John,
I have not researched in Loudoun County Virginia myself.
I do believe that the key to Zachariah will be found in an ancestor county
of Wise,Lee, & Scott. However, Loudoun is not one of those but does not
necessarily rule it out.
I suspect that the mystery to our Zachariah will be found in archives of
one or more of the following counties.
Russell (1786)
Washington (1777)
Fincastle (1772-1777) defunct
Botetourt (1770)
Augusta (1745)
Orange (1721)
For reference:
Lee (1793)
Scott (1814)
Wise (1856)
Everyone is aware of the records of Zachariah in Lee County regarding land
transactions. Using the above dates for counties (taken from the Wise
County Genewb site) it would be possible for a person to have not even
moved, but have lived in 6 counties from 1721-1786.
I do not think this is true of Zachariah, but I think he moved around this
region which would lead me to believe that he will turn up in one of the
ancestor counties somewhere prior to 1770. Also the marriage to Abigail
Osborne put him in this area. There has been a reference that he married
her in 1770, Grayson County. Grayson County is named after a representative
to the Continental Congress. Grayson County did not exist in 1770 so a
marriage record exists in one of the ancestor counties I am guessing.
One mystery that may relate to Lee County is the death of Zachariah. Last
land transaction is 1827. There is also a reference to his death in the
records of the Three Forks Baptist Church.The reference lists current
members and recently deceased members. Unfortunately the page of this
reference has been detached and put back in the records "loose". So there
is no way of knowing which year it came from. The mystery is why no one has
found any records of it circa 1827? He could have died in Missouri where
his son moved and the minutes reporting the death of a member that had
moved away with kin remaining in the church. Who knows?. Records could be
in Missouri, I do not know if there has been an attempt to look for them
there.
The Loudon County names do appear to have a strong Zachariah line flavor to
them. Perhaps this is a cousin that both were named after the same
ancestor?
I feel we all should research the above ancestor counties and the possible
Loudoun connection until it can be proven that those counties are dead
ends. I do not think we will find what we are looking for in Wise, Scott, &
Lee counties.
Greg