Al Adams
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Al Adams

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Signed 6 Jun 2013 | 42,054 contributions | 2,768 thank-yous | 1,891 connections
Communication Preferences: I am interested in communicating private message with cousins and anyone else with an interest in genealogy. Here is my family tree.
I,m Always available to help where I can.
Al L. Adams
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The Adams name has produced more celebrated men than any other in the country .....Cousin to 31 Presidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adams_political_family

The name Allen is Celtic. In Celtic the meaning of the name Allen is: Harmony, stone, or noble. Also fair, handsome. Originally a saint's name, it was reintroduced to Britain during the Norman Conquest, remained popular throughout the Middle Ages, and was revived in the 19th century. Lloyd is a name originating with the Welsh adjective llwyd, most often understood as meaning "grey". Adams is a common surname of English, Scottish, and Irish origin, meaning "son of Adam"


Truth and Belief

Every religion, every country's nationalistic policies, every ideology and philosophy is based on this simple fact. Once upon a time, perhaps long ago, a human being alive in the world confronted life, death, emotions, people and things around him or her self and formed some conceptual ideas or thoughts about what the truth is, about what reality is or what it should be. Many of these folks shared their thoughts with others either by word or through voice and deed. Other folks agreed with them, followed their ideas, formed groups, churches, temples, countries, societies, and so on. Again, the basic fact is that someone had an idea or thought and others concurred. Religions were born. Great ideologies created. Philosophies composed. The rest is history. But I ask you a simple question: every belief purported was deemed to be the truth by those following it, and if everyone one holds this opinion, then obviously those beliefs which differ cannot possibly be the truth and inevitably must be in conflict with the concepts one holds as true and sacred, so what is the truth then?

Ancient Geneaology

ALL such descents are hypothetical – that is, all entail many filiative links that are not, in fact, attested in writing, but postulated by scholars on the basis of an assessment of the known chronology, ethno-political situation, and onomastic patterns of the relevant era, locale, and race. In short, ‘ancient’ pedigrees have many ‘dotted lines,’ which are plausible, even likely, but NOT susceptible to proof. Time Line: 1300-1400 England - Overpopulation, no food, fighting the "Scots" , Poor weather 1315-1320. Plague hits 1346-1348 England lost 30%to 50% of population, outbreak again in 1362 and 1400. This puts the country into Economic Depression 1350. Also we have the 100 years war 1337-1453 where both countries suffered greatly, Lets not forget the Church and the Power fighting there. Hurry up Renaissance.

Normally knowledge is thought to be justified true belief. That is, it must be true, for one, you have to believe it and you must have some justification for believing it. Any thing or place from which something comes, arises, or is obtained; origin: a book, statement, person, etc., supplying information is a SOURCE

Books: We use these to draw our own Educated conclusions.

Family Records: Family Bibles, vital records, correspondence (letters), memoirs, journals, diaries, unrecorded deeds and wills, diplomas, certificates, and testimonials.

Public Records: Censuses, government records, military, pensions, land bounty records, passport applications, passenger lists, original grants, naturalization or immigration records, records of entry, state, province and local records.

Institutional Records: Church records, cemetery records and inscriptions, educational institutions, societies and fraternal organizations.

My thoughts on DNA testing:

Modern DNA tests, it's still impossible to definitively prove any relationship. Two men may share the exact value on every Y-DNA marker tested, but all it means is they probably share a paternal ancestor. Based on the test alone, they're just as likely to be father-son, uncle-nephew, grandfather-grandson, paternal fifth cousins, etc. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is even more problematic. It's less useful than Y-DNA since maternal surnames typically change every generation. And because mtDNA changes so infrequently, large numbers of people can match without sharing a common ancestor in thousands of years.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Adams

ADAMS'S EVERYWHERE England. The earliest presence of Adams as a surname was in Staffordshire and in the Welsh border counties. In each case, you can almost see the transition from forename to surname.

Staffordshire Among the knights who accompanied William the Conqueror in 1066 was one Adam de Auldyhley (later Audley) who was granted lands in north Staffordshire. William Adam was recorded as an Audley tenant in Tunstall in 1307. Adams then appeared as a name later in the century there and in Burslem.

