Patrick sweep read (14.24, OL38): Edward absent in 1830, present by 1840.
47. ~~The 1840 Wythe elder-male column.~~ RESOLVED by user's re-read (14.21): M 50-60, b. 1780-90: David Jr., not cohort David; free-colored columns blank confirmed.
48. UPDATED, the David Sr. tests: 1830 WYTHE for David Jr. (M 40-50; any M 70-80 in household = David Sr. alive); WYTHE PROBATE now dated: David Jr.'s estate in the 1866-67 books (death register found, 14.22); also identify the SECOND 1820 elder.
49. ~~Place the two Samuels.~~ SUBSTANTIALLY RESOLVED (14.22, OL36): Washington 1820 = Samuel-of-David + Permelia [strong]; Giles 1820 = Samuel-of-Daniel [strong, two grounds]. Montgomery 1820 check downgraded to optional.
50. NEW, the lost-S-section workaround: sweep the Clay registers for SIZEMORE BRIDES under other letters' grooms (first recovery: Robert Asher x Polly Sizemore, Mar 1827, OL34); trace Polly Sizemore Asher as Betsy Ann's candidate kinswoman.
51. NEW, free reconstruction of David Jr.'s family: harvest every Wythe marriage and death index entry naming DAVID COLLINS (and Elizabeth) as parent (James C. x Margaret L. Mabe 1865 and Adam x Sarah H. Mabe 1856 already in hand; James b. 1820 d. 1890 Bland candidate); the Mabe sisters' family as the next allied-surname note.
52. NEW: trace both Samuels forward (1830 Washington for Samuel-of-David; 1830 Giles for Samuel-of-Daniel); note the Washington Co Collins pocket (Elijah, Jeremiah, John) for a future pass.
53. NEW, Hiram (14.23): re-attach the 1830 Clay (slave-columns) and 1840 Morgan Co Indiana (free colored; recorded earlier as Montgomery; the Reed addendum's citation is Ancestry collection 8057, Morgan Co, image 36 of 116) census images and citations to this file; locate Hiram in 1850 (Appanoose or along the road); note the 1830 page also confirms Abraham and Bradley Collins, Christopher Bowling, John Luneford as neighbors.
54. ~~NEW, TOP CENSUS PRIORITY: 1850 WYTHE David Collins household (exact ages, ELIZABETH named, birthplaces, children incl. Adam ~19): resolves the 1830 bracket tension (14.23); then 1860 (Elizabeth alive or not, narrowing her death before Nov 1866).~~ DONE Sept 17 (14.24, OL39): David 63, the 1830 tick read as age-slop; Elizabeth's own death entry (1866) found in 14.26 (OL43); the remaining 1860 work is task 58.
55. UPDATED, Elizabeth's maiden name: her own death entry FOUND (14.26, OL43: 1866, parents unknown), so that route is closed; the David-Elizabeth marriage bond c. 1805-12 (Montgomery/Wythe series); James Collins's 1890 Bland death record; any child's post-1912 certificate.
56. NEW: place JACOB and BROOKS Collins of 1830 Wythe (Wythe marriage records; 1840/1850 forward traces); the 1830 Montgomery Thomas = the 1829 Booth groom [strong] already linked.
57. ~~Pull the Wythe 1850 David b. 1818 and Washington 1850 David b. 1822.~~ DONE (14.25): Wythe = DAVID III (m. Catherine Cook 1842, d. 1905, Fort Chiswell 1870), the register's relative "Sr." resolved; Washington = DAVID A. of the SEPARATE Elijah-of-Albemarle family (conflation caution #4).
58. UPDATED: the Moore marriage CONFIRMED by the Hardesty excerpt (Elizabeth Collins x John W. Moore, later deputy sheriff); remaining 1860 work: search 1860 Wythe for ADAM, JAMES, JOHN MOORE, DAVID III, and ELIZABETH Collins households (David Jr. and Elizabeth should sit in or near one), else browse the Wythe images; Elizabeth d. 1866 per her own death entry (14.26, OL43), not c. 1860 as the profile has it.
59. NEW: re-import the prior-chat MULTIPLE-HIRAMS tracking (two or three Hirams distinguished); verify the Knox Co IN 1850 entry against it; re-attach the 1830 Clay and 1840 Morgan Co IN (earlier "Montgomery") citations (14.23-14.24).
60. REVISED (the Frances route corrected): Frances's father was RICHARD CLIFFORD HOLBROOK (son of Jessie Clifford + Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr.), so Frances carries LUCILLE McMILLAN's maternal line, not the Collins-Reed one; a male mid-chain breaks transmission. THE COUSIN HUNT, tiers nearest first (every daughter of the same mother shares the haplogroup): (1) Jessie Clifford's DAUGHTERS (Richard's sisters) and their daughter-lines; (2) Emma Bruner's other daughters (the project holds an image of a Davis daughter of Mariah Emma); (3) Mary Elizabeth's other daughters; (4) daughters of MARY REED'S SISTERS (Elizabeth Reed m. Hiram, a probable sister; Patsy Reed m. Hollinsworth 1822 is more likely a cousin, Stephen Reed Jr's daughter [revised 2026-09-27]) and their daughter-lines. Method: scan Ancestry/23andMe match lists for cousins descending through those women via females; one 23andMe kit on one such cousin reports the maternal haplogroup (A2/B2/C1/D1/X2a = Native, near-proof for the Reed side). A male at the END of a chain still works as tester. Frances's and John's panels checked: no Native American assignment in any of the five tests; Collins-side candidate women still need their own cousin lines; Carlson footnotes (task 18) remain the documentary anchor.
61. UPDATED: verify ELIZABETH (STEVENS?) Collins: her death entry FOUND (14.26, OL43: 1866, parents unknown), so the register cannot name her parents; the David-Elizabeth marriage bond c. 1805-12 (Montgomery/Wythe).
62. NEW: test the profile's DAVID SR. (b. 1753, d. 1819, m. Nancy Ann Lee) [C]: Wythe/Montgomery PROBATE 1819-20 for a David Collins estate (would name children; a hit reconciles or breaks the 1820 two-elders reading); the Lee pedigree stays parked.
63. NEW: re-place SAMUEL-OF-DAVID (the Washington placement withdrawn, 14.25): MONTGOMERY 1820 Samuel Collins search re-upgraded; also re-examine the 1820 Washington Samuel against the Elijah family.
