Looking for help on the Scott's from Scotland to Virginia, etc.

Question

Re: Scott-11593  John Scott 1744-1793

I am looking for help to collect and evaluate information for John. His parents, William Scott and Lucretia James, need similar work. Eventually we will get to the rest of this line back into Scotland.  18th century work will involve very few sources, many varying trees and other information found in obscure places.  Then all the collected info will need to be evaluated for relevance, processed and reasonable conclusions made.  One of the more compelling questions is how William Scott came to be nicknamed Cherokee Billy.

Comments

Today, I tackled Thomas, son of William and Lucy.  On FamilySearch, he has two conflicting sources.  I tend to believe the marriage in 1790 is correct and the christening is not relevant.  There was some interesting information I found by google search that looks like it will be worthwhile to analyze.  His wife, Ann Cooksey, has some good info, too.  There is a message board from Ancestry that I copied to Thomas' profile which I need help contacting, if someone could look into that.

I still think that working through the twelve children in William's 1793 will is the best approach and I am hoping for some help on them.

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All the children of William & Lucy James Scott now have profiles.  They all have the first crop of info harvested from the internet.  Time will be allowed for review and additions.  Time now for Laura Bozay's suggestion to build a matrix.  Thanks for contributing.

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I have a pretty large group of people whom are descendants of Simon Scott from Scotland.  I will see what they have dug up and try to add.  We have all been so intrigued by Simon and the story how he got to the US.

Answer 1

Don't know much about Scotland, but for Virginia, see our county pages:

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Virginia_Counties_and_Parishes

This includes his parent's marriage county of Halifax:

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Halifax_County%2C_Virginia

Death location of father in Bedford:

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Bedford_County%2C_Virginia

Please add more County specific sources as you find them, especially online ones.

 

Also, Binns tax records are a great help for Virginia:

• http://www.binnsgenealogy.com/

See Virginia Project for more info:

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Virginia

Answer 2

Hi Steven,

You and I are a match on Chromosome 4 with 9.8 cM and a likely 5.5 generation match.

Throughout my years of research, I keep coming up with these same ancestors as you mentioned--with the same confusions.  So here are the confusing WILLIAMS I have:

1)William Scott b. 1790 GA, d. 1854 Cecil, MD, son of Thomas Sr. b. 1756 Cecil Co., MD d. 1797 NC   and this line goes back to Walter Beardie Scott

2)William Scott b. in 1690/1695/or 1720 Pr. Geo MD or Highlands, Scotland and m. Lucretia Lucy James and d. 1752 in Pr. Geo MD or d. 1794 Bedford Co., VA and is  son of either Beardie or son of William of Pr. Geo, MD and goes back through two more Johns to get to Walter Watty Wudspurs instead of Beardie

3)William Scott b. 1732 Denny, Stirlingshire, Scot or Pr. Geo MD, d. 1794 Goose Creek, Bedford Co., VA, m. Lucretia Lucy James . son of Walter Scott who was son of Beardie

 

And to throw in even more confusion, there is also a William Scott, MD b. 1701 in  New Kent, VA   d. 1742 Stafford, VA  and son of either Walter who is son of Beardie OR son of Capt John Foster Scott II b. 1672 New Kent, VA d. 1729 St. Peter's Parish, New Kent, VA

At this point, I am so confused and frustrated that I am about to throw in the towel and give up genealogy all together!

My line of Scotts goes through my father, Charles Edwin Scott, then through his father Everett Clemmon Scott to Charlie Archibald Scott to Asa Charles "Acey" Scott to Allen Scott to Thomas Scott b. 1787 VA d. 1849 Franklin Co., GA buried in Toccoa, Stephens, Co., GA  m. to Delila Lucas.  The story we have heard from many including a researcher in Polk Co., GA, where all the Scotts ended up, was that the father of Thomas was:

an Archibald Scott b. in Castleton, Scotland around 1765 and immigrated to Virginia then to GA.  But there are many other routes and lines that have taken me all over the place researching.  One person said our ancestor Archibald fought at Culloden (which would require a date change for his birth as Culloden happened in 1745) and was taken prisoner and sent to Ireland where he escaped and immigrated to America--I suppose that might even include changing your name to avoid detection, in which case, I am totally at a loss!

