Is Mary Polly Rutherford Scurlock a real person?

Question

I'd bet this isn't the first time this question has been asked, but I'm grasping at straws. I'm trying to find anything at all to determine the lineage of Mary Polly Rutherford Scurlock. (Scurlock-139) She was the wife of my wife's sixth great-grandfather, John Edward Burns, Sr. (Burns-3740)

Supposedly her parents are Men Repent Amen Scurlock (Scurlock-140) and Amanda Rutherford Moore (Moore-18678). Their lineage is completely unknown.

I've searched all over, read the Scurlock family history, etc. I can't find any mention of a Men Repent. I've seen hints that his name might have been Benjamin, but even that doesn't lead to a parent relationship.

The Scurlocks apparently came from Wales to Virginia and then some migrated to North Carolina.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that these people existed, most prominently in the Master of the Red Buck and Bay Doe by William Laurie Hill and The Burns Family and Allied Lines by Estelle Burns Steward, but the only documentary evidence I've found of Mary Scurlock Burns existence is the Alabama Surnames document, which names her specifically.

But I can't find any source information at all about a Men Repent Scurlock or his wife, Amanda Rutherford Moore.

Any hints would be greatly appreciated. All the above-mentioned information is linked in their profiles.

Answer 1

I would start from a truly "proven" ancestor and work my way back.   I see several instances of date adjustment to make things work.   The one source on the profile indicates a marriage in 1750, not 1759, which means her birth would be earlier.   I have come across similar issues when I just follow the research of others....

Comments

Thank you. I have learned that the DAR calls her Mary X, because they don't believe there are sufficient sources or trustworthy enough sources to prove her maiden name. I've done some preliminary research but have not found anything useful.

I will keep looking. Right now, she and her father don't fit into any of the Scurlock families that have been written about.

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The Scurlock Family of Colonial North Carolina is well-documented and much-written about. They are all descended from Mial Scurlock, a Revolutionary War Hero who received land grants in North Carolina. All of Mial's sons also served. Mial's grandson, also named Mial died at the Alamo. Mial, the elder, was the son of Virginian Thomas Scurlock. Mial is the only member of the family to go to North Carolina. Mial had a daughter Mary but she married Judge Thomas Ragland.

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This begs some questions. Where did Men Repent (or Benjamin) Scurlock come from? Was Mial Scurlock the only Scurlock that ever immigrated to America? How is it that John Burns married a Scurlock when he was born about 1740 in North Carolina and Mial didn't even come to North Carolina until 1756? Since there is no Mary Scurlock unaccounted for from the Virginia Scurlocks, where did this Mary come from?

John Burns's first child was born in 1759. That means he likely married in 1758. Mary was at least fourteen at that time, which puts her birthdate at least at 1745 if not earlier. So, where did the Scurlock's of North Carolina come from? Clearly not Mial's lineage.

I have tons of questions. Very few answers.

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There are no proofs - no land records, no military, no will, for "Men Repent/Benjamin. He did not exist. And there is no proof that John Burns married a female Scurlock. This "Men Repent" line is based and copied and recopied from a "tree" entered on Ancestry many years ago when the site first went online. Like the false "Pocahontas" descendants and the fake Plantagenets, it is invented. Perhaps the original creator of the tree had no distinguished family line and thought the North Carolina Scurlocks, being a family of military heroes and Alamo legend looked good to connect to. That happens only too frequently. There was, a few years ago, on wikitree, a fellow who claimed descent from the tobacco king R.J.Reynolds, through an illegitimate son of R.J. and the mother of the illegitimate son was claimed to have been an illegitimate daughter of R.J.Reynold's sister. Wikitree experts proved beyond doubt the "son" and his "mother" were both inventions.

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Then how do you explain Estelle Mae Stewart's book, The Burns Family and Allied Lines of North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas, which predates the internet by decades? (published in 1969). (And please don't regale me with stories of ARPANET and so forth. I'm referring to the birth of the modern internet when it became available outside of universities.) Ancestry.com is a johnny-come-lately, having been birthed in 2000.

And how do you explain the Alabama Surname file, which predates Stewart's book? 

Alabama Department of Archives and History; Montgomery, AL; Alabama Surname Files; Box or Film Number: M84.0373

Both sources cite Mary Polly Scurlock by name, Stewart adding "Rutherford" as a middle name, and Stewart names both Men Repent and his wife Amanda Rutherford Moore.

More to the point, how on earth do you explain William Laurie Hill's Master of the Red Buck and Bay Doe, which was published in 1913, and features Men Repent, his wife Amanda, and his daughter Polly, as main characters in the quasi-historical account of the time of the Regulators in North Carolina pre-dating the Revolutionary War?

He names numerous people who are familiar to anyone who has studied North Carolina history, and his account closely follows known historical events. Did he just make those names up out of thin air?

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I apologize for offending you. But books have been written that have wrong genealogy. This one for example has John Woods of colonial Virginia married to Lady Elizabeth Worsop. Proven wrong many years ago but you can still find the book for sale.

https://archive.org/details/woodsmcafeememor00wood

 Wikitree has a list of bad genealogy tales. The question is where does the information on your Alabama source come from if this family lived and died in North Carolina? 

Again, my apologies. I won't comment further on this. Have a wonderful week. Be safe and stay well

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I wasn't offended. Your response is very gracious. I hope you will continue to interact because I need to run this down (which is why I posted it.) I fully understand that people make up stories about their ancestors. But this story has legs, and from different sources.

I don't know why, but Alabama, for some reason, created surname lists of many families in North Carolina. Perhaps it's because many North Carolinians migrated to Alabama, but that's just speculation on my part.

Here's the collection (you can view this without an ancestry account): https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61266/

Search for prominent North Carolinians. You will find many.

If you search for Scurlocks, you will find:

Mary to John Burns (1750-1760)

Bettie Frazier to an unknown spouse (10 Sep 1912)

Mary to Vincent Compton, Wilson County, TN (20 Sep 1832)

Search for Brantley, and you will find records dating back to the 1700's.

Search for Stallings, same thing.

Pick any NC family name.

I don't know the provenance of these records, and it's something I've been meaning to follow up on, but they are official state records.

This is the official statement regarding the records. "Staff members at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH) started compiling these records on Alabamians in 1901. They include a variety of items and record types arranged by surname: newspaper clippings, obituaries, local and family histories, donated family research and records, extracts from censuses, research requests made to the archives, and other items.

While ADAH staff began collecting and assembling these records in 1901, names of people included can predate this year."

Despite the fact that it clearly states the records are regarding Alabamians, there are people in those records, like John Burns, who never (AFAIK) set foot in Alabama, but their descendants did.