Talk:Analysis:Identity of Andrew Cowan of Castle's Woods

Cleanup [8 February 2014]

Cleanup

NOTE: The following cleanup has been completed.

My attention was drawn to the Cowans because Person:Jane Cowan (4) has 2 sets of parents. In looking over these pages, I felt that further collaboration would be served by making changes that reflect some of the notes on the pages. My intent is not to resolve the issues of identity of the various Andrew Cowans and their families, but to make the WeRelate pages more closely resemble the notes that are already here.

To that end, I intend to do the following:

• Keep Person:Andrew Cowan (20) of Augusta Co., called Andrew Sr. with his wife Mary in 1778, and rename his wife to Mary Unknown
• Merge Person:Andrew Cowan (18) of Beverly Manor with Person:Andrew Cowan (20) - both pages explicitly say that they represent the Andrew Cowan who acquired land in Beverly Manor in 1749 and who is identified with his wife Mary in 1778. If anyone thinks that there is a possibility/likelihood that the man who acquired land in Beverly Manor in 1749 is not the same man who is named with his wife Mary in 1778, please let me know soon and I will keep the pages separate and explicitly indicate that Person:Andrew Cowan (18) represents the 1749 transaction and Person:Andrew Cowan (20) represents the 1778 transaction (and add a link to indicate that they might be the same person).
• Keep Person:Andrew Cowan (4) of Washington and Russell Counties, who married Mary Walker
• Keep Person:Andrew Cowan (5) of Jefferson, Tennessee, and add his marriage to Person:Jane Thompson (38) (I'll also create her marriage to Person:James Walker (94))
• Merge Person:Andrew Cowan (6) of Sullivan, Tennessee (and his wife Person:Mary Walker (130)) with Person:Andrew Cowan (4) (and his wife Person:Mary Walker (211)) - favoring the data of the latter over the data of the former

I will also add links between Person:Andrew Cowan (20) and Person:Andrew Cowan (4) to indicate that there is strong evidence for them being the same person. If any Cowan researcher chooses to actually merge them, that would be fine with me - I just didn't want to presume to do that myself.

I will add links between Person:Andrew Cowan (20) and Person:David Cowan (1) to indicate that they are likely brothers.

It has been noted that the children listed for Person:Andrew Cowan (4) and Mary Walker are likely drawn from the list of children of Person:Andrew Cowan (5) and his first unknown wife. Therefore, I will remove all these children from Person:Andrew Cowan (4) and merge them with the corresponding children of Person:Andrew Cowan (5). Note that Person:Andrew Cowan (28), currently linked as son of Person:Andrew Cowan (4) is described as more likely being the son of Person:Andrew Cowan (5), so this merge will respect this note.

At the same time, I will move Person:Andrew Cowan (21), who is described as the son of Person:Andrew Cowan (4), from being the son of Person:Andrew Cowan (20) to be the son of Person:Andrew Cowan (4). I will also move his marriage to Mary Renneau from his page to that of Person:Andrew Cowan (26), son of Person:Andrew Cowan (5) of Jefferson, TN, as per notes on Person Talk:Andrew Cowan (5).

I will also move children Person:Sally Cowan (1) and Christopher Columbus Cowan (2) from being the children of Person:Andrew Cowan (20) to be the children of Person:Andrew Cowan (4) - for lack of anything better to do with them (some trees give Andrew and Mary (Walker) Cowan as their parents). I plan to add notes to their pages to indicate the lack of certainty that they are in the right family.

I will remove the other 3 children of Person:Andrew Cowan (20) (Person:Robert Cowan (12), Person:Samuel Cowan (11), and Person:Jane Cowan (4)) and merge them with the corresponding children of Person:Andrew Cowan (5) (Jane is already merged - has 2 sets of parents, which will be fixed).

I will add a note that Person:Andrew Cowan (5) could possibly be the Andrew Cowan baptized in Augusta County in 1741 and called Jr. in 1765 when he was "out of the county" (and a note acknowledging that Jr. might not be the same Andrew baptized in 1741).

I think that is it. I have not yet figured out what I will do with birth years on all the people I merge - I might use my best judgement, as there seems to be little data. I will remove (or modify) notes and tables that become redundant - maybe not all at once. I'm not promising to merge the extensive notes on some of the pages I will merge - I'll see what I feel up to doing, but I might just add a note that pages have been merged without merging the narratives. This will leave some pages with redundant narratives - probably best handled by a Cowan researcher.

If anyone has an objection, or would rather take on this work themselves, please let me know. As I said, my intent is not to resolve identity issues, but to position the WeRelate pages for better future collaboration.--DataAnalyst 03:08, 3 February 2014 (UTC)--Q 23:09, 8 February 2014 (UTC)