I've got a theory that right help chip away at a brick wall, but could use some assistance...

Question

Amanda (Thompson) Williamson - WikiTree Profile

For a while, she has been one of the biggest brick walls on my tree, partly because her father(according to a late 19th century published genealogy, so I know, probably not the strongest source) is William Thompson of New York City, a very common name. In the 1850 Census, a John Thompson and Mary Frances Thompson, both the right age range to be Amanda's siblings, are living in her household, but I can't prove they're related definitively. I also have a theory that her father might be the William Thompson who served as deputy Comptroller of New York City around the same time Amanda's father-in-law was Comptroller, because it would make sense that their children would be in the same social circle: New-York as it is - Google Books

Can anyone help?

Answer 1

I found an excerpt from the New York Evening Post published 17 Dec 1836. It is a marriage record for Amanda Thompson and John A Williamson, married 15 Dec 1836, but her father's name is listed as  Joseph Thompson. Are you sure about her father?

Comments

I just marked her father as "uncertain". The only source honestly I have for her father is a published Williamson genealogy available on Google Books from the 1890s, and anyone who's done genealogy for a while knows how prone to errors those books are. It's possible that it was Joseph William Thompson or something, and that's how the name mix-up happened.

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In another excerpt he is called Joseph Thompson Esq. So it might help in your search to know he was a lawyer.

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Are these excerpts from Newspapers.com? Where can I find them please?

ETA: Nevermind, found it on NYS Historic Newspapers

Answer 2

Tried browsing the 1850 US Census for a lawyer named Joseph Thompson and no luck finding him so far...

Answer 3

I wish I knew Amanda's mother's name. I haven't found that anywhere

Answer 4

I found possible census records for Joseph. I added them to his record with some additional info.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Thompson-66038