Once again, the Pension Office questions the two sets
of Bible records, in this case because the pages sent
to the office do not appear to them to be old enough
to show that the births were recorded contemporaneously.
In fact, the earlier depositions by the Walkers state
quite clearly that the records were not that old but
were written down when a particular sister moved to
Indiana and took the original Bible.
The letter writer indicates that there is "every
appearance" that both sets of family records sent
to the Pension office were torn from the same book,
and they might have been, although there was no attempt
at fraud here. As
Jonathan had explained earlier, the first set of
Bible
records were a copy he had made expressly to send
to the Pension Office; he might well have made the copy
on other pages of the same Bible.
In this case, the person from the Pension Office does suggest one of
the alternative methods for proving the date of the marriage, primarily
by finding someone not in the family to swear that he or she knew Edward
and Jane before 1794 and knew them to be married then. Given the timing
of the family moves and the fact that more than fifty years had passed,
quite possibly no one in the area had known them that brief period of
time between 1790 and the end of 1793, a period in which they lived in
Sullivan County, Tennessee, quite likely for that entire period. In any
event, no specific evidence of this type appears to have been introduced
after this letter.
The addl [sic] evidence with case of Jane
Walker widow of Edward Walker
has been examined and filed. On comparing the leaves heretofore
sent, containing, as alleged, the family register both of which
have been described as original, there is every appearance of them
having been taken from the same book and it will required the clearest
evidence to satisfy the Dept as to the date of the marriage. The
above registers do not sufficiently bear the impress of antiquity
to be recd in proof of an event so long past but there shd be no
difficulty in obtaining the testimony of disinterested credible
& intelligent witnesses who can swear to the existence of the
relation of husband and wife at some specific period prior to '94.