## Sources
| # | Source | Location |
|---|--------|----------|
| OL1 | Frankie A. Blackburn et al., "One More Mountain to Cross: The Collins Story" (1998), Searching for Saponitown. Incorporates the Eula Collins Conley research as printed by Marlin Cline, with Blackburn's bracketed additions; quotes Orange Co VA Order Book 3 (court of 27 Jan 1742/43, 1743 NS), Louisa/Granville/Wilkes/Ashe/Botetourt records, Lewis Collins pension S21142, militia rosters (its single merged roster runs together McDaniel's list, Kegley, *Militia*, p. 23, McCorkle's 1777 oath list, p. 51, and his note of refusers, p. 50: SUPERSEDED) | Project file: `One_More_Mountain_to_Cross_-_The_Collins_Story_-_Searching_for_Saponitown.html` |
| OL2 | Paul Heinegg, *Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina*, Collins family entry | freeafricanamericans.com; summarized in main file S52 |
| OL3 | Heinegg, Reed family entry (page scans): William Reed b. c. 1673, Robert Jones bequest, 1694 freedom suit, 1699 "Malatta," 1708-15 Edwards suit, possible 1729 Sappony Creek sale (Surry DW&c 8:22; county of the land unstated) | Project file: `REED_FAMILY.pdf` (zip of page scans) |
| OL4 | Pikeville Chapter DAR memorial, 1929, Pike Co courthouse grounds: sixteen Revolutionary soldiers incl. Meredith Collins; listed in *Pike County, Kentucky 1821-1987 Historical Papers No. 6* (archive.org) and Pike Co GenWeb; marker still present per hmdb.org listings | Web, verified Sept 15 2026 |
| OL5 | Jordan Ellingwood 23andMe ancestry composition, 0.5% resolution | Project file: `Jordan_Ellingwood_ancestry_composition_0_5.csv` |
| OL6 | 1840 U.S. Census, Chariton County, Missouri, p. 309 (stamped), sheet "(No. 4.)": Bradley Collins household; county confirmed from the vertical left-margin annotation "Chariton County" on the page itself. FamilySearch IGN 005154556 (multi-county Missouri reel), image 632 of 1,315, ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBS-9BGL. Supersedes the "Callaway" reel-metadata attribution in main file S50 notes | User screenshot: `Bradley-Collins-1840-census-COUNTY__.png`; margin detail: `Bradley-1840-census-left-margin-CHARITON-County-detail.png` |
| OL7 | Paul Heinegg, Collins family entry IN FULL (Church-Cotanch section): Thomas1 with probable sons Samuel, George1, Thomas2 Jr., John (b. say 1736, Molata 1 tithe 1755); 1745 Louisa presentments (tithable "probably his wife"; profane swearing); Samuel's deer-skin suit and Sabbath hunting presentment; 1760 patent chain carriers Paul Collins and George Gibson (citing NC MARS); Samuel's 1787 household; Wilkes/Ashe descendants with 1778 estates, 1787/1790/1800/1810/1830 classifications; separate King William/Pamunkey Collins family | freeafricanamericans.com/Church-Cotanch.htm, retrieved Sept 16, 2026 |
| OL8 | "Old Thomas Collins of Flat River," Historical Melungeons research blog: full 1755 Orange Co NC Molata tithe roster (Bunch, Collins x3, Riddle with wife Mary, Gibson x4); 1760/61 Thomas Collins 700-acre grant with chainbearers George Collins and Paul Collins "(mulattoes)"; 1756 Combs grant adjoining Joseph Collins; 1760 John Brown warrant absorbing "Bolins, Riddles and Collins Improvements"; 1802 Lower Russell Co tax list (Valentine Collins, Gibsons, Bolins, recorded white); Charles Gibson pension R3995 | historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2012/02/old-thomas-collins-of-flat-river.html, retrieved Sept 16, 2026 |
| OL9 | "Short version of Orange County Granville Grants," Piedmont Wanderings (David M. McCorkle-linked abstracts of the NC Archives Granville records, with Google Drive survey images): Gv579 Thomas Collins entry (13 Oct 1761, 700 acres Dials Creek, SCC George Gibson & Paul Collins, surveyed 13 Apr 1761 by Wm Churton, SSLG 87-H, RegLn 2110); Gv131 Combs (SCC Thomas Gibson Jr & Moses Reedley); Gv091 Dennis Collins; Gv178 James Collins (Haw River); Gv139 William Reed (Eno River); Gv313 (SCC Dennis Collins, S Fork Flat River) | piedmontwanderings.blogspot.com/2023/02/test.html, retrieved Sept 16, 2026 |
| OL10 | Richard Carlson dissertation on the Saponi as summarized in the Vance Hawkins research blog series: Christian Saponi Band split Louisa Co VA / Flat River NC 1750-Revolution; Sizemore and Ridley/Riddle families joining; Moses Ridley/Riddle "an Indian man" with land bordering Tom Collins, Tom Gibson, George Gibson; white tithables c. 1750-53 reclassified Molata after Orange Co formed 1753; the half-Indian and 1/16-African classification rules | vancehawkins.blogspot.com (2013, 2014, 2018 posts), retrieved Sept 16, 2026 |
| OL11 | Jack Goins-derived material (jackgoins.blogspot.com; PowWows forum transcription; Brenda Collins Dillon reading-material page at saponitown.com): 1767 Pittsylvania Co VA tax list, "Moses Ridle (an Indian)," William Ridle, Bowlins, Sandy River entries; Collins/Gibson Flat River land sales 1767-70 and New River move; John Collins ~17 years on Flat River then Peach Bottom Creek c. 1767, Lewis and James likely his sons per Grayson tax records; 1777 Caswell Co list (Paul, Martin, Middleston, Obadiah, John Collins); Thomas Sr possibly d. Orange Co c. 1770; Riddle-family parentage claim (Margaret Ridley and Edward Buss), which comes from WikiTree (Riddle-158; "Margaret (Redley) Buss," Redley-1; OL49), NOT the Empty Branches post; the court records it cites have not been found | Retrieved Sept 16, 2026 |
| OL12 | DAR Genealogical Research System, Ancestor record A024535, COLLINS, MEREDITH: Virginia, Soldier, b. circa 1760, d. post 1841 Pike Co KY; service source Kegley, *Militia of Montgomery Co, VA, 1777-1790*, p. 23, Capt. James McDaniell; member application table (Nat'l Nos. 562294/505, 661999 via child William m. Molly Hatfield; 663507, 675733, 682664, 693414, 738061, 738511, 777970, 817698, 817699 via child Bradley, spouse unknown) | services.dar.org GRS, user search Sept 16, 2026; screenshot `Screenshot_2026-09-16_at_10_37_52_AM.png` |
| OL13 | Gv579 SURVEY PLAT, primary document: Churton's record, Thomas Collins, Dial's Creek, 700 acres, surveyed 13 Apr 1761, sworn chain carriers GEORGE GIBSON and PAUL COLLINS; SSLG 87-H, Patent Book 14 p. 358. Companion: William Jones 672-ac survey, N side Flat River, 15 Aug 1763, "Entered by Jones Griffin," corner of JOHN BROWN's named. Plus three neighboring exemplar plats (Davey, Rawls, Watson) | User downloads via OL9 Drive links, Sept 16, 2026: `thomas-collins-land1.jpg` through `-land5.jpg` (land3 = Gv579; land4 = Jones) |
| OL14 | DAR GRS member and descendant pages: application 562294 identified as EULA COLLINS CONLEY (Chapter 7028OR, joined Oct 1971); her four patriot lines (Collins A024535; Evans A037746; Hatfield A052955 with problems notice, b. c. 1735 Orange Co VA, pension *W5, scout and spy; Musick A083510 with problems notice, d. Russell Co VA, took Oath of Allegiance); short-form definition (site notes) | services.dar.org, user screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (11:08, 11:10, 11:12 AM) |
| OL15 | DAR GRS Descendants free previews: Bradley-line full chain (Meredith + 1st wife POLLY HOLLOWAY > Bradley b. 1787 VA, d. p. 29 Nov 1850 Appanoose > Andrew b. c. 1811, m. BETSY ANN SIZEMORE 31 Mar 1838 Clay Co KY, d. c. 1875 Scott Co MO > Polly Ann b. 1849 Appanoose > Smith > Powell); William-line short form 661999 connecting to 562294 (William b. 13 Apr 1806 VA, d. 1896 Craigsville WV, Molly Hatfield, dau. Nancy Jane m. Blankenship, Logan Co WV); 675733 short form (Powell/Smith generations) | services.dar.org, user screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (11:34, 11:37, 11:39, 11:42 AM) |
