really the same birthday? James Gunn

Question

On 28 Nov 2021 Shirlea Smith wrote on Gunn-374:

Apparently not the same person as https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gunn-1547 if Wikipedia is correct that the politician's parents were Thomas and Sarah.

Can anyone confirm that the birthday belongs to both of them?  or just one, or neither...

Cheers

Shirlea

Comments

I have been looking this over again. I have seen a few unsourced references to the parents of the Senator as John and Mary. And another tidbit that suggested his father was John "Thomas" Gunn, son of Thomas Gunn and Sarah Boatwright. Considering the birth date of Sen. James Gunn I don't think Thomas Gunn and Sarah Boatwright are his parents....but it is likely they are his grandparents. I think merging the two James to become one Senator would not create more of a muddle since all the details of the James who is connected to the right family poses the same questions. 

Here is one site, a compilation of information from a wiki platform. It is sourced and there are references to check into. 

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/James_Gunn_(senator)#References

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Thanks, Lorraine and C!  Please feel free to correct this to whatever you think is good.  I just noticed it while looking for something else, and wondered about it.  I'm not knowledgeable about that time and place.

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I sent a message to the pm of Gunn-374, provided the link to this discussion and proposed a merge.

Answer 1

The birthdate is almost certainly an error arising from conflation with the James Gunn who was a US Senator from Georgia; I'd probably change the birthdate of not-the-senator to 1753, no date, mark as uncertain/approximate and then look for a better source.

Answer 2

They are duplicates. The muddle comes from Gunn-374 who attaches unsourced parents John Gunn (only source is a bad link) and Mary Green. Then that John is attached as son to Thomas Gunn and Sarah Boatwright. 

Wikipedia (sourced on Gunn-1547) says James was son of Thomas and Sarah. Find A Grave Source on Gunn-1547 has father attached as John but no headstone, so unreliable.