Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

William Adair

Male 1804 - Bef 1877  (< 72 years)


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  • Name William Adair 
    Born 15 Nov 1804  of, Laurens, South Carolina, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died Bef 1877 
    Person ID I3775  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Father James Adair,   b. 4 Aug 1770, of, Laurens, South Carolina, United States Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Bef 1840, of, Pickens, Alabama, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age < 69 years) 
    Mother Rebecca,   b. Bef 1775, of, , South Carolina, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married Bef 1794  of, Laurens, South Carolina, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F906  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. The inclusion of this individual and his siblings into this database is based on rather circuitous inference. On 27 Nov 1877, John Wesley Adair and Rebecca Frances Adair Stayner went to the St. George, Utah, LDS Temple to perform vicarious baptisms in behalf of the dead. John was the son of Thomas Adair and Rebecca was John's stepdaughter; Rebecca's birth father was Joseph Adair b. 11 Apr 1806, who is the subject of this note. Rebecca noted herself as a relative and was the proxy for Elizabeth Adair; John noted himself as second cousin and was the proxies for all of the boys. Both gave exact dates of birth but no birth location. To have this temple ordinances done, the individuals had to have been deceased. I looked at the microfilm of the actual temple record and found that the family members were in sequence that day at the temple except that there were several names between Elizabeth and the others for work done by Jeremiah Stayner who was Rebecca's husband. The following is the data found listed by individual, date of temple work, proxy, FHL film-page-ordinance number, birthdate, and relationship of proxy to individual.
      Adair, Elizabeth; 11/27/1877; Stayner, Rebecca Frances Adair; 170845-18-285; b. 11 Apr 1806; Relative.
      Adair, Joseph; 11/27/1877; Adair, John Wesley; 170845-18-296.
      Adair, James; 11/27/1877; Adair, John Wesley; 170845-18-297; b. 4 Aug 1770; Gr. Nephew.
      Robbins, Alexander; 11/27/1877; Adair, John Wesley; 170845-18-298; b. 2 Sep 1793; Second Cousin.
      Adair, John; 11/27/1877; Adair, John Wesley; 170845-18-299; b. 13 Nov 1796; Second Cousin.
      Adair, Allen; 11/27/1877; Adair, John Wesley; 170845-18-300; b. 17 Mar 1798; Second Cousin.
      Adair, William; 11/27/1877; Adair, John Wesley; 170845-18-301; b. 15 Nov 1804; Second Cousin.
      Adair, James Newton; 11/27/1877; Adair, John Wesley; 170845-18-302; b. 11 Nov 1812; Second Cousin.
      We can assume that all of the individuals noted as second cousins to John Wesley Adair are most likely siblings of each other. We also assume Elizabeth was a sister in this group. Alexander Robbins is most likely a "second cousin-in-law" having probably married a sister within the group (unsure if the sister was Elizabeth Adair or some other unnamed person still living in 1877 but currently I assume another "Miss Adair" separate from Elizabeth as his wife). To be literal second cousins with the surname Adair, this family would have had to be grandchildren of Joseph and Sarah Adair who were parents of Thomas Adair who married Rebecca Brown who were in turn parents to John Wesley Adair.
      James Adair who was born 4 Aug 1770 and is also listed above gives us a special problem since he would have to be two generations older than John Wesley Adair for John to be a "grand-nephew." This would make him a sibling to John's grandfather Joseph Adair, b. abt. 1745, who married Sarah and was the son of the original Laurens Co., SC James Adair (the cooper). This is a problem since we have already established a James, b. 1752, who married Hannah ___ with a large progeny of children, as a brother to Joseph. There is also the large discrepancy in birth dates of this new James (b. 4 Aug 1770) vs Joseph as a sibling (b. abt. 1745). It should be noted also that James is old enough to be the father of this new group, but that would make him the uncle of John Wesley Adair and not the grand-uncle; if this were the case he would be the brother of Thomas Adair (b. 1771/1774) who married Rebecca Brown.