| OL16 | Piedmont Wanderings abstracts, user's systematic Brown/Collins/Riddle sweep: Gv591 (Brown, 698 ac Flat River, 14 Oct 1761, adj Watson + Thomas Gibson, SCC MOSES RIDDLE + CHARLES GIBSON, surveyed 13 Apr 1761); Gv089 (Brown, Little River 1755); Gv685 (Thompson, Camp Creek, adj Thomas Collins); Gv897 (Justice, SCC incl. Thomas Collins); Gv985 (Wharton, SCC Thomas Collins + George Gibson); finding that Moses Riddle appears only as chain carrier, never grantee | piedmontwanderings.blogspot.com/2023/02/test.html, user search Sept 16, 2026 |
| OL17 | Clay Co KY marriage register, male surnames C, 1807-1889 (user download): Andrew Collins x Betsy Ann Sizemore 31 Mar 1838; Bradley Collins x Catherine Barney Jul 1831, x Betsy Griffin 16 Feb 1833, x Elizabeth Luneford Sep 1836; Hiram Collins x Elizabeth Reed (license 1 Dec 1828 lapsed; license 1 Aug 1829; married 8 Dec 1829); Abraham Collins x Christina Poutston 1828; William Collins x Sytha Powell Jan 1832; James Collins x Martha Ann Cotton Jul 1839; Jesse Collins x Mary Reid 13 Dec 1827 on preceding page. Plus high-crop of the Mary Reid annotation ("[two short words] of James" + caps JAMES) | User records, Sept 16, 2026; annotation crop `Screenshot_2026-09-16_at_3_50_14_PM.png` |
| OL18 | 1850 census re-reads (user): Appanoose Co IA, Center Twp No. 3, sheet 29 Nov 1850: Andrew Collins 39 KY farmer + Betsy 35 VA + Lewis, Samson, Archibald(?), Polly A. 2 + BRADLEY COLLINS 63 b. NORTH CAROLINA, elders cannot read/write, counted white. Patrick Co VA: Edward Collins 46 farmer b. NC, $1,000 real estate, w. Eliza 36 VA, Davis Collins 21, Samuel Holt 24, counted white (Ned candidate) | User census reads, Sept 16, 2026 |
| OL19 | Gv591 SURVEY PLAT (John Brown, 698 ac Flat River, surveyed 13 Apr 1761, SCC MOSES RIDLE + CHARELS GIBSON; metes running with Thomas Gibson's line and the river; the western notch = Gibson's patented tract) and Gv091 SURVEY PLAT (Dennis Collins, 480 ac Cobbs Creek, surveyed 6 Dec 1753, SCC Cornelius + Francis Dollarhide, granted 8 May 1755, PB 14 p. 384) | User downloads Sept 16, 2026: `John-Brown-Moses-Riddle-Orange-NC-Land-1.jpg`, `Dennis-Collins-87-H-Land-.jpg` |
| OL20 | Clay Co KY General Index to Marriages, R section p. 91 (FamilySearch IGN 007728051, image 91 of 814, ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BG-Q9YH-D) plus user readings of R, H, and S sections: Stephen Reed x Nancy Powell 13 Dec 1827 (SAME DAY as Jesse x Mary); Richard Reed x Kelsey Collins license Jan 1827 unsolemnized; Randolph Reed x Rhodey Hollinsworth 1825; William Reed x Lydia Langdon 1830; James Reed x Polly Silver 1839; Reed-Hollinsworth web; unsolemnized-license base rate; Lydia Bowling 1839; S section lost pre-1864; the FILE NO. column | User download and readings, Sept 16, 2026: `Clay-County-Vitals-pg91-R-section.pdf` |
| OL21 | DAR Online Library Documents Service order page for 562294: Application PDF $15 with free "Preview: Lineage" link; Supporting Documentation $30, 25 DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE; both $45; $15 record-copy pricing note effective Mar 16, 2026 (already in effect by Sept 2026; the urging elsewhere to buy before that date is obsolete) | services.dar.org, user screenshot Sept 16, 2026 (4:57 PM) |
| OL22 | Jesse-Mary CONSENT NOTE, 25 Nov 1827, Clay Co loose marriage files (FamilySearch Clay films; "Smeared Ink" archivist card): request to clerk Abner Baker to grant Jesse Collins license to marry Mary Reed; signed JAMES READ (author: Mary's father); attest STEPHEN READ and HIRAM(?) COLLINS | User download Sept 16, 2026: `Jesse-Marry-James-Reed-Marriage-Bond-Nov-25-1827.jpeg` |
| OL23 | Eula Conley 562294 free lineage preview (Descendants list, gens 1-3 displaying): Samuel Collins b. 20 Sep 1861 Pike Co KY, d. 3 Oct 1937 Portland OR, m. Nebraska Rocilla Cutlip (Nicholas Co WV) 15 Oct 1891; William Collins b. 13 Apr 1806 RUSSELL CO VA, d. 30 Mar 1896 Craigsville WV, m. (2nd) Mary A Hatfield (b. 23 Jun 1834 Logan Co VA) 25 Nov 1860; Meredith + (1st) POLLY HOLLOWAY b. c. 1780 VA, m. c. 1799, d. ante 1840 | services.dar.org, user screenshot Sept 16, 2026 (5:52 PM) |
| OL24 | 1840 U.S. Census, Patrick Co VA (user read): Edward Collins household all free white: 1M 30-40, 1M 15-20, 1M 10-15, 1F 30-40; adjacent Collins cluster William, Ruben, Edmund (+ Leighton, second William on page). Four 1840 VA Edward Collinses total: Tazewell, Russell, Preston, Patrick (+ Luke E., Brunswick) | FamilySearch 1840 collection, user search Sept 16, 2026; screenshot 5:17 PM |
| OL25 | Mary B. Kegley, *Early Adventurers on the Western Waters*, vol. 2, *The New River of Virginia in Pioneer Days, 1745-1800* (1982; reprinted 2003; archive.org item earlyadventurers0002mary), user searches: p. 218 Montgomery court martial of 23 April 1783 (Patrick Campbell's house): tour REFUSERS by company incl. "In Captain McDonnald's Company... James Cox, MEREDITH COLLINS... Jno. Robison... and John Saxton were under similar orders," Ozburn's refusers to the Chesapeake armed vessels; p. 108 land entries (Elisha Wallen Sr assignee of JOHN COLLINS, 200 ac Rocky Creek, settled 1774; Richard Wright assignee of JAMES McDANNAL, Turkey Fork of ELK CREEK, settled 1776); Buckingham minister list: Zachariah Collins m. Mary Ann McDaniel 28 Oct 1830; p. 292 Elizabeth Collins m. Jacob Hevner Jr 1836 (unplaced) | User screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (9:09, 9:14, 9:31 PM) |
| OL26 | Pension of John Riddle (Riddley) S9069, transcription C. Leon Harris: b. c. 1750; entered 1776 under Capt. JOHN COX near Chiswell's lead mines, New River; Long Island of Holston Cherokee expedition, 4.5 months; resident 1833 Stokes-Rockingham line NC | revwarapps.org, user find Sept 16, 2026 (excerpt pasted; full read task 39) |
| OL27 | Pension of Joseph Collins S2142 (READ IN FULL, conflation caution #3: namesake): b. 1745 Westmoreland Co VA, Bedford Co service under Capts. Leftwich (Buford), Watauga settler, King's Mountain aftermath prisoner guard, X mark, pensioned 6 months. Also W19209 (same site): tours under Capt. Salathiel Martin, Fox Knob to Cleveland on the Yadkin, Tory captures and killings; and W1044 (Salathiel Martin, widow Mary, f120NC, Will Graves; NARA M804, roll 1642, frame 0730), holding Joseph Collins's affidavit of 27 Jan 1849, Grainger Co TN (transcribed at joepayne.org), confirmed as the source for the 1780 escape of David Gibson and Lewis Collins | revwarapps.org/s2142.pdf retrieved Sept 16, 2026; w19209.pdf via search snippet; W1044 in user's hands |
| OL28 | Kegley vol. 2, pp. 216-225 and 154 (user screenshots): court martial 23 Apr 1783 at Patrick Campbell's house, officers incl. James McDonnald, fines list, McCorkle's pay from fines, Lynch's lead-mines letter (Razor's purse: half joe, guinea, piece of 8), the vol. I pp. 137-151 Tories pointer; 24 May 1782 deer-skins tax petition; Taylor 1781 tithable analysis (109/39 cash); Quaker 1804 anti-fines petition; Findley/Juda Indian-descent freedom suits; road-work from militia rolls; Barrett and King texture petitions; p. 154 Wm. Sexton preemption certificate (1,000 ac New River, Bingeman's Bottom, assigned away) | User screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (9:50-9:52 PM + Kegley-meredith-mcdonnald0-4.png) |
| OL29 | Montgomery Co marriage bonds and ministers' returns (Kegley vol. 2, user readings and screenshots): Wygal x Elenor Collins 1785; JOHN COLLINS x Betsy Johnston 1793; Hardy x NANCY COLLINS dau. of DANIEL 1794 (Ross return + bond); SAMUEL COLLINS x Rachel Price 1801 sur. DANIEL; Caffee x Sally Collins 1808 sur. HEZEKIAH; SAMUEL COLLINS x Permelia Gaines 1813, consent of DAVID COLLINS father; Doherty x Lucinda 1819 sur. Hezekiah; Wm x Furrow 1820; Richard x Lee 1821; Price x Nancy 1826; Benjamin x Stevens 1828; Thomas x Booth 1829 | User screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (10:07, 10:13, 10:14 PM; `Samuel-Collins-Rachel-Price-Marriage.png`, `John_Collins_Betsy_Jophnston.png`) |
