Fauquier County Tapscotts - Louisa Martin

Louisa Martin, born c May 1860, was Maria and John Martin’s final known child. Louisa is seen with the name “Lou,” “Louise,” and even “Mary” in various records. In later years, Louisa claimed to have been born in May 1864, but she had obviously knocked some years off her age since she appears in the 1860 census. Louisa was about age 36 when, on 1 Oct 1896 in Fauquier Co, she was finally married, to John L. Preston. Born in June 1867 to John Preston and Harriet Brown, John was about seven years younger than Louisa, which may have prompted her age reductions. Mark Russell, who would father three of Louisa’s cousins, performed the ceremony. John L. Preston’s brother Hamilton had earlier married Gertrude Tapscott, Telem Plato’s granddaughter.

John and Louisa soon ended up with three children—Lillian (“Lillie”) B. Preston (b. Sep 1878), Louise A. C. Preston (b. c1900), and Lee E. Preston (b. c1901). But Lillian was born years before John and Louisa were married. When Lillian was born, John was only around age eleven, which makes him a highly unlikely father, though there are uncertainties in the birthdates of all the characters in our story. Louisa, on the other hand, would have been around age 18. Lillian may have been a child of Louisa, but not of John.

On 31 Dec 1895 in Fauquier Co, Lillian married George Chalmers Russell, who had been born 12 Mar 1866 to Mark Russell and Mary Frances Tapscott, Lillian’s first cousin twice removed. The couple had a single known child, Selena Russell, born November 1896. Selena is not seen after 1900 and presumably died. The same is true of Lillian. George married Nannie Roberta Mann in DC on 12 Sep 1921, though the two were living together well before that time and claimed to have married in 1901. This implies that Lillian had died around 1901. Like Lillian, her two siblings, Louise and Lee, had unknown fates. Neither are seen after 1910 and presumably died by the time of the 1920 census. Louisa Martin passed away 5 Jul 1912 in Warrenton, Virginia.

John L. Preston, remarried, with Lucy L. Miller in DC on 4 Nov 1919. Lucy had been born in March 1886 to Ashley (“Ash”) Miller and Lucy (Ferguson) Scott, probably in Culpeper County, where her parents had been married 11 Jun 1882. Ashley had died in Culpeper just a few years later, 7 Oct 1890. Her mother had apparently also died around the same time for Lucy is found in 1900 in Fauquier County living with a brother, Ernest, and a half-sister, Kate. Before her marriage to John, Lucy had at least six children from one or more complicated relationships.

John Preston and Lucy had five known children. Lucy is last seen in the 1920 census. John died in DC on 4 Mar 1937.

I have spent (wasted?) a lot of time investigating the life and relationships of Lucy Miller, but since she is not a Fauquier Tapscott, I have decided to not include the details in the book Elizabeth's Children. If you are interested or have a connection through Lucy's Hughes or Chandler associations, contact me. If there is sufficient interest, which I strongly doubt, I will blog what I have.

Have any photos I might use in the book? See questionable blog information or obvious errors? Have reliably sourced additional data? Contact me.