Listers:
I just spent several days in Salt Lake City doing extensive research on my CHANNELL line.
A substantial portion of this research dealt with early Virginia records. While working
in the book room, I found a Randolph County source that bothers me, so I am passing it
along to the list in hopes that it won't find it's way into CHANNELL genealogies.
Randolph County [West] Virginia Deeds and Will Abstracts, Early Marriages and SIMS Land
Grant Index -- Deed Book 1-3 (1787-1806) Will Books 1-4 (1787-1860) Early Marriages
(1787-1816) Sims Land Grants (1790-1859) by Larry G. Shuck. Published by Closson Press.
US/CAN 975.485 P2s Located at the main branch, FHL, Salt Lake City, UT.
The following entry:
Pg. 52 -- Item #25 -- Jerimiah CHANNEL; Will. Dec 1797. Wife; Nancy CHANNEL. Sons; John
CHANNEL, Jerimiah CHANNEL. Exec; wife Nancy, son Jerimiah. Wit; Jonathan SMITH, Wm.
SEYMOUR.
I don't know about anyone else, but when I saw this entry I about fell out of my
chair. I have seen Jerimiah's (Shuck's spelling) will all over the place, but
never before had I ever seen a hint that a John CHANNEL was mentioned. Has anyone seen
anything like this connected to the will of Jerimiah? (again, Shuck's spelling.)
I went upstairs and did a check of the film containing the original Jerimiah CHANNEL will,
Film # 0,808,234 -- zip. The recorded will is exactly the same as is posted numerously
over the internet and in various family genealogies. I doubled checked this original
against an abstract film, # 0,464,981 -- again, zip, the abstract was accurate. Further
more, in regards to the original will, I found the handwritten entry to be completely
legible, clear and easily read. In short, I had no issues reading the handwritten entry
at all.
Where in the world Shuck got the mention of John CHANNEL, I have no idea. I did a limited
search but didn't find anything else for Nancy, but I did not do any further searching
on Jerimiah Junior. Anyone out there have the contents of Junior's will, if he even
left one?
I spent 4 hours double checking Shuck's CHANNEL abstracts against the recorded entries
on film. Beyond spelling variations and what I would consider "interpretation"
variations, I did not find anything else major or significant in this source as it relates
to CHANNEL; having said that, I can not speak for any other entries, and I consider this
source to be somewhat suspect -- I would hope that no one would use this source as
anything but a confirmation note for information already verified.
While I am a proponent of the theory that Jeremiah (my spelling) was the father of Junior,
John and Joseph, this abstract and the entire source record are not acceptable, and I urge
Channell researchers to use caution when encountering information from it.
Regards,
M.E. Mathews
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"Quid me nutrit me destruit" --