| OL30 | Kegley vol. 2, final pass (user): p. 246, CAPT. JOHN COX, 400 acres on PEACH BOTTOM, settled 1774; Tories pages 298-299 and 344-346 (Shallow Ford Oct 1780; John Day pension: spy/ranger under Capt. Lyon at Parris's Fort 1779, Cloyd/Paris to Shallow Ford 1780, Preston into NC 1781; Trollinger's Moravian Towns expeditions and Continental-money loss, Pension W4087); no Gibson content in the Tories pages | User screenshots Sept 16, 2026 (10:36 PM) |
| OL31 | 1810 U.S. Census, Fauquier Co VA: David Collins (young-family household; NAMESAKE, dismissed; FamilySearch IGN 005157085, image 469, ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYYY-HJL). 1820 U.S. Census, WYTHE Co VA: DAVID COLLINS candidate household (2M<10, 1M 10-16, 1M 26-45, 2M 45+, 3F<10, 1F 26-45, 1 agriculture, free-colored columns empty; neighbors Samuel and Robert Crockett, William and Jesse Cox; IGN 005156999, image 226, ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YBS-989P) | User downloads Sept 16, 2026: `David-Collins-census-1810.pdf`, `David-Collins-Wythe-VA-census-1820.pdf` |
| OL32 | 1820 U.S. Census: Daniel Collins, HAMPSHIRE Co VA (namesake, dismissed; Thomas Collins two rows below; IGN 005156996, image 280) and Daniel Collins, PATRICK Co VA (scan unreadable; index presence logged; IGN 005157295, image 123). 1840 U.S. Census, WYTHE Co VA: David Collins (elder-male column unresolved; free-colored columns apparently blank; division of Robt. Tibbally?; IGN 005154922, image 169, ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYY1-98TL) | User downloads Sept 16, 2026: `Daniel_Collins__Hampshire_County__Virginia__census_1820.pdf`, `Daniel_Collins__Patrick_County__Virginia__Census__1820_.pdf`, `David_Collins__Wythe_County__Virginia__census__1840.pdf` |
| OL33 | 1820 U.S. Census, GILES Co VA (Pearisburg district): Samuel Collins household (tentative: includes a boy 10-16, b. 1804-10, fitting SAMUEL-OF-DANIEL m. Rachel Price 1801; user tick-read since done, OL36; IGN 005156990, image 218). 1820 U.S. Census, WASHINGTON Co VA: alphabetized C-page holding Samuel Collins (row unparsed) plus Collings Elijah and possibly others (a Washington pocket; IGN 005157295, image 214). 1840 Wythe re-read (user): David 1M 50-60 + 1F 50-60 + eight children; Samuel Holt of Wythe (lone M 30-40) = NOT the Patrick Samuel-Holt | User downloads Sept 16-17, 2026: `Samuel_Collins__ALT____Washington_County__Virginia__census_1820.pdf`, `Samuel_Collins__Giles_County__Virginia__Census_1820.pdf` |
| OL34 | Clay Co KY Register of Marriages 1826-1827 (minister's register, water-damaged volume): Dec 1827 "Jese Collins & Mary Reed" and, directly beneath, "Stephen Reed & Nancy Powel," both minister "Same" resolving to J. AMBRES (Ambrose): the double wedding's third independent record. Also Mar 1827 Robert Asher x POLLY SIZEMORE (S-section-loss workaround: Sizemore brides under other letters); James York x Matilda Booling 1826; E. Bowling x Elizabeth Payne Jul 1827; Stephen x Elizabeth Lunceford Dec 1826 | User download Sept 17, 2026: `Jesse-Collins-Mary-Reed-Stephen-Reed-Marriage-vitals.jpeg` |
| OL35 | Wythe Co VA Register of Deaths (Commissioner of the Revenue, district of Andrew J. Huffard), line 1: DAVID COLLINS SR., white, male, d. Nov 1866, Wythe Co, dropsy, 79, farmer, b. "Wythe County," parents not given, informant a friend (= DAVID JR. of the censuses, b. c. 1787). Plus FamilySearch index screenshot: Jas. C. Collins (b. 1828 Wythe) m. Margaret L. Mabe 9 Oct 1865, parents David + Elizabeth Collins; Adam Collins (b. 1831) m. Sarah H. Mabe 19 Feb 1856, parents David + Elisa; James Collins d. 1 Nov 1890 Bland, b. 1820 Wythe; Northampton Co (Eastern Shore) Collins entries noted as a separate community | User downloads Sept 17, 2026: `David_Collins_Sr___Death_Certificate__Wythe_County__Virginia__Top_Left_Corner.jpg`; screenshot 11:28 AM |
| OL36 | 1820 census tick-reads (user): WASHINGTON Co Samuel Collins: boxes 1, 5, 7(=2), 9, 13 = 1 boy <10, man 26-45, 2 girls <10, woman 16-26, farmer (= Samuel-of-David + Permelia, strong); GILES Co Samuel Collins: boxes 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13(=2) = boy <10, boy 10-16, HEAD 45+, daughters <10/10-16/16-26, wife 26-45, two in agriculture (= Samuel-of-Daniel, strong, two grounds); Washington page also holds Elijah, Jeremiah, John Collins; both pages are alphabetized clerks' fair copies (no neighbor order) | User readings Sept 17, 2026 |
| OL37 | Consort-cell zoom of the Wythe death register: "Consort. Dead" verified by the user's letter-matching against the clerk's "daughter" (vocabulary otherwise married / not married / widow). 1830 U.S. Census, WYTHE Co VA: David Collins (box-read verified against the enumerator's total of 12; M 50-60 bracket tension logged) and Jacob Collins on one page (IGN 005156040, image 623); Brooks Collins newlywed household with John L. and William Cox on the page (image 627). User-recalled prior-session reads (citations to re-attach): 1830 Clay Co KY Hiram Collins (slave-columns ticks) with Abraham and Bradley Collins, Christopher Bowling, John Luneford; 1840 Montgomery Co INDIANA Hiram Collins (free colored household of seven) [revised 2026-09-27: very likely Morgan Co, Indiana; Ancestry collection 8057, image 36 of 116, per the Reed addendum]. 1830 Montgomery Co VA Thomas Collins newlywed household (= the 1829 Booth groom, strong) | User downloads and readings Sept 17, 2026: consort crop 12:06 PM; `David_Collins__Jacob_Collins_Wythe_County__Census__1830.pdf`; `Brooks_Collins__Wythe_County__census__1830.pdf` |
| OL38 | 1830 U.S. Census, Patrick Co VA sweep (user reads; index renders "Patrick Parish, Henry"): households of William, Daniel (M 30-40), Reuben, Edmund, Martha (widow), and on distant pages Elisha (M 50-60, Cox above) and Aris (probable widow); EDWARD ABSENT (the arrival test); index screenshot 12:54 PM | User downloads Sept 17, 2026: `Reuben__Daniel__William__Edmund__Martha_Collins__Patrick_County__Virginia__Census_1830.pdf` |
| OL39 | 1850 U.S. Census, WYTHE Co VA, the David Collins blacksmith household (user read + PDF): David 63 blacksmith, Elizabeth 63, Elizabeth Moore 35 (married within year), DOW 29, James 22, Adam 19, Madison Bowman 22, Elias Smith 23, JOHN MOORE 23 hammerman, Catherine 7 (IGN 004206472, image 180, ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6P7W-LRN) | User download Sept 17, 2026: `David_Collins_John_Moore__Wythe_County__Virginia__census__1850.pdf` |
| OL40 | 1850 U.S. Census, KNOX Co INDIANA, Hiram Collins entry (user-recalled: Hiram 46 b. VA, $500, Elizabeth 39 b. Indiana, Francis 17; MULTIPLE-HIRAMS CAUTION); statewide 1850 David screenshot (12:58 PM: Pittsylvania David R. b. 1804; Russell b. 1841; Washington b. 1822; Patrick David H. b. 1825 + David b. 1828; Wythe b. 1818) | User recall + screenshot Sept 17, 2026 |
| OL41 | 1850 U.S. Census pulls: WYTHE David Collins [Jr./Sr. suffix unclear] b. c. 1818 household (Catherine 24, Charles 6, Albert 3, Lorenzo 1; IGN 004206472, image 180 vicinity, ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6P7W-LRN sheet) = DAVID III; WASHINGTON David Collins b. c. 1822 household (wagoner; Mary 25, Nancy 5, James 2, Sarah Barnett 25, Jas 18, Leonidas 12, Daniel Ryan 20 blacksmith; IGN 004206470, image 435, ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-D1ZS-4SV) = DAVID A. of the Elijah family. FamilySearch profiles [C]: "David Collins IV" 1816-1905 m. Catherine Cook 1842; David A. Collins b. 1823 m. Mary Kent 1845, son of Jeremiah, grandson of Elijah of Albemarle (d. 1840 Washington); Elizabeth Collins Moore profile: David 1787-1866 m. ELIZABETH ELIZA STEVENS 1784-1860; David's parents given as DAVID 1753-1819 m. Nancy Ann Lee 1765-1840 (Lee line to 1615 parked); Adam Marshall Collins 1831-1909 m. Sarah Elizabeth Mabe, Co. C 51st VA Infantry | User downloads and profile readings Sept 17, 2026: `David_Collins__born_1818__Wythe_County__Virginia__census_1850.pdf`, `David_Collins__born_1822__Washington_County__Virginia__census_1850.pdf` |
