William Wallace 1773/1774

I want to talk about this guy although my search is not quite complete. I use this blog partly to lay out the questions I still have to explore and imagine ways to resolve the dilemma. The new use of ancestry.com has added a lot of different theories as to what happened to people.

William Wallace (1773/1774) was the oldest son of our ancestor John (~1750). It was said that John came over in 1770 and landed in Carlisle PA; one has said that he had three brothers with him. One person said clearly that he married and had William, but his wife died, so he went back to northern Ireland and remarried. This theory is plausible for some reasons and implausible for others. In this theory William was born in PA.

Another theory has John remarrying in Port Glasgow in 1774, already back, and having William in Ireland along with his other six children, all born in Ireland, before he and his wife returned to the states in about 1799. In this theory William was born in Ireland. Obviously he cannot be both, but he is listed as both, and it's widely circulated; in other words, once somebody says where he was born, lots of other people repeat it. Yet there seems to be no proof of where he was born. None of the kids born in Ireland have solid proof. No records appear.

In the first theory (born in PA), we are looking for Carlisle birth records, 1773 or 1774, of John and somebody having this baby William. We don't know who he married. We don't know when she died. They say the boy was raised by his grandparents, but we don't know who they would be. Sounds spurious eh? Well a lot of people are like that, especially in this era, but you have to watch out; if you just make something up, or assume it, people will repeat it as if it's fact.

Let's look at the birthdates of the other six. In ancestry one would think that they were 1784 (Adeline?), 1784 (Francis), 1788 (John Jr.), 1790 (Jane), 1794 (Mary), and 1796 (Robert, our ancestor). An earlier account, my parents', has 1776 (unk. d), 1777 (unk. s), >1784 (Jane), 1788 (John Jr.), >1790 (unk. d), 1796 (Robert). With the latter four, the two versions don't contradict each other at all. There's a question of when they started having them; if William (1774) was their first (born in Ireland theory), then there was a ten year gap before they had the other six. I consider that unlikely based on what I know. If they got married in Scotland/Ireland in 1774 I would expect kids every year or two until they were done or worn out.

If on the other hand he had William in PA (1773/1774), then his wife died, then he flailed around, then he went back to Ireland and had six, those six could very easily start at 1784 with no contradiction. He had to make arrangements. He had to sail back. He had to settle once he did sail back. Starting in 1776 (second set of dates) makes more sense but far less is known in that set of dates. Starting in 1776 makes more sense whether he had William in PA or in Ireland. But if you buy the first set of dates (starting in 1784, after William), born in PA is the only way to go.

There is one possible way out of this mess. In Cecil County Maryland in 1800, they recorded John and Geneva Jane as living in a house with six children, though they don't name them. They do gibe their relative ages which we have some information on. It is a census but is not in any way transparent. I was overjoyed to find it partly because I have solid proof now that they did move to Cecil County and at least someone was there with them. One of their kids may have died by then, but apparently they brought everyone. What became of these kids, coming over from Ireland in 1799? Not sure, stay in touch.