have been able to confirm from Familysearch records (*not* trees) that *a* Lafayette Lee married Eliza Massey in Orange County, Virginia on 24 Feb 1851, and that they had several children, including a James Lee, William Montgomery Lee, Sarah Elizabeth "Betty" Lee, Cora Lee, and others. (By 1870 the family had apparently removed from Virginia to Indiana.)
I have not, however, been able to find a reliable birth or baptismal record for him - he is cited in several references as born "18 April 1825", but none of them is an actual birth record. The 1850 Census has him listed in the household of a Sarah Lee (she is not cited as household head) along with a Richard Hughes. However, the 1850Census did not yet list household relationships and this record is in among a whole clutch of Lees and Hugheses and a Waugh family, all of whom were living in close association.
The 1850 Census record associates Sarah Lee with Sarah "Sally" Terrill, who married William H. Lee in Orange County, VA, on 19 May 1812. On the other hand, the Familysearch tree for Lafayette Lee places him under ABNER Lee and Sally Dodd, married 6 January 1806. (William H. Lee and Abner Lee were apparently brothers, and *this* Abner Lee is not the one referenced in the GW Lee Letter.)
Note: Sally Dodd Lee has a thoroughly improbable death date of "about 1900".