      There is also the problem in the above list of where to place Joseph Adair who is listed without any relationship nor birthdate. Could this be the father of this group of children? Most LDS genealogies include a Joseph Adair as a sibling to Thomas Adair who married Rebecca Brown. Thomas' brother Joseph and other siblings Sarah/Sally, Jenny, and Suffiah have always been undocumented and appear to be the result of LDS family genealogists Delta Hale's book on John Mangum and on Ellen Cherry records of the 1950's neither of whom have shown proof for these additional names. Early Laurens County Records as analyzed by the thorough researcher Mildred Brownlee has only established one documented son for Joseph and Sarah who is named their eldest in a land transaction in the late 1700's. Brownlee notes that the 1790 census for Joseph does establish a possibility of up to seven children for Joseph and Sarah which allows for the possibility of additional siblings of Thomas. Perhaps the Joseph and James noted above could be siblings of Thomas.
      George Addison Mangum, the brother to Delta Hale, was also a researcher of this family and gave his research to the FHL library in Salt Lake City where it can be seen on film 2056025. One of the pages he includes and of which I have a copy is a family group sheet prepared by Miriam S. Adair Covington in the mid-1960s. She was apparently looking at the same St. George temple records as I am since she prepared the group sheet exactly the same as above. She lists a separate Miss Adair as the spouse of Alexander Robbins. She lists Joseph as the father of the group with his parents in turn as Joseph and Sarah. She assumes all of their births in Laurens Co., SC. She then completes their endowments and sealings to their parents in the London, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City temples from 1965 to 1967. She does make one change listing James Adair who I have born in 1770 as the oldest sibling of the group with a birth in 1790. Could it be that I transcribed the date wrong; however, Family Search's Ordinance Index also shows the date as I saw it as 4 Aug 1770 - it needs to be reviewed again. Perhaps Miriam assumed the date was entered wrong at the temple? She does list the 1790 date for the 1960s endowment and parent sealing.
      So what is the possible solution? Subject to ongoing research, the simplest scenario would be that James Adair, b. 4 Aug 1770, and the undated Joseph Adair were brothers and sons of Joseph Adair who married Sarah ___ (this latter Joseph being the son of James Adair the Indian trader and author). This would also make James and Joseph brothers to Thomas Adair who married Rebecca Brown. Since we know that the above Elizabeth Adair, b. 11 Apr 1806, had to be the twin sister of Joseph Adair who married Rebecca Mangum (who married secondly John Wesley Adair) and was the Utah and Arizona Mormon pioneer (he reported his birth as the exact same day) and since we also have documentation that this twin Joseph had parents James and Rebecca Adair (as he self-reported in his LDS Patriarchal Blessing), then the family group of siblings would be children of the same James and Rebecca. This James would most likely be the one born 4 Aug 1770 -- this would mean the reported relationship of "grand-nephew" in the LDS temple record was probably erroneous, but since it immediately follows the entry for his proposed brother Joseph for whom no birth date or relationship was given, then this supposition of a bad reporting of relationship may not be such a stretch. This relationship is further corroborated by the following family information provided by Samuel Newton Adair, the son of Samuel Jefferson Adair (who was the son of Thomas Adair and grandson of Joseph Adair who married Sarah ___). He states: "Luna, New Mexico, October 7, 1919. I, Samuel Newton Adair, will write what I know about my mother's folks ... Rebecca Mangrum married Joseph Adair, my father's cousin." Samuel's testimony works perfectly in terms of my proposed scenario -- this Joseph Adair would in fact be the first cousin of Samuel Jefferson Adair since Joseph's father James would be Samuel's father Thomas' brother.

      2. From the book "Annals of Northwest Alabama" including a reprint of Nelson F. Smith's "History of Pickens County, Ala.," pp. 18-19, mentions the following names in conjunction with the earliest settlers as listed in the Circuit Court dockets. He also notes that the earliest settler in the area was 1817.
      Lewis, Theopholus, and Daniel Clark.
      Thomas and William Adair.