Analysis. DOB for William Willis (55)

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Related

Person:William Willis (55)

Person:McKinsey Willis (1)

Data. Willis Land Grants in Kentucky

Analysis. DOB of McKinsey Willis (1)

Problem

Court records show that a William Willis secured a parcel of land on Wilson's Creek, a tributary of Dicks River, in Kentucky in 1780. While we do not know exactly where Wilson's Creek is located, Dicks River flows through the area that included Madison County, where we believe William (55) would have been living about 1810. We would like to know if this land record is for Person:William Willis (55).

Analysis

Currently we have vita for William as 1776 to 1866. The basis for this is unknown. However, if the 1776 DOB is correct William (55) can not be the William who took up the land on Wilson's Creek in 1780. Either this is a different William Willis, (in which case, who is he?) or William (55)'s DOB is incorrect.

William disappears from the local records by 1820, and we can not use census records to get a fix on his DOB. We have a decent DOB of 1799 for William (55)'s son, Person:McKinsey Willis (1) (See:Analysis. DOB of McKinsey Willis (1)). User:Ruthnevada identifies Williams daughter Rachel as older than McKinzie (Why?). Assuming that Ruth was born in 1797 ^[1]This implies a DOB for William of no later than 1777, which is close to our current DOB for him. If this DOB is correct than William (55) is not the William who secured land on Wilson's Creek in 1780, as that would require a DOB of no later than about 1760. Additional data is needed to either confirm the 1776 DOB or to show that William was born earlier than that.

There is some confusion over the marriages of William. His wife if commonly identified as Nancy Smith in 1794, apparently based on Alma Ray Sanders Ison and Rebecca Wilson Conover, 1970. Marriage bonds and consents, 1786-1810, Mercer County, Kentucky (Harrodsburg, Kentucky). However some genealogists also specify an earlier marriage to someone whose name is not given, and for which no children are identified. This marriage, when it is mentioned, is commonly given as in the 1770's, implying that William is quite a bit older than a 1776 DOB would imply. Unfortunately, there seem to be no sources given for this marriage, and we do not know what it is based on. Since neither the spouse nor the children are identified, this may be a confusion of one sort or another.