IF YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO REACH JMAR MANAGEMENT & TRAINING PLEASE CLICK HERE

This site focuses on two family names and their primary ancestors:  McDaniel or McDonald and Melchert and Lindquist. 

Skip to Melchert and Lindquist

McDonald/McDaniel
As for the McDaniel or McDonald family, I have spent 20 years, on and off, researching the family and ancestry of Columbus McDaniel of Southwest Virginia.  I know this to be the correct spelling of his name as I have a copy of his original will in which he wrote his name as, "Columbus McDaniel."  My sources of information are varied beginning with a 1939 family history by Ray Hurlburt of Chicago and which relied on first and second-hand family information and stories, along with family bible entries.  I have also obtained some information from the Familysearch.org and Ancestry.com websites in the past 8 years or so.  Additionally, recently I read through three books on the Southwest Virginia area:  Pathfinders and Patriots (Elizabeth Sayers, 1983); Smyth County (Kimberly Barr Byrd and Debra J. Williams, 2005); and Smyth County Revisited by the same authors (2007).  A few years ago, I discovered, probably like most folks who get into their family histories, that I had roughly 1,000 names in my research database, many of which are probably of no connection or use.  As I get back into my family's history, I've decided to concentrate, at least for the moment, just on the primary line of decendency from Columbus McDaniel to me, including spouse names and basic information only.  In my earlier research a number of common names came up in addition to McDaniel and McDonald:  Buchannan, Lammie, Cox, Gannaway, Bishop, Sexton, Richardson, Bonham, McReynolds, Ward, and Brownlow are the most prominent.  These are, however, as best as I can find, relationships based on marriage rather than blood with the exception of Bishop, Cox and Gannaway.  Those were surnames of my ggggrandmother, gggrandmother, and great grandmother, respectively, and the names did not carry on in my direct line.

The McDaniel/McDonald family line picks up in Southwest Virginia around the years 1750-1770.  This family lived in what is now Smyth and Wythe Counties to include the city of Marion.  Other known locations in the area where the McDaniel/McDonald family settled include Cripple Creek, Chatham Hill, and Rich Valley.  The family was settled by Columbus McDaniel who is thought to have migrated south from Maryland or Pennsylvania or maybe from Scotland. How the name evolved to "McDonald," its current form or to "McDanold" shown on some documents isn't known.  This group of McDaniels/McDonalds remained in the Smyth and Wythe County area until around 1875 when members began resettling to Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa.  Much of the family then stayed in those areas with a few continuing to Southern California in the 1920's. My primary line of McDaniels/McDonalds begins with Columbus McDaniel, b. abt. 1750 and continues to Solomon Franklin McDaniel, b. 1784, James Van Buren McDonald, b. 1833, Solomon Randolph McDonald, b. 1880 to Virginia McDonald, b. 1915.

The McDonald/McDaniel Tree from Columbus
(bold underlined and red entries are the primary McDaniel/McDonald descendents)

Columbus McDaniel, b. abt. 1750, d. 1821, Wythe Co., Va.
married Betsy (Elizabeth) Bishop, b. Unk., d. bef. 1821, Va.

1.  Teresa (Tary) McDaniel, b. 1775, Md., d. bef. 1850, Ind.
     m. (a) Elias Bishop, Apr. 1791 (b) Phillip Wolfe, Oct. 1802

2.  Sarah "Sally" McDaniel, b. 1778, Md., d. 1860, Allen Co., Ky.
     m. Robert McReynolds, Oct. 1794

3,  Orpha McDaniel, b. 1780, Md., d. Sep. 23, 1883, Louisville, Tenn
     m. Martin Luther Bonham, b. Aug. 1773, Va., d. Nov. 1861, Louisville, Tenn.

4.  Solomon Franklin McDaniel, b. Feb. 13, 1784, Va., d. Dec. 11, 1841, Va.
     m.  Nancy Agness Cox, b. Jan. 1793, Unk., d. Nov. 22, 1858, Wythe Co., Va.

5.  Elizabeth McDaniel, b. abt. 1790, d. Unk.
     m.  John Hutton, b. Unk., d. Unk.

6.  Absolom McDaniel, b. aft. 1790, d. aft. 1821
     m.  Elizabeth ??, b. Unk., d. Unk.

Solomon Franklin McDaniel, b. Feb. 13, 1784, Va., d. Dec. 11, 1841, Va.
m.  Nancy Agness Cox, b. Jan. 1793, Unk., d. Nov. 22, 1858, Wythe Co., Va. 

1.  Maria McDonald, b. Apr. 1810, Va., d. Mar. 1895, Marion, Va.
m. Joseph Sexton, b. Feb. 1805, unk., d. Apr. 1866, Laurel Fork, Va.

