Putting The Pieces Together ~ Robert & Rena (Pleasants) Baugh

This week I have been working on the family of my bio-genetic (bio) maternal great grandparents, Robert Allison Baugh and his wife, Rena Maude Pleasants and their children. One of the biggest problems I have had in researching my bio-genetic maternal lines is that there does not seem to be anyone who is seriously researching these families. The public trees I do find look forsaken and lonely.

With those thoughts in mind, my goal was to go over the records I had already found via Ancestry and FamilySearch and then to see if I could find any more records or records with more details.With all of the record groups being added to both sites I was sure I would find something. I hit the jackpot!

Here is a list of the records I found this week at Ancestry:

• Virginia Death Certificates, 1912-2014 
• death certificate of bio maternal grandmother
• death certificate of bio great aunt's 2nd spouse
• death index for a 2nd bio great uncle 
• U.S. Obituary Collection, 1930-2015 for my bio great uncle. While this was only an index it did provide me with 2 pieces of much needed information, the name of his spouse and their only child.
• Virginia, Marriage Records, 1936-2014 
• marriage certificate of of cousin, which led me to his wife and her information.
• marriage certificate of bio great aunt and her 2nd marriage plus this spouse's first marriage certificate
• marriage certificates for 3 additional cousins
• Virginia, Divorce Records, 1918-2014 
• divorce decree for bio great aunt from 1st husband, & 2nd husband's divorce decree
• divorce decree for 1 cousin 

All of these records added information to my research. For some of the deaths of these individuals I was able to restore their obituaries through Legacy.com for the small price of $2.95 for 24 hours. Well worth the cost for the clues I found in the obituaries! Once I restored the obituaries, I then printed them out for future reference. 

I now have both of these great grandparents accounted for with all of the documents I can find as well as that of each of their 10 children. I still have a few death certificates to order as they are were only available in "index only" online at Ancestry.

Sources:

"Virginia Deaths, 1912-2014", database and images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed on 27 January 2016), [multiple entries, names are private].

"Virginia, Divorce Records, 1918-2014", database and images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed on 27 January 2016, [multiple entries, names are private].

"Virginia, Marriage Records, 1936-2014,", database and images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed on 27 January 2016, [multiple entries, names are private].

"U.S. Obituary Collection, 1930-2015, database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : 27 January 2016) [name is private].

Editor's Note: I have with held the names of Robert and Rena's children for the privacy of still living descendants. Since I am adopted these still living descendants may not know about me, however I can provide a detailed source list if necessary.