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Author: Clem1029
Surnames: Carothers, McCready
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.carothers/351/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
I could use a little help unraveling a bit of a date mystery that I've come across in
my research. I've been kicking this around with a few members through messages, but I
thought it might be a good idea to open this up to the community here. I'm going to
start with what I 100% know to be true, then go through other information that I have that
doesn't quite reconcile. My starting point was working off a family tree that a great
aunt had put together years ago.
James CAROTHERS born 1802, married to Catherine MCCREADY born 1808 - this information was
on my tree, and has been confirmed with census records.
My tree indicates that James is the son of William CAROTHERS (1766-1818) and Margaret
UNKNOWN (1778-1857), who had children (in addition to James) Anne/Ann (b 1809),
Jane/Jenne(1797-8), John (1800), Mary (?, poss 1810), Nancy (?), Thomas (? poss 1811) and
William (1799). All of the children's birthdates are from census records (assuming
I've identified the correct people).
The mystery comes in with many other trees here on Ancestry and elsewhere. Given the above
data, the vast majority of the trees identify Margaret UNKNOWN as Margaret CLAGSTON, and
then have different birthdates for some of the children. Most notably, James CAROTHERS is
identified as being born in 1788. This leads me to two possibilities.
1) My information on James' parents is incorrect (which is entirely possible given the
sheer number of CAROTHERS named William, James, Margaret, etc), which means I would
appreciate any information on James' correct lineage.
2) My information is correct, and James is the son of William CAROTHERS and Margaret
CLAGSTON. If nothing else, this scenario is supported by the birthdate information -
Margaret (CLAGSTON) CAROTHERS being born in 1778 (confirmed by census records), it seems
unlikely James would have been born in 1788 (making her 10 years old).
Due to the birthdate reasons and what information I've been able to confirm about
James and his siblings, I'm leaning toward the second scenario being true, but I
don't have complete confirmation to lock it down on my tree. If anyone has any
information on this branch of the Carothers tree, I would greatly appreciate it.
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