Week 7 - Unusual Sources



* Picture from American Battlefield Trust

I admit I was really stumped as to what I could include as an unusual source. Then the other day I stumbled across this document rich in details and in the ancestor’s own words!


Memucan Walker is my 5th great grandfather on my paternal Bragg branch.  He lived from 1764 - 1876, and was a Virginian. He would have been 12 years old at the time of the Declaration of Independence. In September 1780, when he was 16, he joined the war as a patriot and fought in the war until November 1781. However, in 1832, when he tried to collect his pension, he found that he had lost his discharge papers and had to petition for the pension. This petition held valuable information.


Memucan isn’t the everyday William, James, John, Philip, Alexander, Thomas type of name that was so prevalent at the time.  However, I found records for a Memucan Walker from Maryland all the way to South Carolina, and I wasn’t sure that they were for him. Did he marry someone in Maryland; did he live in South Carolina?  He was born in Lunenburg, Virginia and died in Greenbrier, Virginia, so did he really move around that much during his lifetime? The supplemental questions on the pension had some answers. Here are a few of them:


Question: Where and in what year were you born?

Answer: I was born in the year 1764 in the county of Lunenburg Virginia.

Question: Have you any record of your age, and if so where is it?

Answer: I have at home a copy of my father’s Register.

Question: Where were you living when called into service; where have you lived since the Revolutionary War, and where do you live now?

Answer: When called into service I lived in Lunenburg County Virginia. I have since lived in the state of Maryland and South Carolina - and I now live in Greenbrier Virginia.

 . . .

Question: Did you ever receive a discharge from the service, and if so, by whom was it given - and what has become of it?

Answer: I received a discharge by General Stevens - But I have lost it.


This source also lists people who lived near him who would vouch for his character and names of the officers who were in the troops where he served, and where he fought. Who would have thought that losing one valuable document could yield one even more valuable to one’s descendants?





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