It was from monks nearby that the Adams apparently learnt their pottery craft. They became so celebrated as potters that the family crest, a boar's head, was used by the Stoke authorities as the town emblem. The Adams' pioneered the use of salt glazes; in the 18th century, William Adams was generally acknowledged as one of the master potters of his time.

There were other Adams families as well in Staffordshire, starting perhaps with William Adams in the 1440's at Longdon near Lichfield. Another William Adams was a benefactor to the town of Newport in the 1650's; while Thomas Adams set off for London as a draper and became rich on his trade. He backed the King during the Civil War (loaning him money to help his cause), survived the Commonwealth, and came back into favor with the Restoration. Meanwhile, the Adams presence in Staffordshire has been and continues to be strong (where it is today the eighth most common surname).

On the Welsh borders, the patronymical "ap" style, as in William ap Adam, can be traced from the 1100's. Lord John ap Adam commanded these borders in the early 1300's as Lord of the Marches. He owned extensive estates and his name can still be found on a stained window in Tidenham church.

SW England It was thought for a long time that the Henry Adams from Barton St. David in Somerset and an early emigrant to America was a descendant of this line. This connection was later found to have been the result of a 19th century forgery. It might still apply to the Adams family which settled at Bowden near Dartmouth in Devon. Whatever their lineage, Adams have been and remain numerous in Devon. Prominent among them was George Adams, a British army general in the mid 19th century.

London Increasingly, Adamses were to be found in and around London. The Adams name in Shoreditch marriage records can be traced from the late 1500's. A folk hero in Clerkenwell at the time of Charles II wasJack Adams, sometimes called a simpleton and otherwise a fortune teller and astrologer. For years after, his home patch of Clerkenwell Green was known as Jack Adams' parish. Early registers show a number of Adams' craftsmen and tradesmen in the capital. The Adams population in London more than doubled over the course of the 19th century.

Scotland. The Adam surname is also old in Scotland. Duncan Adam, son of Alexander Adam, was an important in Scottish politics at the time of Robert Bruce. Their family held sway for many generations. However, the Scots Adam remained resolutely Adam and they only appeared to pick up an extra "s" on their travels (although one family in Midlothian, the Adam family of Adamsrow, did become Adams in the mid 19th century).

Ireland. The MacAdam name can be found in Mayo and in Armagh from separate MacAdam septs. But MacAdam rarely contracted to Adams. Instead, Adams, mainly to be found in County Down, seems to have been an anglicized version of older Norse names Aidy and Eadie. These Irish Adams were augmented by Scots Irish Adams who had settled in Ulster such as the Adams family in Cootehill, county Cavan.

America. Adams came to New England and also to Virginia and Maryland.

New England There were a number of early Adams arrivals into Massachusetts in the 1630's, of whom Henry, who settled in Braintree, and Robert, in Newbury, have been the most tracked. Henry Adams' descendants included:

• Samuel Adams, the American patriot at the time of the Boston Tea Party, • and John Adams and John Quincy Adams, the second and sixth American Presidents. When President, John Adams erected a granite column with the following words to commemorate his forebear:

"In memory of Henry Adams who took his flight from the dragon of persecution in Devon and alighted with his eight sons at Quincy near Mount Wollostan."

Also in the Henry Adams line was Jonas Adams, a captain in the Revolutionary War, who in 1794 moved with this family to Andover, Vermont where he farmed and helped build the local school. His descendants included:

• Alvin Adams, born there in 1804 but an orphan eight years later, who was the founder of Adams and Company in 1840 - a forerunner to Adams Express, one of the first companies to act as a carrier for express shipments by rail in America. • Austin Adams who migrated west with his wife Mary to Dubuque, Iowa in 1854. Their home in Dubuque became an avant-garde salon for intellectuals of the period. Austin was a prominent Iowa judge, Mary one of the earliest and most enthusiastic advocates of the women’s suffragette movement. • and Charles Adams, a colonel in the Civil War, who also headed west with his family, in this case to Missouri, in 1867. He started a creamery there and it was said that he made the finest butter in the state. Overall, there were very many distinguiished Adamses from New England during the 18th and 19th centuries, in politics and as lawyers, educators, physicians, clergymen, and businessmen.