And I can't find any of the ancestors listed in my matches trees that show an Archibald at all!  The only evidence of an Archibald is an Archibald who signed himself as Archer and his will is on file in Franklin Co., GA with a Thomas Scott as one of his executors.  But no proof he is MY Archibald.

Where did you hear that William Scott was called Cherokee Billy?  I hadn't heard that before.

Anyway, I will be trying to straighten out this huge confusion for years to come.  I have traveled to Scotland many times in hope of finding proof of my lineage in Castleton and Camghouran and I'm going back in 2019 to check out Kilconquhar, but these are just leads that may lead nowhere.  

Good luck with your search.  Sorry I couldn't help but I am just as confused as you.  At least I know I'm not alone in this boat!

Will update you if I find any new reliable info and hope you will do the same.  Thanks in advance and for putting your request on Wikitree.

 

Susan Scott Brouillard

Comments

2 and 3 are mutually exclusive unless by some chance in two different generations a William married a Lucretia.  Something is wrong with either 2 or 3.  Where did that information come from?

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Besides drawing out information, I am also attempting to draw out the unanswered questions.  SSB,  that is a huge summary right there, thank you.  The more of that we can collect, and the more people we have sharing and reviewing, the better chance we have of making sense and order out of nonsense and confusion.  I believe this Scott line is a bigger problem than any one of us can solve, but it will be possible to make progress with collaboration.  I'm taking a 3-day camping trip, so I'll check in on Monday.

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Good observation, Laura.  We need good questions and sometimes the good ones cause discomfort.  It seems overwhelming.  I think we need to break this down into smaller, manageable pieces.  I probably shouldn't have mentioned the rest of the line into Scotland.  Let's focus on William Scott who wrote his will on 7 Dec 1793.  We now have an image of the original, in addition to a transcription, connecting him to Lucy and his 13 children (12 sons and one daughter).  Proving up all of his children and his wife will be a first step toward deciding his early history.  For example; his children's birth year estimates need to be more firm in order to establish a marriage year and subsequently a birth year estimate for William.  My guess is that 1690 is too early and 1732 is too late, but let's not make any bets yet.  We just need to gather more info that points us toward records which can then be evaluated for relevance.  Help with land & court records.  Suggestions for additional types of records would be welcome, too.

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Didn't mean to leave out the answer from William Foster, but his suggestion was right where my last reply left off - more source types.  We can tag-team all of those.  Check in here or on William's profile public messages to report which ones have been examined.  Thank you, all.  I'll be back on Monday.

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To answer your question regarding #2 & #3 being mutually exclusive.  I think that is an example of one of the many small problems we are trying to clean up.   You are right that the one William, b.1690 and the other William, b.1732 can't have both married Lucretia Lucy James.  I think there has been a lot of guess-work with too little sound reasoning in order to get from William Scott's 1793 will in Bedford county, VA back to his beginning.  I believe the 1732 tail is the wrong one to pin on this donkey.  Then there is the whole wishy-washy game of "either/or" instead of getting into the reasons why this father is possible and the reasons for that father being probable.  I am hoping that if we can't get better answers for the Scott's, then at least we can have better reasons why one option is more likely than the other.

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What I do is make a grid.

Enter Name, birth and location and source of this info

Enter parents and source of this info

Enter spouse (s) dates and source of this info

Now rate your sources.   

3 for a primary source (birth certificate, will, marriage record from a civil or church register, death record (and if you think it will help enter death as another topic to the above grid)

2 for a secondary source like a family letter, bible, a book of transcribed records, a census because that is only as good as the person who is filling it out which could be a neighbor.  

1 for a book written by a family member because they can be great or horrible when it comes to research.  

0 for any internet trees because there is so much bad stuff out there.

Use the sources rated 0 and 1 to find the primary or secondary sources.

The lines with the highest scores are the more plausible ones to look into for good solid sources with a 3 rating.  

Ok, while not perfect, it can at least show you the ones that someone likely picked up from a bad source like internet tree that is based on someone's conjecture vs solid research.

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Good suggestion, Laura Bozzay, on the source rating matrix.  I guess I mentally visualized something similar, or at least used it subconsciously.  Didn't think of making it concrete.  Great way to "show your work."