My Great-Grandfather Austin Leitch - The Breakthrough!

My great-grandfather Austin W. Leitch, date unknown

Austin W. Leitch, one of my great-grandfathers, had always been a mystery to me. When I started researching my family's ancestors, he was one that I knew very little about. He was my maternal grandmother's father, but she would hardly ever talk about him. Over the years I was able to get some information from her, such as Austin divorced my great-grandmother  sometime in the 1920’s, married a second time, changed his surname to the surname of his second wife, and passed away sometime in 1954. She had a small photo of him seated with his second wife, and she told me that she had met the second wife once and was warned by her father to "be nice to her". That’s about all she would ever say about him.
 

My grandmother's picture of Austin with his second wife

I was able to find some information on him through the available online records, and had been able to establish an estimated birth year of 1877 in Rockingham County, VA. I'd also found census entries for 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920, as well as a marriage date of 1897 for his first marriage to my great-grandmother. One bit of information had listed his middle name as "Williamsford". He had a World War I draft registration available online, and that confirmed some of the information from the 1920 census. After 1920, I couldn’t find Austin listed in the 1930 census, the 1940 census, or any other online records. 

Austin and my great-grandmother, Ella Thomasson Leitch, around the time of their marriage in 1897

For years, that’s all the information I had about Austin. I would periodically check as online databases were updated, but never had any success until FamilySearch.org made available online marriage records for Orange County, VA, which is east of Rockingham County, VA. One of the entries was for Austin Leitch marrying Alice Southard in 1927. From this, I could conclude he divorced my great-grandmother sometime before that second marriage and he had possibly changed his surname to Southard sometime after that second marriage.

After finding that second marriage entry, I had two surnames to search online records for – Leitch and Southard. However, I still had no success finding him and his new wife in the 1930 census, the 1940 census, Find A Grave, or anywhere else. It seemed like I was once again at a dead end.

Then, in mid-2015, Ancestry.com announced that in partnership with the Virginia Department of Health, they were making available indexed records and images for Virginia births, marriages, deaths and divorces covering most of the 1900’s and early 2000’s. That was the break I had been waiting for!

The first search I did in the Virginia death records was for anyone named Leitch passing away in 1954, but I got no hits. Then, I searched on anyone named Southard passing away in 1954 and got a hit! There was a death certificate for a John Wilford Southard who passed away from tuberculosis at the Blue Ridge Sanatorium in Charlottesville, VA on August 30, 1954. The informant on the death certificate was records from the sanatorium. The birth date listed was July 4 1877, which matched the estimated birth date I had for Austin. The name of his wife was listed as Mrs. John W. Southard, which I assumed was Alice, his second wife. The father’s name was James H. Southard though, not Austin's father James H. Leitch as I had expected (although the "James H" matched). What sealed the deal for me was the mother’s name on the death certificate – Cynthia Dupriest, which was Austin’s mother’s name before she got married to James Leitch. Cynthia and  James had passed away in the 1890’s when Austin was a teenager. It seemed very improbable that she would have any son with the surname Southard, since she was married to James Leitch at the time Austin was born in 1877 and remained married to him until she passed away, and I've never found any information about a Cynthia Dupriest marrying a Southard. In addition, the middle name of "Wilford" was a very close match to "Williamsford". It appeared that not only had Austin changed his surname from Leitch to Southard, he had changed his first name from Austin to John as well!

John Wilford Southard (previously known as Austin W. Leitch) death certificate

John Wilford Southard’s usual residence was listed on the death certificate as Ashland in Hanover County, VA. Looking in the 1940 census in Hanover County, VA I got a hit for a John W. Southard, who was widowed. His age was given as 63, which matched the estimated birth date of 1877. But widowed? If this was the same John Wilford Southard who had passed away in the Blue Ridge Sanatorium, who was the Mrs. John W. Southard listed on his death certificate?

Subsequent searches of the recently released Ancestry.com Virginia marriages database got a hit for John Wilford Southard marrying Melba Elizabeth Schwartz (maiden name Fetty) in 1940 in Hanover County. The marriage certificate stated he was widowed and married twice before. Again, what sealed the deal on this being Austin Leitch was his mother’s maiden name given on the certificate – Cynthia Depriest. The one puzzler in the marriage certificate was that his age was listed as 58 – meaning an estimated birth year of 1882, not 1877. Was this done by accident, or intentionally so he would appear to be “just” 30 years older than Melba when they got married, rather than 35 years older?

Marriage certificate for John Wilford Southard and Melba Elizabeth Schwartz

These finds opened the doors to more successful searches, such as the 1930 census entry for “Jack” (a nickname for John) Southard and his wife “Allie” (a nickname for Alice). Searching GeanealogyBank.com, I found a death notice for Allie Southard, wife of John W. Southard, in 1939 that explained why John/Austin was widowed in the 1940 census entry. I also found his and Melba’s memorials in Find A Grave, although his birth date was given as 1882.

One final find to note – using the Ancestry.com database for Virginia divorces, I also found the divorce record for Austin and my great-grandmother in 1925.

Divorce record for Ella Leitch and Austin Leitch

So, to summarize, Austin and my great-grandmother were together in the 1920 census and divorced in 1925. He married his second wife (Alice/Allie) in 1927, and changed his name to John Wilford Southard. Alice passed away in 1939. He then married his third wife (Melba) in 1940, and he passed away in 1954. The 2015 Ancestry.com release of those Virginia birth, marriage, death and divorce records was the key to it all!