| OL42 | The MOORE dossier (user images): Presgraves/Hardesty excerpt (John Harrison Moore b. 14 Jul 1858, son of John W. and Elizabeth (Collins) Moore, she a daughter of DAVID COLLINS of Wythe; John W. deputy sheriff); J.H. Moore biography sheet (Cripple Creek lands, M.D., m. Julia Virginia Huffard 1886, d. 13 May 1895 off the train into the Holston; brother James drowned Reed Creek 1893); "Was He Murdered?" clipping (Bristol News: $100 vs $3.90, forehead bruise) vs Southwestern News 24 May 1895 (inquest: drowning, valuables present, the Davis shoes); PHOTOGRAPHS: Elizabeth Collins Moore tintype (FIRST photograph of the Wythe Collins line), John W. Moore tintype (not blood), J.H. Moore portrait, Adam Marshall Collins charcoal | User uploads Sept 17, 2026: `John_W__Moore-_info-1.jpg`, `Moore_Collins_Wythe_info-2.jpg`, tintype and portrait images, murder clippings |
| OL43 | Wythe Co VA Register of Deaths, year ending 31 Dec 1866, First District: line 1, ELIZABETH COLLINS, 76, cause unknown, parents unknown, consort of David Collins, informant WILLIAM PAINTER, SON-IN-LAW (14.26); plus the 1820 Samuel statewide triage screenshot (5:37 PM: Berryville/Frederick, Washington, Nelson, Pearisburg/Giles, Norfolk; no Montgomery head) | User image + screenshot Sept 17, 2026: `Elizabeth_Moore_Collins__death__1867.jpg`, 5:37 PM screenshot |
| OL44 | FamilySearch tree screenshots (8:35 PM, Meredith pedigree G6DM-KN1): the Hampshire-England Thomas graft (Thomas 1713 m. Ann Blyth 1733; Samuel 1734 m. Cicely Hall; Margaret Holloway 1765-1812 as Meredith's wife) DEMOLISHED on chronology (14.26); the Spotsylvania conflation family profiles (Capt. Joseph Collins b. 1709 Essex m. Susanna Lewis; son Lewis, Granville will 1783, Kershaw SC, m. Elizabeth Davis; son James to Orange NC = the Haw River James) | User screenshots and profile readings Sept 17, 2026 |
| OL45 | THE CIVIL WAR BROTHERS (14.27): Spencer Collins muster card, 46th Regt MO Inf Vols, Co. H, Capt. Alsup, enl. 17 Aug 1864 Springfield, mustered 9 Sept, KILLED IN ACTION 3 Nov 1864 at Vera Cruz Mo (card age 44 flagged vs our Spencer b. c. 1840-42); Find a Grave: Parsons Cemetery, Ozark Co MO. Schuyler Co MO Marriage Records 1845-1883, image 131 of 432: RELASHIA (Kalaska) COLLINS m. MARGARET KING 24 Aug 1862, and Samuel Swinney m. Catharine Collins same day, both by Richard A. Collins M.G. (the second-generation double wedding) | User finds Sept 20, 2026: muster card image, FamilySearch Schuyler register screenshot |
| OL46 | Mary B. Kegley, *Militia of Montgomery County, Virginia, 1777-1790* (Dublin, Va., 1975): pp. 23-24 (images 34-35), "A List of Capt. James McDaniell Company," undated (Meredith as "Mendaby Collens," Lewis, David, George, the Sextons, James Cox); p. 50 (image 61), Kegley's introduction to the 1777-1779 oath lists, quoting James McCorkle's closing note of refusers ("Elisha Collins, Coxes Compy."); p. 51 (image 62), McCorkle's list of men who took the oath of allegiance, 30 Sept - 5 Dec 1777 (Cox's company: "Jno. Collens," "Samuel Collens," "Jno. (his mark) Riddle," "William Ridel," James McDaniell); p. 52 (image 63), James McGavock's separate oath list, September to December 1777 (no Collinses or Riddles); index (image 88) | FamilySearch Digital Library, book 1033071; user screenshots Sept 23, 2026 |
| OL47 | Roberta J. Estes, Jack H. Goins, Penny Ferguson, and Janet Lewis Crain, "Melungeons, A Multi-Ethnic Population," *Journal of Genetic Genealogy* 7(1), Fall 2011 (published April 2012): paternal lines 12 European, 8 African, 1 Native American (a Sizemore line, Q1a3a); every maternal line European; Vardy Collins's Y line R1a1, European (Table 11); the 1813 Stony Creek "harboring them Melungins" minute (Table 1) | *Journal of Genetic Genealogy*, online; cited in *Molata* v1.3 |
| OL48 | Virginia DeMarce, transcription of Orange County, Virginia, Order Book 3 (1741-1743), p. 309: the court of 27 January 1742/43, marked "[1743 NS]," with the eleven men described as Indians (John Collins, John Bowling, and Charles Griffin among them) | saponitown.com |
| OL49 | WikiTree profiles Riddle-158 (Moses Riddle) and "Margaret (Redley) Buss" (Redley-1): the source of the claim that Moses was the son of Margaret Ridley and Edward Buss; the court records they cite have not been found | wikitree.com |
| OL50 | Paul Heinegg, *Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina*, 6th ed., 3 vols. (Clearfield, 2021): the print edition of the entries used from the website in OL2, OL3, and OL7 | Print edition; website version at freeafricanamericans.com |
| OL51 | Pension application of Lewis Collins, S21142, transcribed by Will Graves: aged 80, Grainger Co TN, August 1834; living on the waters of Broad River, SC, in August 1776, drafted (Capt. James Steen) against the Cherokee; 1778 crop with Charles Tompson, "not then a man of a family," drafted again and dismissed; June 1781 from his father's house in Montgomery Co VA (Capt. Gordon), High Hills of Santee, Eutaw Springs ("a severe battle"), prisoners to near Salisbury, discharged (Col. Locke) | revwarapps.org (Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Statements) |
| OL52 | 1840 U.S. census of Iowa Territory: "Tifford" Reed under "Van Buren, Iowa Territory," p. 282 (NARA M704, roll 102), with Benjamin Reed two pages away (FamilySearch indexes them under other counties) | Cited in *Molata* v1.3 source notes |
| OL53 | 1856 Iowa state census, Appanoose County: Tilford Reed's son Harman, about twenty, born in Iowa (Tilford there by c. 1836, whatever the 14 years' residence he gave); Benjamin Reed's household, 18 years | Cited in *Molata* v1.3 source notes |
| OL54 | *Molata*, 1st ed., v1.3 rewrite (September 2026) and its line-by-line source audit, the basis of the READ THIS FIRST block | Project file: `Molata-1st-Ed-v1.3-rewrite-op5.5.md` |
## Changelog
- 2026-09-27 (nineteenth entry): REED PASSAGES brought into line with `claude/Reed_Family_Investigation_Addendum.md` and the revised master tree. READ THIS FIRST: the Reed side of the line re-marked (William Read [?], Hugh Reed Sr. [?], James b. c. 1766-75, d. c. 1841 Clay [or bef. 6 Jan 1845, Morgan Co IN]); new block "James Reed, Mary's father"; the census line moved there from "The Reeds in Iowa" and corrected for 1830 (James is the man aged 55-100 in the slave column; the free colored man in his household is aged 24-36; his wife is the one person counted white; earlier versions had James as the free colored man); a Reed item (10) added to the open leads.
Hiram's 1840 household: very likely Morgan Co, Indiana, not Montgomery (notes in 14.23 and 14.24, the Hiram roster row, tasks 53 and 59, OL37).
James Reed: 14.12 note, tree sidebar and roster row revised; Patsy moved off his children (more likely Stephen Reed Jr's daughter; also task 60); the Polly Silver marriage dated 1839 with no month recorded (14.12 said October).
Log entries (14.x) and older changelog entries otherwise left as written, with bracketed [Revised 2026-09-27] notes.
- 2026-09-23 (eighteenth entry): SOURCE-AUDIT PASS after the book rewrite (*Molata* v1.3, OL54) and the user's reading of Kegley's *Militia* (OL46). Added the READ THIS FIRST block at the top (the current position, verbatim) and Section 14.29.