Virginia and Maryland The Adams presence in Virginia and Maryland became noticeable as the 1700's proceeded. Joel Adams was a plantation owner who moved to Richland County in South Carolina in the 1780's.

Perhaps the most interesting family was that of John Adams who was a planter in Fauquier County (his plantation house still stands). One of his descendants, believing that slavery was wrong, set his slaves free and went off to seek his fortune in a state that did not permit slavery. That state was Ohio and George Adams started a mill there in an area near Dresden. He later built a large mansion for himself, Prospect House, which was used as a transit point for runaway slaves on the underground railway. The house was said to be haunted. The story goes that a bounty hunter looking for slaves was hanged in one of the rooms.

Many of these Adams immigrants were Scots Irish rather than the English that had come to Massachusetts. Being more rugged in character, they were among the early pioneers who pushed forward into Kentucky:

• David Adams, a trapper and trader, moved onwards to Texas and his descendants to Arizona. • and Elias Adams, born in Kentucky, arrived by oxen and covered wagon in Salt Lake valley in 1850. After building a log cabin for his family near Layton, he soon realized the importance of water in this arid environment. Two years later, he and his sons had completed a dam to trap the waters from a nearby canyon (now named the Adams Canyon after him). He is commemorated as one of the pioneers of Utah. African American Today, more than 15 percent of the Adamses in America are African American. In the nineteenth century, some may have been slaves at Adams plantations in the south, in Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas. Others may have taken their names in respect of the two Adams Presidents who had been anti-slavery in their stance. The slave who escaped from Virginia to Pennsylvania in 1862 had styled himself John Quincy Adams.

An Adams family had been one of the first free families in Maryland during the colonial period. Curiously enough, the first written statement by an African American Adams was that of Robert Adams who was captured by Barbary pirates off the coast of North Africa in 1816.

After emancipation, we find two pioneer black educators, Lewis Adams (Adams-63635) an ex-slave who helped found Tuskegee University in Alabama and Charles Adams who studied at this school and brought black education to Louisiana.

Clarence Adams grew up in Memphis, Tennessee in the 1930's when racial prejudice was still strong. He joined the army and spent twelve years as a prisoner of war in China after the Korean war. His book, An American Dream, recounts his life history.

South Africa. In 1836, an American Baptist church sent three missionaries to what was then Zululand. One of these men was Newton Adams. Adams mission school, now Adams College, was named after him. Francis Adams arrived from London in 1865 and started a small bookshop in Durban. The business expanded over the years and has remained family-run.

Some later Adams in South Africa were of Indian stock:

• Albert Adams, an artist in exile during the apartheid years; • and Farid Ahmed Adams, a political activist imprisoned and banned at that time. Erica Adams, the daughter of a mixed race Western Province politician, hit the headlines towards the end of this era with her rumored engagement to the son of South Africa's white President F. W. de Klerk.

Australia. The earliest Adams arrivals were convicts. Later came settlers such as:

• William and Sarah Adams from Dorset who arrived on the David Malcolm in 1849. William found work in the gold mining town of Castlemaine. • George Adams who tried gold mining for a while but later drifted to Sydney where he first became a publican and then started his hugely successful Tattersall's lottery. • and Herbert Adams who brought his baking skills from Somerset to Melbourne and opened a chain of bakeries (which later went nationwide). In recent years, Melbourne-born Phillip Adams has been a prolific and sometimes controversial broadcaster and writer.

New Zealand. William and Prudence Adams from Devon were among the first English settlers (on the AmeliaThompson in 1841). Five years later, another William, from Northern Ireland, came with the British troops. He was the first white settler in Masterton near Wellington. Bill Adams arrived in the 1920's. Amazingly, although clinically blind, he became one of the best wrestlers in New Zealand history.

