|
|
Facts and Events
__________________________
Source
- Transcript:Pension Application James Patterson 1758-1838
Related
- Ancestry Trees for James Patterson 1758-1838
Overview
According to his pension application, James Patterson was born 5 July 1758 in Montgomery County, Virginia. [2] His parents are commonly identified as Andrew Patterson and wife Elizabeth, but the basis for this is unknown. In any case, James explains that "I was born...in Montgomery County, Virginia but left there very young to North Carolina." At the outbreak of the Revolution he was living in Rutherford County, where he enlisted, serving multiple terms of service throughout the war. His service included participation in
- the Battle of Ramsour's Mill
- the Seige of Savannah
- Kings Mountain
- the Cowpens
- Yorktown
He was discharged a final time after Yorktown, and returned to Rutherford County. About 1793 he moved to Kentucky, then to Maury, Tennessee, and back to Kentucky, Finally, about 1828, he moved to Illinois, settling first in Edgar Illinois, then moving to Shelby County in 1834, where he died 3 December, 1838.
An examination of Ancestry family Tree vita shows some confusion over the identity of James' wife. Some trees identify her as Edith Jane Nelson, and others as Sarah Davidson. Some split the difference, as it were, and identify his wife in varying combinations of "Sarah Edith Jane". There are, however, two separate DOM's given in these trees, one in 1794, and the other in 1811. This indicates two separate marriages. This is probably recognized in at least some of the family trees, but not all. Those trees that identify James wife as (for instance) "Sarah Edith Jane" probably do not recognize that there were in fact two separate marriages. Combining the names of two women into one may be an attempt at reconciling some records that show his wife as "Edith Jane" and others as "Sarah". Records attached to James pension application, particularly those added by son Joshua makes it clear that he was married twice, first to Edith Jane in 1794 (Kentucky) and then to Sarah in 1811 in Maury Tennessee. Joshua states that he was very young when his father remarried, while other testimony tells us that he had no children by Sarah. Joshua identifies Sarah as his step mother. From this we can conclude that Edith Jane probably died shortly after the birth of Joshua, and James quickly remarried, perhaps out of necessity of having someone to care for the infant Joshua.
While there may be some confusion in these tree's as to which wife married James when (and even that there were two wives), collectively they give a reasonable picture of his marriages, particularly as supplemented with the information in his pension application record. One thing that is not resolved, however, is the maiden name of his two wives. "Sarah" is usually identified as a "Davidson", while Edith Jane is usually identified as a "Nelson". Documentation to support either view presumably exists but has not been located. A more comprehensive search of individual trees, to see what their documentation they provide, may clarify this. [3]
YDNA
The Patterson YDNA project shows a single kit for a person claiming descent from James Patterson (1758-1838). This kit was tested at 111 markers, and was designated as being haplogroup I1. At N=37+ [4] this kit matched no other kit in terms of YDNA signature, though there was a marginal match at 25 markers.
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Transcript:Pension Application James Patterson 1758-1838
- ↑ In his March 1837 application he states that he was "78 years of age on the 5th of July last". Note that Montgomery formed in 1777. In 1758 the area that became Montgomery County was still part of Augusta.
- ↑ Most of the tree's examined show no documentation whatsoever. This is fairly common in genealogy; most genealogists are hobbyists who do not recognized the criticality of identifying their sources. Indeed, in many cases, their "sources" are simply other undocumented family trees, that they have taken "on faith". Some genealogists, however, do take the time to document "how they know what they know", with pointers back to their original source documentation. Those tree's are particularly valuable as they allow the reader to verify various facts of the person's life. Sometimes the authors of these tree's include transcriptions of the records, or simply point to a specific source that can be searched out. In either case, this approach, though relatively rare, allows us to verify and validate the facts contained in the trees. See Verification and Validation.
- ↑ This refers to the number of markers tested. Typically, people are tested at 12, 25, 37, 67 or 111 markers, at least in the FTDNA system. Tests at levels 37 markers or more typically yield results that be reliably evaluated. Tests at 12 and 25 markers tend to show many "false positive" results, matching mulitple different groups that otherwise are clearnly separated in YDNA analysis. As a result kits tested at levels less than 37 markers are not here considered, except in passing.
|
|
