Person talk:Francis McCown (3)

Last name spelling [26 October 2013]

I am a direct decendant of Francis and am confused on the spelling of the last name. The source information such as the map of the property, his will, court records, etc. list the spelling as McCown the same as mine.Where does the spelling of McCoun come from?--Mccownk 17:12, 31 October 2011 (EDT)

Not sure where you are picking up "McCoun" on this page. Did you mean "McCune", which is currently listed as the spelling his fathers last name. In any case that's simply one variation of many that could be chosen from in building the lineage. I personally didn't insert it, but at this time I've no particular reason to change it. Other, perhaps, than the fact that I've not seen anything to support ANY particular person of what ever spelling variant one cares to choose, as Francis father. There are lots of choices to choose from. What frequently happens on WeRelate is that one choice is made, and is used as a place holder until a better documented choice becomes apparent. So far, I've seen no documentation that would make any particular choice seem better than any others. But then I'm not searching the line in detail. As to "McCoun", its a common enough spelling variant that can be found in genealogical records. There's not necessarily consistency in surname spellings, so at different times genealogists pick one or another spelling based on whatever they think appropriate.

Since we know that Francis paid for his own self importation, the question comes down to "Did he come alone with his wife, or with other family members?", There some indication in the importation record to suggest that he came with others, but their relationship to him seems very speculative. In my limited searching I've not seen anyone pick up on the identity of those who are listed with him when me made his importation oath. I would guess that he, and perhaps they, probably came into Philadelphia and moved south sometime later into Augusta. That's the path that many of the other persons taking the importation oath seem to have followed. If I were searching for his line prior to Old Augusta, I'd probably be looking in the records of Old Chester (including Cecil County) for them in the period from about 1730 to 1740. Q 00:32, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps you are getting the "McCune" spelling from the table of extractions from Ancestry Public Member trees. Since that's a summary of what other people think is "the right answer", I can't say much about where their information comes from. Some of that information is soundly documented, most is not. If this is the basis for your question, you'd have to pursue that with the relevant people searching the line and presenting their information publicly on Ancestry Public Member Trees. Q 00:38, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

DOB

I am amused at the table listing the birth of Francis as 1710 and the build up of the case that it is correct. About 40 years ago I created this date along with the estimated birth dates of the children listed in his will based on census records, and anything else I could get to estimate a date. There is no proof for it. It came from my head. I probably have a rough draft of it somewhere. Since then I have shared my research with many descendants and others (before the Internet) when I mailed them copies of reports and family group sheets. The Internet is crawling with information from those reports now. I can spot my notes immediately, as I had a format that I followed, again that I created. Leonard J. McCown (leonard@mccown.org)--LJM 21:37, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

You seem to have had a rationale basis for coming up with the 1710 DOB based on the ages of the children. That's a fairly common approach used, and justified for for exactly the reasons you state. It is however, not a direct basis for establishing the DOB, and not necessarily accurate. The statement was made that there seemed to be no direct documentation (meaning original sources) to support this date, though perhaps, given its consistent usage, there was an underlying original source document. If you are indeed the source of the date, that would seem to not be the case, and the 1710 DOB is simply guesswork. Reasonable guesswork, but guesswork all the same. Q