Corrected in place: the Orange Co VA court to 27 Jan 1742/43 (1743 NS) throughout; the Sappony Creek sale to a Surry record; Christiansburg dropped; Lewis's pension summary (South Carolina in 1776, Eutaw Springs); "Rock House" for "stone fort"; the merged "c. 1782" roster split into McDaniel's list (pp. 23-24), McCorkle's 1777 oath list (pp. 50-51), and his refusers (p. 50), with Samuel and John recorded as taking the oath with Cox's company (6.1, 6.2); the Estes counts and Vardy's European Y line; John Ellingwood 1.5%; James Reed b. c. 1765 and Hugh Reed added; Hiram c. 1804-06; Jesse d. 1847; Meredith d. 1841.
SETTLED and carried through Section 10, the tree, and the roster: Jesse as Meredith's son by Polly Holloway; Thomas's wife not a Riddle (Section 3, task 7).
Log entries (14.x) and older changelog entries left as written, with bracketed [Superseded 2026-09-23] notes.
Tasks marked done or updated: pullable end 5 (Section 7) and tasks 3, 7, 8, 13, 21, 27, 35, 40, 46, 54, 55, 58, 60, 61; stale notes marked (the 14.6 DAR-number contingency, the Brown takeover in 14.7, the March 16 price urging); the Brown-warrant transcription re-cited to OL8.
Sources OL1, OL3, OL11, OL21, OL25, OL27, OL33 updated in place; OL46-OL54 added.
- 2026-09-20 (seventeenth entry): THE CIVIL WAR BROTHERS RESOLVED (14.27, OL45): Spencer Collins KIA 3 Nov 1864 at Vera Cruz, Douglas Co MO, eight weeks after mustering into the 46th MO Infantry at Springfield (muster card; age-44 clerk discrepancy flagged; Parsons Cemetery, Ozark Co); KALASKA SURVIVED: m. Margaret King, Schuyler Co MO (adjacent to Appanoose), 24 Aug 1862, in a SECOND-GENERATION DOUBLE WEDDING (Samuel Swinney m. Catharine Collins same day, same minister Richard A. Collins M.G.), then Co. E 118th Illinois, Vicksburg, home to wife and children. Main file's "fates unrecorded" superseded; the user's earlier "Kolaska and Lloyd" recollection corrected to Kalaska and Spencer. Sources OL43-OL45 rows added (completing the numbering flagged in 14.26); new unplaced names: Catharine Collins (Schuyler bride), Rev. Richard A. Collins. Family-history book underway in parallel (`Collins_Reed_Family_History.md`): chapters 1-7 drafted, these findings feeding Chapter 9.
- 2026-09-17 (sixteenth entry, incl. recovery of an interrupted batch): duplicate Edward roster row merged (interruption artifact). THE MOORE DOSSIER (OL42): Elizabeth Collins x John W. Moore CONFIRMED by the Hardesty excerpt (he rose to deputy sheriff); Dr. John Harrison Moore's 1895 death decoded (suspicion vs inquest); the ELIZABETH COLLINS MOORE TINTYPE logged as the first photograph of the Wythe Collins line; phenotype cautions incl. the Baltimore Medical College received-as-white point. Profile data [C]: Elizabeth's maiden-name candidate STEVENS (test = her c. 1860 death-register entry, task 61); David Jr.'s parents given as DAVID 1753-1819 m. Nancy Ann Lee (test = 1819-20 probate, task 62; Lee pedigree parked); DAVID III confirmed (m. Catherine Cook 1842, d. 1905, Fort Chiswell): the register's "Sr." definitively resolved; DOW confirmed; ADAM MARSHALL confirmed (Co. C 51st VA Infantry). THE WASHINGTON REVISION (conflation caution #4): the b. 1822 David = David A. of the Elijah-of-Albemarle family; son-of-Samuel hypothesis withdrawn; the 1820 Washington Samuel placement doubted; SAMUEL-OF-DAVID UNPLACED AGAIN (task 63). THE DAVIDS INDEX added (eight Davids, connections to Meredith stated). THE mtDNA ROUTE THROUGH FRANCES: the break-at-Holbrook premise corrected (Richard is the husband, not a transmission link); if Frances descends from Jessie Clifford through daughters, her existing 23andMe maternal haplogroup = MARY REED'S maternal line (task 60 upgraded). [Superseded 2026-09-23: Frances's father was Richard Clifford Holbrook, Jessie's son, so her mtDNA is Lucille McMillan's line; see task 60.] Tasks 57-63; sources OL38-OL42 (completing the interrupted batch); Section 14.25.
- 2026-09-17 (fifteenth entry): HIRAM'S ARC RESTORED to the file (14.23, OL37) from the user's prior-session work that had never landed here: 1830 Clay's slave-column ticks for Hiram and his wife (child in the white column; Abraham, Bradley, Bowling, Luneford neighbors; index mislabels Estill) and 1840 Montgomery Co INDIANA's free-colored household of seven: the family's starkest kaleidoscope, one brother slave-then-colored while the others counted white; citations to re-attach and 1850 locate tasked (53). Consort cell VERIFIED "Consort Dead" by the user's letter-matching: Elizabeth predeceased; maiden-name routes tasked (55). 1830 Wythe David box-read verified against the enumerator's total; the M 50-60 BRACKET TENSION logged with three readings; RESOLVER = the 1850 Wythe census, new top priority (54). Jacob and Brooks Collins of Wythe logged as new unplaced names (56); the 1830 Montgomery newlywed Thomas linked to the 1829 Booth marriage [strong]; the Wythe John Browns confirmed unrelated to the 1760 Orange NC John Brown. Census battle plan restated and ranked. Section 14.23; Hiram row rebuilt; Jacob, Brooks, Thomas rows added; tasks 53-56; source OL37.
- 2026-09-17 (fourteenth entry): DAVID JR.'S DEATH FOUND (OL35): the Wythe register's "David Collins Sr." (d. Nov 1866, dropsy, 79, farmer, parents not given, friend informant) is b. c. 1787 = David Jr. of the censuses, the "Sr." being 1866's relative label; consort column apparently deceased (confirm). His family named via free index entries: wife ELIZABETH; sons James C. (b. 1828, m. Margaret L. Mabe 1865) and Adam (b. 1831, m. Sarah H. Mabe 1856), the census mapping confirmed again; two brothers x two Mabe sisters = the double-alliance pattern; probate now dated to Wythe 1866-67. BOTH SAMUELS PLACED by the user's tick-reads (OL36): Washington 1820 = Samuel-of-David + Permelia (the exact 1820 shape of an 1813 marriage); Giles 1820 = Samuel-of-Daniel (head 45+, pre-1813 children: two independent grounds). Alphabetized-fair-copy caveat logged (no neighbor analysis for 1810/1820). Northampton (Eastern Shore) flagged as a separate community, not a lead. Working 1830 link verified (collection 1803958); census priorities restated. Section 14.22; David Jr., Samuel-of-David, and Samuel-of-Daniel roster rows; tasks 48 updated, 49 substantially resolved, 51-52 added; sources OL35-OL36.
- 2026-09-17 (thirteenth entry): REVISION on Wythe (14.21, OL33): the user's 1840 re-read (elder male 50-60) plus the clean 1820-to-1840 household mapping recast the Wythe head as DAVID JR. (b. c. 1780-90, wife present both years); the widower and multigenerational-Samuel readings of 14.19-14.20 WITHDRAWN; new candidate structure: DAVID SR. (b. c. 1755, cohort David's profile) as father of David Jr. and Samuel, the 1813 consenter, one of the two 1820 elder lodgers, gone by 1840; tests = 1830 Wythe and Wythe probate (task 48). Samuel Holt of Wythe 1840 distinguished from the Patrick Samuel-Holt. Giles 1820 Samuel TENTATIVELY placed as SAMUEL-OF-DANIEL (boy 10-16 predating the 1813 marriage; tick-read pending); Samuel-of-David's 1820 household reopened (Montgomery search, task 49); Washington Co Collins pocket noted. The minister's register (OL34): Jesse-Mary and Stephen-Nancy on adjacent December 1827 lines under the same minister J. Ambres: the double wedding's third independent record; POLLY SIZEMORE recovered (m. Robert Asher, Mar 1827) and the Sizemore-brides workaround logged (task 50); Bowling and Lunsford entries noted. Roster: David Sr. structure and a new David Jr. row; tasks 47 resolved, 48-50 added.
