Ancestry Saturday: The James McConnell Hypothesis

I'm banking on my 4th great grandfather James McConnell to establish my pre-statehood ancestry in Ohio as part of the Ohio Genealogical Society's First Families of Ohio lineage society. It's no slam dunk, though.  The 200-year-old sources are perplexing.

 

If James McConnell can be proven to have been in Ohio before 1803 when Ohio became a state, the First Families distinction gains an extra significance.

 

But with perplexing sources, what do you do?

 

Here's the timeline.

In 1798, James McConnell's older brother Thomas and sister Mary McConnell were living in places that, later, were part of Union Township in Brown County.  I suspect (as do others) he was there too, but no deed shows up in his name and, clearly, he's not mentioned in this historical review.  This sure isn't proof of anything.

From the 1801 Ohio tax records

In 1801, he shows up on a tax list as an owner of property in Adams County, Ohio.  A tax list, I'm told, stands as pretty good proof of being in Ohio.  But it tends to conflict with another document.




In 1802, he's one county west in Pleasant Township in Clermont County according to an enumeration of males reportedly done that year. His brother Thomas McConnell and his brother-in-law Amos Ellis are there too. 

There doesn't seem to be a scenario where both could be correct. So, what do you do?

Based on deed transfers, tax records, voters lists and enumeration lists, he clearly was in Adams County by at least 1807.  He buys land there in 1814 and his wife, Sarah, is named with him too. 

So, proof is pretty clearly there from post-1803 days.  Will one of these be enough to prove pre-statehood days though?   Time will tell.