© Kathy Duncan, 2026
While it might seem reasonable to guess where a couple married based on where their families traditionally lived, that can lead to errors. Always look for a source instead of blindly guessing!
An example is Lavinia Bembury Murfree. When her father Col Hardy Murfree, left Hertford County, North Carolina, and went west to Tennessee, he left Lavinia in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to be educated at the Moravian School. That would have been about 1802 when Lavinia was seven years old. By then, Hardy Murfree was a widower, his wife Sally (Brickell) Murfree having died in 1802. Lavinia remained at the Moravian school until she finished her education. Then she moved to Halifax County, North Carolina, where she lived in the home of her sister, Mary Moore Murfree, who married Isaac Hilliard, Jr.
Lavinia Bembury Murfree married Col. Francis Nash Williams Burton in Halifax County in 1814.
One might have guessed that Lavinia and F. N. W. Burton had married in Granville County, North Carolina, where the Burton family had lived for many years, or that they married in Hertford County, North Carolina, where the Murfree family had lived for many years. One might even guess that they married in Rutherford County, Tennessee, where many of the Murfrees had migrated, or that they married in Forsyth County, North Carolina, where Lavinia had attended school for many years. At some point, I considered all of these possibilities.
Instead, they married in the home of Lavinia's sister and brother-in-law in Halifax County, North Carolina.
