Help needed finding parents and country of origin of Abigail Arms b 1762 in Wilkes Co. N.C.

Question

Abigail is my third great-grandmother and had 3 children, Catherine, Aaron and Moses (my second great-grandfather) all  with unknown fathers in N.C. In 1825 Abigail married Abuid Fairchild, veteran of the Revolutionary War, in Floyd Co. Kentucky, a contemporary of Captain William Jackson.

Comments

Just a note that it's very unlikely Abigail was born in 1762 since she had children who were born between 1811 and 1815.  Her profile here on Wikitree https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Arms-969 estimates a birth year of 1780, which seems much more likely and gibes with her age on census records.

Answer 1

You have Abigail (Arms) Fairchild (aft. 1780 - aft. 1840) Arms-969

Find A Grave has her birth date as 1762 and is listed as a source on the profile.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/171247830/abigail-arms

It is better to have one date right and the other blank if not known because any one else working on another Abigail profile, Wikitree will not show a match if the dates are that much off.

Sorry I don't know who her parents are but fixing the dates might help others look.

Answer 2

Arms may not be her maiden name. She married in 1825, so if born in 1762, she would have been 62, and to old to have children. Her Find A Grave says she is buried next to son Aaron Arms, b 1813, so she could have been married before marrying Albina Fairchild.

Kentucky, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1802-1850 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1997.

Original data: Dodd, Jordan, Comp.. Kentucky Marriages to 1850. Electronic transcription of marriage records held by the individual counties in Kentucky.

Name:	Abigail Arms
Marriage Date:	20 Apr 1825
Marriage Place:	Floyd, Kentucky, USA
Spouse:	Abina Fairchild

20 Apr 1825 • Floyd County, Kentucky, USA

(1763–1843)

Answer 3

I agree with the suggestion that Abigail was probably previously married, and that Arms may not be her maiden name.

Or, what have found a few times in my own line with ancestors like Frances Sarrat and Rebecca West Jones, you may be descended from an Abigail Arms, but the one born is 1762 is the better documented/more well known Abigail, but she may not be your Abigail. Your Abigail could easily be a cousin or a sister-in-law or related to a whole other Arms family. Abigail was a popular name in the 1700's and people have long confused one or more Abigail (usually because of lack of documentation)

I find that DNA tests help solve those mix-ups especially if a male of one or more of the lines takes a comprehensive y-dna test and you can prove relationship to him. I have a number of less well known cousin branches of a popular tree where I pretty much had to wait for someone to take a DNA test.

Best of luck in your search.