Tennessee marriage returns, FRANKLIN COUNTY, bound volume, MANUSCRIPT p. 166 (the opening p. 166 / p. 167), left column, eleventh entry. READ ON THE IMAGE 13 Sep 2026 (VRMUSATN1780_041163-00137.jpg), register K686. "Meredith Catchings / To / Mahala Barnes Isd Decr 9th 1853. Came to hand and executed as commanded the 11th day of Decr 1853 Thos Smith JP for Franklin County Tennessee" The licence issued 9 Dec 1853 and was executed (solemnised) 11 Dec 1853, which is the date this tree already carries on F352 marriage event E8393 - now read on the manuscript instead of taken from an index. NO parent, guardian, consent-giver or bondsman is named. This volume is a return-of-licence book with NO parentage column at all: every entry across the opening consists of the two parties, the issue date, the execution date and the officiant. BY-PRODUCT, recorded and NOT linked: the facing page (p. 167) carries "Thos. M. Davis / To / Eliza E. Kitchens Isd Dec 17th 1853" - a KITCHENS marrying in the same county in the same month, which is the alternate surname this tree carries for [846].

Research notes

Working notes from the research, kept verbatim — what was read, what it proved, what stays open. Many open with a line grading the parentage; what the grades mean.

Research note · 13 Sep 2026

PROOF CLASS: BOTH PARENTS = UNDERDETERMINED (Owen, 8 Sep 2026). The 1807 Wilkes Co., Ga. will names a son Meredith but gives him no age and no residence, and the Wilkes GA to Franklin TN junction is unproven - three candidates. REVIEWED 8 Sep 2026 AND DELIBERATELY NOT GRADED - both flags stay 0 and work is STILL OWED. This is a review, not a decline. THE DOCUMENT IS GOOD. Anastasia Catching's will, Wilkes County, Georgia loose court records, Georgia Archives Virtual Vault collection wccr id 16800, images at ancestry/sources/ga-vault-wccr-16800-*.jpg, READ ON THE MANUSCRIPT 3 Aug 2026 and re-read 8 Sep 2026: "i leve my Loving son Mereidith Catchings my negro man mose", and in the closing clause "i Leve my son mereidith Cathings and William Lunsford my Executors". Signed with her mark 6 March 1807; witnesses John and Hetty Pelot; sworn in open court 6 Apr 1807. Citation C7003. ⛔ WHAT IT CANNOT DO: the will gives that son NO age, NO residence and no other identifying detail, so it cannot reach THIS Meredith. Grading on it would use the very link under test to prove itself. ⛔ THREE CANDIDATE MEREDITHS - see ancestry/catchings-branch-research.md section 6: (a) the Georgia-to-KNOX CO., KENTUCKY migrant of about 1800 who founded the London-Ky. Catchings; (b) this tree's Franklin Co., Tennessee man; (c) the testator of the 1857 Franklin Co. "Merideth Katchings" will. Our man's own reported age gives b. about 1780 in the 1850 census and about 1773 in 1860; he is in Franklin Co. by 1830 and INVISIBLE IN 1820 anywhere; and this tree's Kentucky window points to LOGAN CO. in west Kentucky, 200 miles from Knox - mildly AGAINST identity with the migrant. ☞ REOPENS ON: the Franklin Co., Tennessee trip (ring-matrix.py --ring 6, row 1, four links) and Knox Co., Kentucky records 1800-1840. Rhoda Scott is dismantled (memo section 2d), so Anastasia is the only documented wife of [853]; what is unproven is that [846] is her son. ✪ Housekeeping: documents-read-index.md still lists "Anastasia's will image" as a pending manual check. It is DONE - the images have been on local disk since 3 Aug 2026. Audited 25 Jul 2026 - Junction #4: censuses 1830-1860 Franklin Co TN read; child list corrected (Garner grandchildren detached, Thomas-J graft detached, Charlotte added). CAVEAT: the Wilkes GA -> Franklin TN junction (is he Anastasia son Meredith Jr?) remains UNPROVEN. See ancestry/catchings-branch-research.md §6. AUDITED 9 Aug 2026 - Franklin Co. TN Marriage Book 1, register p. 64 (FamilySearch film DGS 004486242, ark 3:1:9Q97-YSQK-CYC, read on the page image 9 Aug 2026): the neighbouring Collins-Pearson entry on the same page is signed "Executed by me ... M. Catchings J.P." That signature on register page 64 is consistent with Meredith Catchings serving as a Franklin County justice of the peace in Aug 1844 (initial only; not proof of identity by itself). The same page carries the Benj Catchings x Malisa Ann Rose license now cited on F181. AUDITED 13 Sep 2026 - TWO DOCUMENTS ALREADY IN HAND, READ ON THEIR IMAGES. NEITHER REACHES THE PARENTAGE, AND BOTH NEGATIVES ARE CONTROLLED. (K686) Both citations read ActualText LENGTH=0, so every instrument in this project reported them UNREAD while the images sat on disk - the K490/K668 shape. Both are now transcribed in full (cit 4727, cit 4728). The class does not change and neither flag moves. (1) HIS OWN MARRIAGE, cit 4727 - Franklin Co., Tenn. return book, manuscript p. 166: "Meredith Catchings / To / Mahala Barnes Isd Decr 9th 1853. Came to hand and executed as commanded the 11th day of Decr 1853 Thos Smith JP for Franklin County Tennessee". Licence 9 Dec, solemnised 11 Dec 1853 - the date already on F352 event E8393, now read on the manuscript. The volume has NO parentage column at all, so it cannot bear on the Wilkes Co., Ga. to Franklin Co., Tenn. junction that is this link's actual blocker. (2) HIS FATHER'S BOUNTY LAND, cit 4728 - "Catchings, Meredith. Ga. Soldier. 22 May 1784. 287 1/2 acres." ⛔ THIS FORECLOSES A ROUTE RATHER THAN LEAVING ONE OPEN. The same printed page records heirship whenever a grant went to heirs (six "acres to heirs" entries) and assignment when one was assigned ("200 acres to Alexander Power, assignee"); the Meredith entry carries neither, so the grant issued to the soldier himself and no heir of his is named in it. DO NOT cost a Georgia land-records errand expecting an heirship claim on this grant. ☞ BY-PRODUCT, RECORDED AND NOT LINKED: the same page shows FOUR Catchings men granted Georgia bounty land within three months - Benjamin (Citizen, 24 Feb 1784, 297 1/2 a.), Joseph (24 Feb 1784, 250 a.), Meredith (Soldier, 22 May 1784, 287 1/2 a.) and Seymore (24 Feb 1784, 250 a.). A candidate kin group for the GEORGIA end of the junction. Nobody is attached on it. ☞ AND A SECOND: the facing page of the Tennessee return book (p. 167) carries "Thos. M. Davis / To / Eliza E. Kitchens Isd Dec 17th 1853" - a KITCHENS marrying in Franklin Co. in the same month, which is the alternate surname this tree carries for this man.

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