I would like evidence that [[Hall-1217|Thomas Anthony Hall Sr (abt.1702-1794)]] was a real person.

Question

I am a DNA match of several people who claim Thomas Anthony Hall (1702-1794) as their ancestor. However I can find no document with his full name, Thomas Anthony Hall, much less any evidence for his children. He supposedly was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, in 1702 but Lunenburg was not established until 1746.

Comments

There was a definitely real person--you share DNA with his descendants. What needs to be established is not that he was a real person--he was--but his identity. That will take traditional genealogy--going backward from yourself generation by generation with documentation. I wish you all the best in discovering your shared ancestor's identity.

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I know how to do genealogical research. I was the registrar for a DAR chapter until recently. I never submitted and application unless each name, date, place and relationship was documented. It just gets frustrating to see the same undocumented claims get repeated over and over. People who submit information to Wiki Tree need to include their sources. Even circumstantial evidence is better then none. Use a few paragraphs to explain what you have found and how it helps to establish a relationship.

Answer 1

There are some significant issues with this profile:

• The data section has one set of parents
• The biography has a different set.

Comments

and no sources or dialog to explain the changing of the linked parents.

Answer 2

Not that it will do much to alleviate the problem of no sourcing for those working on the profile . . . just wanted to add that:

*Lunenburg County was established on May 1, 1746, from Brunswick County.

*Brunswick County was established in 1720 from Prince George County.
"In August of 1702 the General Assembly declared the lands of Charles City County on the south side of the river to be Prince George County. After the General Assembly action, the County officially was established in July of 1703.  http://www.princegeorgevahistoricalsociety.org/history.html

*Before August 1702 Prince George County was Charles City County, official in July 1703.

*Before it was Charles County it was a Corporation of the Virginia Company May 1607-13. (Before the time of Thomas Hall b. ~1702

" From May 1607 until 1613, the area that would become Prince George County was a corporation of the Virginia Company. Monthly courts were held on this land from about 1623 until it became inconvenient for the settlers on the south side of the James River to make the water crossing. " (Ibid)

*Monthly courts were held in Prince George County from ~1623 until, IT SEEMS, 1702 which is inferred as the time the settlers on the south side of James River became Charles City County.

So records of a a birth in Jonathan Creek could have been recorded in Charles City County, before a portion of it on the south side of the river became Prince George County and/or records might be in newly created Prince George County.

*1702 is not certain it is "about" so IF that year might be an actual birth year, then either Prince George, or Charles City County would have been the county in which Jonathan Creek was located.

Apparently Halifax county was created from Lunenburg county at some point which may or may not have any  bearing on where current colonial and pre colonial Virginia records might be located.
 
*A clue:  "The father of Jesse Hall is believed to be Thomas Hall, who was born on Jonathan Creek, Lunenburg County, VA ca 1702.  He died in Bedford County, VA on 10 May 1794." (a family genealogy, no source, but a clue that might lead to somewhere useful:  )
(first section after intro:  https://sites.google.com/a/danmohn.net/highland-homepage/genealogies/my-family-roots/hallfams )

*two more clues from an unsourced genealogy:

Tax rolls     1767  Pittsylvania, Virginia, United States

Died Bef 10 May 1794  Bedford, Virginia

http://highlandhomepage.danmohn.net/showtree.php?tree=high2

Someone who can get past the Ancestry paywall, or the The New England Historical and Genealogical Register paywall might be able to verify the citation which was provided - how iffy the documentation cited, may or may not be.

Seems the  Library of Virginia might be a source for all the records available.  https://www.lva.virginia.gov/

Happy Hunting!

Comments

I am a member of the NEHG and have access to their records. The article in Volume 87, p. 357 in the NEHG Register was about "Henry Hall of Westerly, R.I., his parentage, and some of his descendants." The 5th child of John Hall of Westerly and Charlestown, Rhode Island, was Thomas, b. about 1702 but there was no further information about him. The 2nd child, John, b. about 1696, was the only child carried down and he died in Charlestown about 1777. There is no way to connect this Thomas Hall to Thomas Anthony Hall who supposedly was born in Virginia.  I have no idea why it was used as evidence of his birth.

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I've checked tax records, land records and probate records for a few Virginia counties which seemed relevant. Common names are such a problem. Without a will or probate record, land records sometimes can lead to a solution. My DNA matches on Ancestry.com are clues and I have researched their lines to their earliest Hall ancestors for whom I am able to document.