This Joseph Marshall (would have to be Joseph W. Marshall) and Mary McCollum are the best match for JVM's parents from among the possibilities available in 2009 on Ancestry.com. That doesn't necessarily mean this is the right choice, given the limits of census and other records currently available. The links are based upon journal entries by JVM's daughter, Mary Hoylman McCoy, who corresponded with an aunt, Letitia Patterson. The aunt seems to have been (Mary) Letitia ("Lettie") Marshall Patterson, who died in North Carolina in 1949. Her death certificate lists her parents as Joseph Marshall and Mary Neal. Mary Neal is too young to be the mother of JVM, so this seems to have been a second marriage. The Joseph and Mary Marshall family are found in Danville VA, and Joseph is shown as having been born in NC. The most likely marriage of a Joseph Marshall to someone else in the general area of the Virginia-NC border is that of Joseph W Marshall and Mary McCollum in 1828 in Orange County NC.