- 2026-09-16 (twelfth entry): THE DAVID HUNT (Sections 14.19-14.20, OL31-OL32): Fauquier 1810 David and Hampshire 1820 Daniel dismissed as namesakes; our David's 1810 absence explained by Grayson's lost schedule. WYTHE 1820 DAVID established as the candidate household (Crockett and Cox neighbors; the user's ditto-convention analysis fixed box 6 at TWO men 45+; household of ten, no woman 45+ so a widower reading; free-colored columns empty; the multigenerational Samuel-and-Permelia reading holds pending the Giles test). Daniel's PATRICK 1820 index presence logged with the Montgomery-cluster-relocated hypothesis (arbiter: 1830 Patrick). 1830 census existence corrected for the user (hub-linked collection; the decisive 1830 Patrick and Wythe schedules tasked). Samuel 1820 triaged: GILES/Pearisburg the headline (formed from Montgomery 1806) with the two-Samuels resolution hypothesis; Washington Co second. 1840 WYTHE David logged (county corrected from "White"; elder-male column is the one deciding cell: 60-70 vs 70-80 vs 80-90; free-colored blank). Tasks 44 resolved, 45-47 added; roster David row carries the 1820 household.
- 2026-09-16 (eleventh entry, closing the day): CAPT. JOHN COX placed on PEACH BOTTOM (400 ac, settled 1774, OL30): the two captains now bracket the family's hollows (Cox on Peach Bottom, McDaniel on Elk Creek). Tories pages read (no Gibson content; W1044 remains that source): Shallow Ford Oct 1780, Day's spy-ranger service at Parris's Fort, Preston's 1781 NC campaign, Moravian Towns expeditions, Trollinger's Continental-money loss, all logged as milieu context for the tours the refusers refused. Census link kit added to 14.18 (1810 collection 1803765, Montgomery-Wythe only, Grayson lost; 1820 collection 1803955 adding Grayson; the "all other free persons" column flagged as decisive) with the David-identification stakes stated (consent confirmation, age test, classification test, and a male-line branch for the Y-DNA question). Section 14.18, Capt. Cox roster row, source OL30.
- 2026-09-16 (tenth entry): Court martial DATED: 23 Apr 1783 at Patrick Campbell's house, JAMES McDONNALD sitting on the court judging his own company's refusers; reframed as the post-war accounting of the 1781-82 calls, clerk paid from the fines. Economics LOCALLY ANCHORED (OL28): the 24 May 1782 deer-skins tax petition, Taylor's 1781 list (109 tithables, 39 with cash), Razor's three-empire purse at the lead mines. Vol. I pp. 137-151 Tories chapter pointer captured (task 43). Findley/Juda Indian-descent freedom suits (Wythe/Powhatan 1813-1820) logged as regional legal context. The MONTGOMERY COLLINS MARRIAGE CLUSTER assembled (OL29, Section 14.17): Daniel (dau. Nancy 1794, likely son Samuel 1801), HEZEKIAH, John x Johnston 1793, Elenor 1785, and the headline DAVID COLLINS consenting as father for underage Samuel's 1813 marriage (candidate = our David1); cluster tagged UNSORTED with the settler-network caution; "sur." (surety) and ministers' returns decoded for the user. Wm. SEXTON's assigned-away 1,000-acre New River preemption logged: the third instance of the community's assigned-away-claim pattern. Barrett and King texture petitions logged. Sections 14.15 corrected and 14.17 added, roster rows updated (David candidate; Sexton; Montgomery cluster row), tasks 40 updated and 42-43 added, sources OL28-OL29.
- 2026-09-16 (ninth entry): THE REFUSAL RECORD (OL25): Kegley vol. 2 p. 218 preserves Meredith among Capt. McDonnald's-company men who REFUSED their tours c. 1780-81, threatened with Chesapeake armed-vessels duty, beside James Cox, Daniel Blevins, and John Saxton (Sexton): the second contemporaneous Revolutionary record of our man, framed with the compulsory-enrollment reading, the epidemic of refusals, and the collapsing-currency economics (militia pay in Virginia paper at ~1000:1 by late 1781; skins economy callback). McDaniel anchored to ELK CREEK via the p. 108 assignment chain (the company district = their neighborhood); John Collins Rocky Creek 1774 claim assigned to Elisha Wallen Sr logged as elder-John candidate; Zachariah Collins x Mary Ann McDaniel 1830 marriage logged. John Riddle S9069 analyzed: b. c. 1750, Capt. John Cox at the lead mines, the 1776 Cherokee expedition, resident 1833 on the Stokes-Rockingham (Goinstown) line: strong candidate for Moses's son John, Patrick-Stokes convergence flagged; Tory-William lore restated with the 1782-roster tension. Salathiel Martin W1044 confirmed as the Gibson-episode source (stone-tower detail NOT in our sources, OMM check tasked); W19209 Martin-company Tory-war texture citable. Joseph Collins S2142 read in full and cleared as a namesake (conflation caution #3). Samuel-Holt reading REVISED per user (compound name Samuel Holt Collins plausible; Holt first-wife hypothesis). Sections 14.15-14.16, roster rows updated and added (Meredith refusal; John elder; Riddle sons; Sextons; Zachariah; Capt. McDaniel), tasks 37 expanded and 38-41 added, sources OL25-OL27. [Superseded 2026-09-23: the court martial sat 23 April 1783 (see the tenth entry); the Riddles took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in 1777 (Kegley, *Militia*, p. 51), so there is no 1782-roster tension; the affidavit says "Rock House."]
- 2026-09-16 (eighth entry): THE CONSENT NOTE FOUND (OL22): James Read named as author = MARY'S FATHER [D], "of James" decoded, task 29 resolved; Stephen Read attesting (double wedding near-certain); HIRAM COLLINS attesting = first document placing Jesse and Hiram together (probable brothers). Eula preview (OL23): POLLY HOLLOWAY b. c. 1780 VA, m. c. 1799, d. ante 1840, EXCLUDING her as Bradley's mother and correcting the 14.9 reading (spouse numbering, not maternity); Bradley and Jesse half-brothers if Jesse was Meredith's [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Bradley-line papers do name Polly as Bradley's mother, wrongly; Jesse was Meredith's son, so the two were half-brothers]; WILLIAM b. RUSSELL CO VA (Jesse likely Russell-born); Hatfield marriage exact (25 Nov 1860, 2nd wife); Eula's Oregon chapter decoded via grandfather Samuel (Pike Co > Portland). 1840 Patrick Edward read (OL24): household fits 1850 continuity with a first wife and an unknown elder son; adjacent REUBEN Collins (claimed-son name); deciding test = 1830 Patrick. Full audit pass: tree wives block rebuilt, Section 8 redated, 14.11 annotation resolved, 14.3/14.4 supersession notes, roster rows updated (Meredith, Polly added, Jesse, Hiram, William, James Reed [D], Stephen Read), tasks 27/29 updated, tasks 34-37 added (bond shopping list; McDaniel chapter x2; Stephen Read + Sextons), sources OL22-OL24. Sections 14.13-14.14.
- 2026-09-16 (seventh entry): Both plats in hand (OL19): Gv591's metes show the western notch = THOMAS GIBSON's patented tract, the plat drawing the paper/no-paper divide in one figure; Moses Ridle and Charels Gibson signature lines; user's protective-father-in-law chain-carrier motive logged [?] [Superseded 2026-09-23: Moses was not Thomas's father-in-law]. Gv091 Dennis Collins plat (Dollarhide carriers; the Dec 1753 Churton circuit). Reed section read: STEPHEN REED m. Nancy Powell THE SAME DAY as Jesse m. Mary (13 Dec 1827), probable double wedding, Stephen a probable brother; Richard Reed x Kelsey Collins license Jan 1827 (third Reed-Collins pairing, reversed); James Reed reconstruction drafted (children marrying 1822-1830); unsolemnized-license base rate logged; Lunsford ordering corrected; Bowling presence in Clay noted; S section lost pre-1864, Sizemore rerouted to censuses. BOND ROUTE identified: the register's File No. column to the loose files in the same FamilySearch image group. Section 2 gains the two-Orange-Counties and staged-exodus note (1745 presentments corrected to Louisa); Section 3 timeline corrected to warrant/survey/grant with chain carriers. Moses landlessness analysis (no racial bar; cash, the office, and the Granville closure) and Pittsylvania sequel with the Tory-William lore flag. 1810 VA census losses noted (Patrick, Pittsylvania, Grayson, Russell, Orange). DAR order page: 25 supporting documents; $45 bundle recommended. Sections 14.12, tree Reed sidebar rebuilt, roster rows added (James Reed, Stephen Reed, Kesiah Collins; Dennis updated), tasks 29 updated and 31-33 added, sources OL19-OL21.
