Person talk:William Pringle (33)

Suspicious of the Identify of his Parents [14 February 2014]

In trying to straighten out the lineage of his son John, I could find little reliable information online. What I could find suggests that this William's father was John, not William.

First, it should be noted that family trees and online discussions appear to have few sources besides each other, and that confusion has been introduced by OneWorldTree, which is probably responsible (through its poor algorithm for merging people) for the family trees (such as this one) that link an 1880 census record to this person.

Message 2 at the Pringle Family Genealogy Forum cites a family bible in saying that there were a father and son both named William Pringle, one of whom married Elizabeth McCoy (daughter of Elijah McCoy) and the other of whom married a Mary McCoy. The message does not say which was the father and which was the son, but goes on to question whether the William who married Elizabeth was the same William who applied for a Revolutionary War pension, saying that his father's name was John. Assuming the message author was thinking straight, she would not have asked the question if the William who married Elizabeth McCoy was the son of the William who married Mary McCoy. Thus, they are likely the other way around, and the father of this William Pringle was John Pringle. (Note that the dates for this William Pringle (barely) support him being the William Pringle who fought in the Revolutionary War from 1780-1782.)

Further, the death year of the William Pringle who married Mary McCoy is given as 1841 (as also given elsewhere). Other sources give a birth year of either 1744 (such that he could have been this William's father) or 1774 (in which case he could be neither his father nor his son). I speculate that his birth year might have been more like 1794, if he was this William's son (see chart on this William's Person page). Regardless, if the William who married Mary McCoy was this William's father and outlived him, he would have to be in the 1790 to 1840 censuses, which he is not.

Finally, this tree indicates that William's mother Mary McCoy was the sister of his wife Elizabeth McCoy, which is highly unlikely.--DataAnalyst 23:01, 14 February 2014 (UTC)