2.  Sarah Bishop McDonald, b. Sep 1811, Va., d. Feb. 1880, unk.
m. John Gatewood Sexton, b. May 1808, Shenandoah, Va., d. Apr. 1864, Chatham Hill, Va.

3.  Eleanor S. McDonald, b. Oct. 1813, Va., d. Mar. 1857, unk.
m. William H. Bates, b. unk., d. unk.

4.  Elizabeth McDonald, b. Feb. 1816, Va., d. Nov. 1839, unk.
m. Charles J. Shannon, b. unk., d. unk.

5.  Catherine Virginia McDonald, b. Oct. 1820, Smyth Co., Va., d. May 1876, Smyth Co., Va.
m. Evan D. Richardson, b. Dec. 1818, Rich Valley, Va., d. Aug. 1897, Rich Valley, Va.

6.  Nancy Agness McDonald, b. Feb. 1822, Chatham Hill, Va., d. Nov. 1903, unk.
m. William Washington Ward, Mar. 1821, Wythe Co., Va., d. Nov. 1860, Va.

7.  Columbus Franklin McDonald, b. Dec. 1824, Chatham Hill, Va., d. Jan. 1911, Pierce, Neb.
m.  Charity Curran Sexton, b. abt. 1826, New Jersey, d.  Sep. 1886, Pierce, Neb.

8.  Amanda Susan McDonald, b. Feb. 1827, Va., d. unk.
m. Thomas H. Spratt, b. unk., d. unk.

9.  William H. McDonald, b. Jul. 1829, Va., d. Mar. 1907, unk.
m. Ellen Beattie, b. unk., d. unk.

10.  Charles M. McDonald, b. Aug. 1831, Va., d. unk.

11.  James Van Buren McDonald, b. Nov. 1833, Smyth Co., Va., d. Sep. 1915, Pierce, Neb.
m.  Emmaline Ann Gannaway, b. Aug. 1836, Cripple Creek, Va., d. Dec. 1916, Council Bluffs, Iowa

James Van Buren McDonald, b. Nov. 1833, Smyth Co., Va., d. Sep. 1915, Pierce, Neb.
m.  Emmaline Ann Gannaway, b. Aug. 1836, Cripple Creek, Va., d. Dec. 1916, Council Bluffs, Iowa

1.  J. Beauregard McDonald, b. bef. 1858, Va., , d. unk.

2.  John E. McDonald, b. Oct. 1858, Va., d. Jan. 1860, Va.

3.  William G. McDonald, b. Apr. 1860, Va., d. Nov. 1862, Va.

4.  James B. McDonald, b. Sep. 1861, Va., d. unk.

5.  Robert F. McDonald, b. Apr. 1864, Va., d. Sep. 1894, unk.
m. Irene (Rene) Gates, b. unk., d. unk.

6.  Charles T. McDonald, b. Dec. 1865, Va., d. Oct. 1961, San Pedro, Calif.
m. Drucilla J. Amarine, b. unk., d. unk.

7.  George E. McDonald, b. Oct. 1868, Va., d. Oct. 1892, unk.

8.  Laura Estelle (Stella) McDonald, b. 1872, Va., d. unk.
m. Alonzo Glaze, b. 1872, unk., d. unk.

9.  Kenneth Wilton McDonald, b. Jan. 1874, Smyth Co., Va., D. Jan. 1966, Long Beach, Calif.
m. Ethel McDonald, b. unk., d. unk.

10. Grundy E. McDonald, b. Mar. 1877, Va., d. May 1961, Long Beach, Calif.
m.  Candace Brown, b. unk., d. unk.

11.  Solomon Randolph McDonald, b. Oct. 1880, Chatham Hill, Va., d. Feb. 1966, Long Beach, Calif.
m. Bessie Lee (May) Crowley, b. Dec. 1882, Creston, Iowa, d. Mar. 1972, San Pedro, Calif.

Solomon Randolph McDonald, b. Oct. 1880, Chatham Hill, Va., d. Feb. 1966, Long Beach, Calif.
m. Bessie Lee (May) Crowley, b. Dec. 1882, Creston, Iowa, d. Mar. 1972, San Pedro, Calif.

1.  Wilton Arlee McDonald, b. Jul. 1903, Iowa, d. unk.
m. Dorothy Peterson, b. unk., d. unk.

2.  Helen Elizabeth Thomas, b. Sep. 1910, Iowa, d. 1998, Calif.
m. Gordon Thomas, b. unk., d. unk.

3.  Virginia Ann McDonald, b. May 1915, Council Bluffs, Iowa, d. 1987, Escondido, Calif.
m. Otis Wilson Peterson, b. Nov. 1912, Freemont, Neb., d. Oct. 1974, Lomita, Calif.

Melchert/Lindquist
The Melchert and Lindquist family name stems from