1790s will references to in-laws... nephew=nephew, "other children" = step-children?

Question

I'm working off an abstract of Daniel Nichols' will of 1795/1798 (written/proved). He apparently had no children of his own and names, among others, nephews, great-nephews, his sister Ann's "other children", and his "late-wife's children".

In trying to track down WikiTree profiles for the folks he names, I'm fairly certain that he means nephew in the modern sense (son of a sibling), but am wondering if "other children" means, in this case, step-children. His sister Ann married William Tate, and the information on their profiles don't seem to match up about which children are his by Ann and which are his by his first wife, Martha Dixon (and info on his profile includes a reference that says Ann was 1st wife & Martha was 2nd - but the abstract of William Tate's will names wife Ann). Anyway. Back to William Tate's children. "Levi Tate", for example, is listed in Daniel's will as one of Ann's "other children" and listed in William's profile as son of Martha (William's first wife).

And yes, these folks are all a bit of a mess. Just asking at this point for opinions about "other children" being a reference for children we would today call step-children - unless of course you'd like to jump into the fray with sources for them!

See their profiles:

• William https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Tate-489
• 2nd wife Ann https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Nichols-2815
• 1st wife Martha https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dixon-1140

Thanks!

Comments

Wife's other children sounds to me like what we call step children.

Answer 1

I worked on those profiles when a merge was done incorrectly for William Tate at the end of May, merging 3 profiles into 1.  I think I pulled the merged profile apart and added sources that I could find, but check on merges and my changes that were done end of May, if you might find something else.

This William Tate was born in Pennsylvania and died in Delaware.  Tate-4069 was created for William Alfred Tate, born in North Carolina and died in Georgia, so they were not the same.

Comments

Do you recall where the "Alfred" came from? I haven't encountered any mention of an Alfred for the PA/DE William Tate.

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never mind... Found it! https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Tate-1434&diff=prev&oldid=84891467 - it came in on a merge of two unsourced profiles. I'll leave Tate-4069 to you, but will remove "Alfred" from Tate-489.

And THANK YOU for all the work on "unmerging" them. Oy!

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not that it's a good source, but the other William's FindAGrave memorial has his middle name as Matthew - see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178054526/william-matthew-tate_sr_

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When I saw your post, I knew I recognized them. Then when I looked at what I did, I remembered.  It was definitely not an easy one to pull apart.  

Thanks I will look at what you posted.

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When I first joined WikiTree, I did a bad merge. Took me about a year to try to get it all straightened out! This was way before Arborists & Rangers. SO appreciative of what folks like you do to keep the tree healthy!

Answer 2

If possible, do try to obtain/view a copy of the original will.  I have found that many abstracts leave out critical information that can help better understand these kind of relationships.