As far as I have been able to determine, the connection of Zachariah Wells
to the Richard Wells of Baltimore comes from one source and only one
source, my great-great uncle, M.L.K. Wells. His "theory" has been proved
wrong by scores of researchers including the illustrious Orin Wells(who has
done more to further Wells research than any single person). I had the
privilege of visiting with Flo Montgomery prior to her death and went
through her notes on Zachariah Wells. I mentioned the "theory" of M.L.K.
Wells and she was most definite in stating that there is not even one shred
of evidence to suggest such a relationship ... except M.L.K.'s ever
changing account. Flo Montgomery "suspected" that Zachariah was of the
Quenn Anne County, MD line, but had no idea how he fit in. There were
simply no facts to prove anything.
I am also quite interested in finding out more about Abigail Osborn. What
proof do we have that she was the daughter of Caleb Osborn? I have seen her
connected to James Osborn as well.
I would like to wipe away all of the various "accounts" of Zachariah's
origins and deal only with the facts as we know them. Is our Zachariah of
Lee Co., VA, the one who was living in Fincastle County, VA 1772-1774 and
was an employee of William Herbert?
John B. Wells III
Paintsville, KY
----------
From: Eddie L. Wells <ewells(a)tstar.net>
To: ZachariahWells-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: Stirring up old troubles
Date: Wednesday, January 21, 1998 6:13 PM
Orin,
Here is an email I received from Claude that I thought all the Zacharaih
Wells clan ought to see. I answered and told him I was circulating it to
the rest, and that you would put him on the list if he's not already
there.
Eddie
>Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 11:32:23 -0800
>From: "Claude E. Wells" <claude.wells(a)lmco.com>
>Subject: Stirring up old troubles
>To: PWilson411(a)aol.com
>Cc: gkscalf(a)dcache.net, ewells(a)tstar.net, thegm(a)dcache.net,
gloria(a)nfis.com
>Reply-to: cwells4944(a)bigfoot.com
>Organization: Lockheed Martin Aero & Naval Systems
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Win16; U)
>
>Hi! It's Claude Wells here! Just checking in on everyone to see if any
>progress has been made with everyones research. This is kind of a
>generic message to all so I am trying to word it so it applies to all,
>with only a few specfic references individuals may recognize.
>
>I have been occupied trying to trace down another family branch, the
>McMillan's, and had some luck in 99% identifying where they came from in
>Scotland. I fell across a Clan Society page for the McMillan's that had
>a contact pint at the Society Group in Scotland. They even had a contact
>address for the Clan Archivist. Fortunately he was aware of our
>particular family, the McMillans's that is, because he had been
>contracted by another descendant of my ancestors. Turns out the birth
>date for John may be off by three years, if correct this will change a
>lt of peoples records. I jut need comformation on the birth place for
>Marion to raise the likely hood to 99.9% they were from Edinburgh.
>Enough of that about the McMillan's, I now you all are so interested in
>an unrelated family, DAH! Any way the birth date info was kind of
>interesting in this case because John was considered to be an educated
>man, but he was not correct with his birthdate. Everyone kept reminding
>me that in those daystehy weren't as concerned about birthdates or
>birthdays as we are. So if you do come across a likely candidate for teh
>correct perosn, but are scared off by the date being wrong, check it out
>and search for clues that can either prove or disprove teh suspect.
>
>Now on to the Wells', just before Christmas I did a littel research
>looking through some books written by Robert W. Barnes, he writes books
>on genealogy. On eof his books, The Early Settlers(?) of Baltimore
>County" (I think it's Settlers but it maybe Inhabitants.) He had several
>pages referencing Richard Wells and his family, siblings and parents.
>According to the book there were two James Wells'. One was Richards
>father and the otehr his Grandfather. The elder james arrived in Anne
>Arundel County, MD and after spending several years there he moved to
>What is Baltimore County. According to the book several children
>attributed to Richard and Nancy were actually James the younger's or
>were by his second marriage, I Think I have to go back and review the
>notes. But unfortunately there was no Zachariah, but he states and
>"possibly others". Doesn't do a lot to clear up matters does it? I t
>mentions the move to Frederick County. There are otehr notes mixed in
>with the listings as well. He also noted that the is on file at the
>Prince Georges County Historical Society, research done by a lady named
>Montgomery. She for some reason did a lot of research on teh "Little
>Wells Family of MD". I haven't had a chance to follow that one up yet.
>
>If I remember correctly some of you were going to VA for some R & R,
>Rest and Research, I don't remember if anyone ever got back to me with
>their results. I know I made some suggestions about soem possible places
>or contacts, because there are many relatives still iving in the area. I
>have been trying to contact Don Chestnut, but I think he doesn't like me
>because he never responds to my mail lately. I want to try and followup
>the data he has on teh Zachariah marriage to Abigail, daughter of Caleb
>Osborne. He has his info on the internet on GENDEX, but I am having a
>hard time following teh line on net and terh structuring at GENDEX is so
>that it is tedious to try and download or print anything. I tend to
>think that Zachariah's father was a Richard Wells, but more possibly
>from the Eastern Shore of MD or NC. My motehr said my Grandfatehr always
>claimed that the first Wells of our family came from the Eastern Shore
>of MD, it seems there was a dispute over teh ownership of a cow or
>something. (Okay Grandpop said he stole it.) Again a family story
>doesn't have much merit on the whole, but there maybe be something lying
>below the surface that may be true. I am trying to follow that lead. My
>brotehr currently lives on the Eastern Shore of MD, he's one of the good
>guys, as a Department of Natural Resources police officer, ironic isn't
>it. Anyway I told my brother, Guy Wells, about the story my mother told
>me and he is going to try and follow up on the available data in the
>area to see what he can find.
>
>Anotehr point I want to bring up, everyone says the States of VA and NC
>always listed the Spouse name on land transactions. In some of the
>research I have done, I have never seen that fact as being true except
>on rare occasions. In fact just last night I was checking teh digital
>dta files at teh VA library research site and on neither teh index card
>not the copies of teh pages was there any mention of spoise on teh
>recrods i checked. If you have found this site yet, you can search by
>last name going through scanned index cards and when you find one of
>interest, with the proper plugin, you can view the actual document. Any
>way has anyone found the spouse being listed as the rule ratehr than the
>exception, from what I have seen it is the other way around. Oh well a
>minor point.
>
>Well I guess I have bored everyone quite enough for today. Either this
>will work or everyone will hate me for such a short novel and never talk
>to me again or I will hear from most of you about your recent adventures
>in teh world of family tree hunting, either physically or through
>cyberspace. I just picked one name for the mail to address, besides she
>was the first one I ever met on the Web to respond to my messages about
>teh Wells', and everyone else ended up cc:, no slight intended I JUST
>HOPE IT WORKS!!!!!!!
>
>Any way hope to hear from everyone, hope you all have had some good luck
>and if you can't get back to me harumph!!!!, no just kidding good luck
>on your searches maybe someday we can get Ol' Zachariah straightened
>out. Wouldn't it of been nice if he had more foresight and had left
>beter documents about his life, but tehn we wouldn't be having so much
>fun at his expense.
>
>Claude E. Wells
>cwells4944(a)bigfoot.com
>http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/w/el/claude-e-wells (Home of my
>family reports in case I forgot to tell eveyone. The wells report still
>contains teh Richard and Nancy connection, which I will change as soon
>as we can prove otherwise.) Ok Ok Ok I will shut up.
>
>
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