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 Elusive People

Parents of Elkenny McKay

Elkenny McKay is supposed to have come to the U.S. by 1725 from Scotland but there is no record of his ancestors. There is recent speculation that possibly Elkenny McKay didn’t emigrate from Scotland but was born in the Boston area and was the son (or more likely grandson) of Alexander McKay who was a Royalist soldier captured at Worcester and transported from Gravesend to Boston on the John and Sarah on May 13, 1652. Gilbert McKay and Marjorie Massie have been put forward on some sites as Elkenny's parents but there is no proof.
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Parents of William Stevens

The Stevens paternal line ends with any certainty at William Stevens (1799-1857). Family lore says he was born in Glasgow Scotland and emigrated to the U.S. through North Carolina in 1820. The truth, though, seems to be that William was born in the United States and there is currently no valid information about his parentage. An 1850 Census report shows him as having been born in Virginia in 1798. According to the Mormon (LDS) database, he was born in Ohio in 1807. But according to the 1900 census report, his son Francis said that his father was born in Scotland (a contradiction from what he reported in the 1880 census when he said his father was born in Ohio). It has been speculated that William Stevens is not a Stevens at all, but instead, he (or an earlier relative) changed the name from Stewart (or Stuart) to escape persecution. An even more radical theory that I have been exploring through DNA is that William’s father was not a Stevens at all, but instead from the Allison family. Benjamin Allison has shown to be one candidate for William's father based on DNA evidence.
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Wife of James Francis

James Francis II seems to have been married to an unknown wife sometime before 1811. Pamela Foster, his second wife, would have been too young to be the mother of James III.
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Parents of John Freeman

John's parents are unknown but John's father is NOT: John Freeman 1718-1784 or John Freeman 1723-1793 both of Bertie County, North Carolina and had sons named John or Robert Freeman, III 1711-1807 of Culpeper Virginia who had a son John Freeman
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Parents of John Derry

John's father is unknown but his grandfather is likely the immigrant Peter Derry.
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Parents of Johann Thomas Brown

Johann Thomas Brown is not the son of George Stephen Brown and Mary Stevenson. They had a son John (1725-1810) married to Ruth McQueen. But his family clearly came from a Maryland Catholic background.
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Parents of Mary Alice Sizemore

It is probable that she is not the daughter of "Ned" George Edward Sizemore, nor is she a Native American. There is no consensus about her parents. Verna Mae Slone has written in What My Heart Wants To Tell that "(t)here have been Slones living on Caney (Kentucky) since 1790, when Alice Slone, better know as Little Granny, came from Virginia with her husband and three sons." What DNA shows is that Mary Alice has a very strong DNA connection to the Sizemore family. Charlotte McKay and John McKay have more DNA connections through Mary Alice than any other Ancestry record. So Mary Alice may be the daughter of any of the Sizemores that are in the Lunenburg 1748 tax list: William, Ephraim, James, Edward or Henry.
Parents of Isabella Rollyson

The relationship between Isabella and John Rollyson is conjectured because of her location in Greenbrier Co (Monroe County was created from Greenbrier County on January 14, 1799), and a land transaction for $1 (often indicating family transaction) between Patrick Hart and John Rollyson in Monroe Co. John Rollyson's father is purely speculative
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Parents of Thomas Windsor

Thomas origins have abtributed to many Windsors but there is no definitive answer.
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Parents of Sina Choate

Sina is clearly descended from Christopher Choate VII but her parents and grandparents are unclar.
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Parents of Catherine Robertson (born Jones)

Born in 1794 Shenandoah Valley, Botetourt, Virginia. Died in Glasgow, Barren, Kentucky after 1860. Her son's obituary says "His mother was a lady of one of the most prominent families of her name in Kentucky."
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Parents of Catherine Forbes

Catherine's parents are unknown
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Parents of Marian Rouse

Her parents are likely not George Rouse and Barbara Weaver but the most likely parents seem to be Benjamin Rouse and Marian Capron.
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Parents of Sarah Marshal

There is a distant possibility that Sarah Marshal is a descendant of Thomas Marshfield. There is confusion in the Marshfield and Marshal names in the early history. (See https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2496/images/42521_b158316-00161?pId=41287 ) Thomas' son Samuel married Hester Wright and Sarah's name is in some accounts associated with Wright I have a number of DNA distant cousins who have Samuel Marshfield in their tree A family account of Sarah's daughter, Comfort Norton, says (p. 3) that she is a cousin of Noah Webster and Samuel Marshfield is related to Noah Webster
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Parents of Anna Eliza Hess

Anna may be a descendant of immigrant Hans Ulrich (John) Hess (b. 1 JULY 1683 Wald, Canton Zurich, Switzerland, d. 1 MAY 1733• Pequea, Lancaster, Pennsylvania) or Jeremias Hess (b. 1675 Mutterstadt, Palatinate, Germany d. 28 Apr 1739 Salford, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
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Parents of Sarah Meeker (1754-1794)

Not David Meeker and Hannah Hill who have a daughter Sarah Meeker born 1753 in Fairfield, CT.
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Parents of Rachel Richardson

Rachel's father was John Richardson but nothing else is known about him.
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Family of Abigail, wife of Peletiah Daniels

Abigail may also have been a Daniels. She is wrongly shown as the daughter of David Daniels and Magdalen Partridge but that Abigail was married to Hezekiah Fisher.
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Parents of Grace Lawton

It is unlikely that Grace is the daughter of Daniel Lawton since she doesn't show up in any listings of his offspring but she may be the daughter of one of Daniel's brothers. So her grandfather may be the immigrant Thomas Lawton.
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 Mystery Photos

Not James Wilson

This photo, passed down through the Stevens family, is supposed to be James Wilson, father of Louise (Wilson) Stevens, but doubtful since James Wilson is listed as having died in 1866 at 35 years old.