Robert's older brothers

Robert (1796) had one older brother that we know of, John (1788), besides William (1774), the oldest, who I was looking into. At the time of the 1800 census there were three boys in the house in Cecil, Maryland: Robert (1 under <10 10-15="" and="" john="" one="" other="">15). Some on ancestry identified that one as Francis, but I decided that was not right; Francis was born in Ulster, and had a different mother. All John's kids were born in Londonderry/Donegal, as far as I know, and he was still with Geneva Jane at his death.

So I was looking around at the different Williams who were born in 1774, and what happened to them, and then it seemed that I could follow my parents' lead (they spent time at the Mormon libraries) and look for an unknown male born 1777 (they also had an unknown female born 1776). I actually liked this assumption because John and Geneva Jane, upon marrying in 1774, are more likely in my view to have three in quick succession than wait with years between them and have kids later. So if there was a Wallace out there born in 1777 in Ireland, living in Cecil County (would have been 23) in 1800, I'm interested.

Along came this story about Michael. Born in 1777 (from Maryland, as far as anyone knew), he was living in Sinking Valley, near Huntingdon. A fire ravaged his house. In the process of saving his possessions, some burning timbers fell on his brother William. This was in November of 1807. William died in December 1807 as a result of the burns.

What a sad story! If that was our William, he lived until the age of 33 and who knows if he was married or not; he was visiting Michael at the time.

Michael went on to move and move again, until he ended up back in Morris, which is all near Huntingdon. A Michael had a son who went on to have many descendants but here we have a Michael who apparently had a brother Thomas which doesn't quite fit into our picture. Although all these people have unknown origins, Wallaces kicking around the mountains of Pennsylvania, a Thomas of that year would have to live with the family if he in fact existed.

A recurring problem is that there were lots of Wallaces, lots of Johns, Williams, even Michaels, and they are often placed onto our tree as if they were just sprung from John and Geneva Jane in their little house in Cecil Maryland. That was the story of Francis, who was placed there wrongly, and apparently also William Andrew (1774), who was fairly well documented, placed with John and Geneva Jane, died in Huntingdon in like 1837, definitely did not die in a fire.

I can buy that John might name his oldest son William Andrew, for a variety of reasons; also, that any "Michael" who is known to be from Maryland, and has a birthdate of 1777, could be from the John & Geneva Jane line. I could buy that our Michael saw his brother die in a fire in 1807, before he had a chance to go on and have his family (actually he would be 30 at that point), give up merchandising in that location because of the memories, but come back and do ok before it was all over. I think it's likely that we're confusing a lot of different Williams and a few different Michaels.

Sinking Valley, by the way, is not far from State College, in the center of the state. Not far from Huntingdon, a more substantial town. Nowhere near Wallace Run, but kind of in its own territory. Would it be possible that two, or possibly three, of John's sons ended up up there? Possible. I'll keep digging.