Vanessa WoodDAR applications can be tricky when a patriot ancestor is associated with a “burned county.” What does that mean? It means that a spark from a wood-burning stove, glowing ash from a clerk’s clay pipe, a lightning strike, or in times of war a courthouse was set on fire. There were probably many hazards that set courthouses on fire. Some records were saved. In some cases they were lost forever.
A Burned County Example
One of the most vexing instances occurred in Richmond, Virginia. During the Civil War several counties removed records from their own courthouses. They sent the records to Richmond for safekeeping. When Richmond was bombed records were lost. Notices of chancery cases were printed in newspapers, but the Richmond chancery cases are lost.
Patriot Matthew Pryor in Marion County, Tennessee
DAR patriot Matthew Pryor Sr. died in Marion County, Tennessee. Matthew Pryor Jr., his son, has already been used to obtain DAR membership. I received a query of how to show a kinship with Matthew Jr. Of course, Marion County is a burned county. “The courthouse was destroyed by fire in August 1922.” Marriage and probate records are gone. Records from the county clerk’s office and the registrar’s office were saved and can be useful in proving marriages and deaths.
Two Marion County deeds are helpful in connecting Matthew Pryor Jr. and his descendants.
- William H. “W.H.” Pryor in a grantor in deed L:479 (stamped). It says “It being the lands which Mathew [sic] Pryor.my.father. Died seized and possessee [sic] of.”
- Julia (Pryor) Merritt is a grantor in deed O:445. It says, “Mrs. Julia Merritt of the one part and S. M. Young of the other part, both of the County of Marion and the State of Tennessee Witnesseth that whereas heretofore Mathew [sic] Pryor Father of the said Julia Merritt the bargainor [sic].”
