Monday, August 17, 2009

Correction to David STINSON, pages 64, 68

I have examined an electronic photograph of a 1796 handwritten court document from Cumberland County, Virginia, which was not available to me when I gathered STINSON materials in the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, viewing microfilm, I made an assumption for the name of the wife of my ancestor David STINSON from my interpretation of the film. I confused a handwritten ampersand next to the letter "C" as the letter "M." A modern and more detailed photograph shows the phrase to be actually written as "&Cary," not "Mary" as I had read. Therefore, instead of referring to the wife of David STINSON, it was referring to David's brother, Cary STINSON. In books purchased before this date, on pages 64 and 68, of "So Obscure A Person," the wife of David STINSON should be described as "Unknown," not "Mary."