Confusion Reigns!

Some days my ancestors cause me to tear out my hair. In fact, I think when Dora Pierce Marshall, my third cousin three times removed, thought about who to marry, she decided to be a little bit naughty, willfully causing future family genealogists to go crazy. I'm almost positive she smiled a secret smile as she said her vows.

I know she had a good laugh about it years later.

Dora Pierce (Marshall) Marshall and her husband; courtesy of
Ancestry.com member cgraham206

Let's back up a bit, shall we?

Dora was born on 10 May 1881 in Carroll County, Virginia. Her parents were Asa Howard Marshall and Nancy Virginia Mitchell, the great granddaughter of my five times great grandfather Robert Mitchell (1714-1799). Asa Howard Marshall was the son of Abraham Marshall and Mary "Polly" Bonds. He had an older brother named Alvers S. Marshall. Both brothers farmed in the Pine Creek district of Carroll County.

When Dora decided to marry, she chose her first cousin, a son of her uncle Alvers S. Marshall and his first wife, Pauline (or Perlina) Gallimore. And what do you think her future husband's name was?

It was Asa Howard Marshall! Sound familiar?

Alvers named his first born son after his brother, who happened to be Dora's father. So she married a man with the same name as her father.

Dora so confused me, I had to draw an illustration to sort out the familial relationships.

Relationships between Dora Pierce Marshall and her husband, father and
uncle; created using Microsoft Powerpoint

Dora's husband, Asa Howard Marshall, was born on 9 September 1881in Carroll County. Like his father and uncle, he farmed in the county of his birth his entire working life. He and Dora had 10 children. Asa died 31 August 1950 of acute pulmonary edema. Cora died on 19 January 1958 generalized arteriosclerosis, from which she had suffered for 20 years. They were interred at Top of the Mountain Cemetery in Sylvatus, Virginia.

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To be entirely fair to Dora, I have no idea whether she gave future genealogists a thought when she married her cousin and her father's namesake.