- 2026-09-16 (sixth entry): THE BROWN QUESTION RESOLVED: user located Gv591, Brown's own parallel 698-acre Flat River grant (SCC MOSES RIDDLE and Charles Gibson), disproving the takeover reading and replacing it with the documented three-day race (Brown's warrant 26 Dec 1760; Thomas's 29 Dec 1760) and the chain-carrier tragedy (Moses Riddle chaining the survey that absorbed his own improvements; never a Granville grantee). Thomas's own chain service (Wharton 1760, Justice 1763) and Camp Creek adjacency logged. Clay register haul: Andrew-Sizemore confirmed; Bradley's three 1830s marriages (five wives total); Hiram-Elizabeth Reed 1829 with the lapsed-license year; three unplaced Clay Collins men. Appanoose decode: DAR death entry = census sheet date 29 Nov 1850; Bradley b. NORTH CAROLINA (fits Wilkes 1787); Andrew's sons Lewis and Archibald as naming-pattern evidence. Polly Holloway math corrected: c. 1786 marriage keeps her fully available as Jesse's and Hiram's mother (she bore William in 1806). [Superseded 2026-09-23: Polly b. c. 1780, m. c. 1799 (Eula Conley's application; see the eighth entry).] Edward Collins of Patrick Co VA logged as Ned candidate. Mary Reid annotation re-read with ranked readings (daughter/ward/widow of James). Eula 562294 purchase endorsed with calibrated expectations. Sections 14.10-14.11, tree and roster updated, tasks 17/24/25 resolved, tasks 27-30 added, sources OL16-OL18.
- 2026-09-16 (fifth entry): PRIMARY DOCUMENT: the Gv579 survey plat obtained via the OL9 Drive links (chain carriers George Gibson and Paul Collins confirmed in Churton's record); Jones 1763 survey logged for the John Brown corner and the entry-assignment mechanics; Brown hypothesis test narrowed to the warrant in SSLG 87-H. DAR reconnaissance II: application 562294 identified as Eula Collins Conley herself (joined 1971), her four patriot lines logged, S icon corrected to SHORT FORM. Free Descendants previews extracted: Bradley's death (post 29 Nov 1850, Appanoose), Polly Holloway recorded as Meredith's first wife and Bradley's mother, ANDREW COLLINS m. BETSY ANN SIZEMORE 1838 Clay Co KY (third Saponi-community surname alliance; Appanoose presence by 1849 tightens the Jesse-Bradley reading as inference [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Jesse-as-Bradley's-son reading is withdrawn]), William's Nicholas Co WV colony placed (b. 13 Apr 1806, d. Craigsville 1896). Margaret Ridley / Edward Buss analysis added with the Buss = Bass hypothesis. Added Sections 14.7-14.9, Section 15 working family tree, Section 16 master community roster (36 entries), renumbered tasks to Section 17 with updates and new tasks 24-26, sources OL13-OL15.
- 2026-09-16 (fourth entry): DAR GRS search (user) confirmed Meredith as Patriot A024535: Virginia soldier, McDaniel's Company, service source Kegley p. 23, vitals matching ours and excluding the 1789 Boones Station namesake. Eleven-plus member applications identified through two children only: William (m. Molly Hatfield, very probably the Conley-Cline cousin network's applications) and Bradley (first wife unknown to DAR, "X X," consistent with our record; lines presumably through the pre-1817 children). No applications through Jesse. Logged the acquisition strategy (free Descendants-tab reconnaissance and notice-reading first; then one supporting-documents-flagged Bradley record copy, optionally 562294). Section 14.5, task 11 resolved, task 23 added, source OL12.
- 2026-09-16 (third entry): Second records sweep. Verified Gv579 from the systematic Granville abstracts (OL9): granted 13 Oct 1761, surveyed 13 Apr 1761 by Wm Churton, chain carriers GEORGE GIBSON and PAUL COLLINS, settling the discrepancy in Heinegg's favor; Moses "Reedley" reading resolves the Combs-grant chainbearer as Riddle, not Reed. Logged the John Brown warrant twist (same 700 acres, same survey date, grant dates one day apart) with the takeover hypothesis and made the SSLG 87-H shuck pull the top task. Built the Moses Riddle dossier: 1755 mulatto with wife Mary; Carlson's "an Indian man" bordering Tom Collins and the Gibsons; the 1767 Pittsylvania tax list "Moses Ridle (an Indian)"; the Margaret Ridley / Edward Buss parentage claim; his sons William and John on the 1782 McDaniel roster beside Meredith. [Superseded 2026-09-23: the Buss claim comes from WikiTree, not Empty Branches; the Riddles took the oath of allegiance with Cox's company in 1777 (Kegley, *Militia*, p. 51) and are not on McDaniel's roster.] Added Carlson's Christian Saponi Band frame (white tithables c. 1750-53 → Molata 1755; the clerks changed, not the people) and the c. 1767-70 dispersal map (New River via John Collins to Peach Bottom Creek with likely sons Lewis and James; Pittsylvania branch with Riddle and the Bowlins; the 1777 Caswell stay-behinds incl. Paul and Middleston). New names Dennis and Paul Collins profiled; Eno River Reed grants logged as a lead. Redirected the user's Bladen County File 0126 hit as a different Thomas Collins record. Sections 14.4-14.5, tasks 17-22, sources OL9-OL11.
- 2026-09-16 (second entry): Online records sweep. Retrieved Heinegg's full Collins entry (OL7): Thomas1's probable sons named as Samuel, George1, Thomas Jr., and JOHN (b. say 1736), grounding the Samuel-and-John-as-brothers reconciliation and reducing the Meredith paternity fork to "which brother," with grandfather Thomas either way; logged the two-Johns tension. Obtained the full 1755 Molata roster via transcription (OL8), including Moses Riddle taxed mulatto with wife Mary. Chain carriers on Thomas's 700-acre patent identified (Paul Collins plus George Gibson or George Collins; survey image at nclandgrants.com queued to settle it). Extended the classification kaleidoscope back through 1778 Ashe estate taxes, 1787/1790 ordinary schedules, 1800 Ashe "other free" (Valentine, Vardy, Ambrose, Thomas Jr.), 1810 Grainger free colored, 1830 Hawkins/Wilson TN free colored. Logged two conflation cautions (King William/Pamunkey Collins family; the other Meredith Collins b. 1789 Boones Station KY). Added Section 14, sources OL7-OL8, restructured the task list (now Section 15) with resolutions and five new tasks.
- 2026-09-16: RESOLVED the 1840 Bradley Collins county question by reading the schedule page itself: the vertical left-margin annotation reads "Chariton County," Missouri (OL6). Withdrew the Callaway attribution as a multi-county reel-metadata artifact (same failure mode as 1830 "Estill" and 1840 Van Buren standardization). Conley's "Carroll" is off by one adjacent county; Samson's 1841 Chariton birthplace matches exactly. Migration finalized: Clay Co KY (1839 sale) → flatboat → Chariton Co MO (1840-44) → Appanoose Co IA (1844). Main file S50 notes should be corrected accordingly. Closed task 6; logged the right-hand-page column read as optional follow-up.
- 2026-09-15: Created. Compiled the origin line from the New River research (OL1), Heinegg (OL2, OL3), and project records: legal architecture (1662/1691/1705/1723, binding out) with William Reed's 1694 freedom suit as the family's proof case; the 1742 Orange Co expulsion record [27 Jan 1742/43, 1743 NS] and Fort Christanna context; Thomas Collins dossier; Flat River and New River/Indian Lands periods; the Revolutionary generation including the divided-loyalty evidence and the verified 1929 DAR plaque; Samuel and John Sr. dossiers and the paternity analysis with the brothers-reconciliation hypothesis; Ned legend with its census-bracket evidence basis; Jesse's entry point and the parentage fork [settled 2026-09-23: Meredith and Polly]; Bradley's flatboat account with the three-cornered 1840 county conflict and the beachhead hypothesis; Melungeon context including the Stony Creek 1813 first-use and the Valentine Collins connection; DNA regional breakdown verified from the composition CSV with detectability analysis; ten consolidated open tasks.