(edited from many books I have)


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Comments: 65

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Hey Al. I like your profile as many others have, given the number of views. What I think I know, think and believe often competes for what represents the truth in my mind. History is written by the victors and is usually in sharp contrast with the history of the defeated. Politics of today are the same as politics of yesterday, power, greed and corruption. Why should American history be contrary to world history when all said and done. I see genealogy much like American history. It is well intended. Many facts can be misrepresented to present an altered/perceived reality. DNA is yet another source that can help prove or disprove documentation. Having looked at several of my connections of notorious to notables, I can see how we are all related. If more of our ancestors were documented, we could be closer than 19 degrees and 11th cousins given our ancestry and migration pattern. At any rate, I share your sentiments and what I perceive as your skepticism in what many perceive to be an exact science.
posted by K Smith
Al Adams!! Thank you. I am so honored.--Gene
posted by GeneJ X
Hello Al,

Thanks again for all of your work on the Adams Family.....I so appreciate it.

posted by Robin Lee
Hello Al,

Sorry, I an new-ish to WikiTree, and not all that savvy on messaging.

You suggested a merge on: Al Adams has proposed a merge between Catherine Wood (Wood-18150) and Catherine Wood (Wood-40160). [Thank Al for this] Click here to compare the profiles side-by-side. Al says Wood-18150 and Wood-40160 appear to represent the same person because:

I uploaded my info, and had to pause on merge/reject due to inconsistencies mostly in the two death fields: date and loc. But also, my own birth loc info. All of the before/after family members that I have were located in Egg Harbor, none in Port Republic (a few miles NE of GEH Township). I do suspect that these are the same person, but still hesitated. You seem to feel the same. I'll wait a day or two, in case you respond with info. Michael G

posted by Michael Gallagher
You’re the profile manager for my 8th great grandfather, Charles Glidden of Strawbery Banke and Exeter, NH, and a 9th cousin through our common descent from Ezekiel Wathen, but I was astonished to see that we share 101 common ancestors. That’s a lot of shared DNA!
posted by David James
Hello Cousin Al, and thank you very much for your recent merge in my tree Adams-29317 . What you state on Y-line DNA does trouble me somewhat as you say they PROBABLY share a paternal ancestor. No they DO share a paternal ancestor if they Y match, no doubt. Also using the amount of centimorgans they match it is possible to figure out most relationships. You are going to share more with a parent, than you do an Uncle, & 1st to 5th cousins all have ranges of centimorgans. Many folks have done Autosomal DNA testing which show the amount of centimorgans they may match Y line testers. Here is a link to the centimorgan ranges chart https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2017/08/26/august-2017-update-to-the-shared-cm-project/ . However, I agree with what you say about Mitocondrial Matches. Regards!
posted by Loretta Morrison
Thank you Al for proposing a merge between Daggett-460 and Daggett-162. I am leaving for vacation with only a cell phone and intermittent internet so will review next weekend upon my return. Regards, Morgan
posted by Morgan Campbell
Thank you for your contributions last month!!

Shannon Appreciation Project

Hi Al, We're 8th cousins once removed.
posted by Janine Barber
We're 8th cousins and then some...
posted by Isara (Chellis) Argent
Hi: I’m new to this so bear with me, still getting the hang of how to make posts, but I’m really excited about this project and I appreciate your message!

Birth record shows ADAMS, MARCY: https://ia802702.us.archive.org/4/items/vitalrecordsofwr00wren/vitalrecordsofwr00wren.pdf Pg 10 Marriage record shows NEW, JOHN AND MERCY: https://ia802702.us.archive.org/4/items/vitalrecordsofwr00wren/vitalrecordsofwr00wren.pdf Pg 346 Death record shows: MARCY ADAMS NEW Findagrave.com MEMORIAL ID: 67806509

posted by Jaime (Nelson) El-Helw
Hi, thanks for the information you left on Robert Taylor-6436's page. Do you have documentation? If so, it would be nice to add your information to the tree. Is he an ancestor of yours?
posted by A Sawyer
Al L - awesome work and I like your hat. Your profiles are extensive and complete, but no LDS tag. I added one to Adams-23373. Is that OK with you?
posted by Jo Gill
I have completed the merge between Greeley-56 and Greeley-232 that you suggested. It was indeed a clear duplicate. I also updated the biography and some source information. Thanks for pointing me in that direction.
posted by Gail (Jones) Eckels

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