Well sourced grandson, father? Not so much.

+5 votes
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From the developed citation (so well-written that I excerpted relevant portions in whole, given the age), we know a fair bit about this Evan Thomas Jr. His father, Evan Thomas Sr, though, is somewhat obscure - so much so that his father (the grandfather of Jr), is here on WikiTree: Samuel Thomas I (ca. 1655-1743) and well-described in the Jolliffe text (not cited by Samuel's profile), but I cannot connect them without the intervening Sr.

Should I guestimate dates?

It also turns out that another line of Evan Thomas' exist, BTW, so that complicates things further and makes distinguishing them important.

WikiTree profile: Evan Thomas
in Genealogy Help by Porter Fann G2G6 Mach 9 (90.8k points)
Oh wow!  Albenah Ross was an orphan profile that I recently adopted only because she shares my surname.

Anyhow, noticed that the source appears to be more about the Ross family and should be included in her (and her father Alexander Ross) profile.  With such a good source, I'd be surprised if there wasn't already a profile for the referenced Alexander Ross.  will research this more later.

Thank-you!

1 Answer

+9 votes
I would be really hesitant to estimate dates here because the source that is given for Evan Jr's birth says he married before 1741.  Yet the Evan that is given with his wife, Albenah (same source) have a child born in 1723 when he is 17?  And, Albenah is born in 1695?  Something doesn't seem right.  The fact that there may be another line of Evan Thomases makes me think that all is not correct here.
by Kathy Zipperer G2G6 Pilot (462k points)

Below this is the lineage of the family into which Albenah Ross married, put in chronological order. Albenah's record seems out of synch with the Jolliffe text, as the only references in the cited work do not give a date of birth for her, and, the (unsourced) date of birth seems improbable:


Generation 1: Evan Thomas of Swansea (1580-1650)

Generation 2: Philip Thomas of Bristol England (d. 1675) = Sarah Harrison (d. 1687)

Generation 3: Samuel Thomas of Anne Arundel Co (b. 1655-1743) = Mary Hutchins (m. 15 May 1688; daughter of Francis Hutchins of Calvert Co, MD)

Generation 4: Evan Thomas Sr = Catherine Katherine (m. 15 jun 1730)

Generation 5: Evan Thomas Jr 1706-1758 = Albenah Ross ("m. before 1741")

So we do not have any precise dates for Evan Thomas Sr, except that he likely was born Aft. 15 May 1688, and died after 1706. Next, we can look to see what we know about Albenah's parents and her children with Evan Thomas Jr to see if any rough dates can be developed for her, but clearly, the existing birth date is incorrect. 

In fact, if the parentage of Mary Thomas-Hiatt is correct, the marriage between Evan Thomas Jr and Albenah Ross would likely have been by 1723, instead of merely "before 1741."

It would be worth checking the Jolliffe work to see if any definitive dates on her parents exist; i.e., if one of them died circa 1706 (also, the supposed birth date of her husband), that would firm up a birth date for her. If death dates of her parents are both unknown, then after 1706 would be the most probably "after" this date for her birth date.

I figure Mary (Thomas) Hiatt will have to be the daughter of Evan senior.
Having said all of that, I should point out the Evan Jr's dates are not (actually) sourced, nor are those dates attributed to his spouse. Their children are not sourced.

I bumped into this line, and see some areas where certain dates can be nailed down, but at the moment, the families are cobbled together from a source that is essentially family tree "data."

On the one hand, we have the Jolliffe reference that gives some reliable dates, but only on some people, and does not account for family constellations in their entirety. Another case in point is David Ross who married a daughter of one Enos Thomas, but all we have is the birth date of David Ross, and the marriage date from the text: "David Ross (born 18 Nov 1742 - son of John Ross - who was son of Alexander Ross - and Lydia Hollingsworth (John Ross') his wife - daughter of Stephen Hollingsworth - to Catherine Thomas a daught of Enos Thomas 20 Dec 1770. Among witnesses were Evan Thomas and Albenah Thomas.

That might be the only plausible explanation, given that Albenah is apparently unmarried at this meeting:

"John Ross, son of Alexander Ross to Lydia Hollingsworth, daughter of Stephen Hollingsworth, both of Orange County, Virginia, at a public meeting at Hopewell in Orange Co., Va., 11 Oct 1735. Witnessed by - 

" . . . Albenah Ross . . .

A date after which Mary Thomas-Hiatt was already born.

Excellent.  I'd guess Albenah was born about 1715.

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