James Wilder

In the record Generation 8 — Earl's earliest known

1. S1731850 U.S. Federal Census — Moses Williams household, County of Owsley, State of Kentucky. Ancestry collection 8054, record 17453010, image 4192506_00389. SCHEDULE I.—Free Inhabitants, enumerated on the 4th day of Sept 1850 by Luther Brawner, Ass't Marshal; dwelling and family 281/281, lines 18–25. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. Moses Williams, 50, Farmer, real estate $750, born TENNESSEE, cannot read or write; Nancy Williams, 48, born Tennessee, cannot read or write; Nathan 21, Laborer; a son of 18 whose given name has faded off the page; Lydia, 15, born TENNESSEE; George 10; Nancy 8, born Tennessee; Abraham, 5, born KENTUCKY. 🔑 A new generation on a line that had none — published as a candidate, PROBABLE since 24 September 2026. The Williams side stops at Lydia on this record; this sheet puts her, at fifteen, in the household of Moses and Nancy Williams in the county she marries in six years later [S143], and there is no second Lydia Williams on the page. ⚠ The hedge is stated plainly: an 1850 schedule states no relationship whatever. Ancestry's own word is inferred. This is the same evidentiary shape as James and Elizabeth Brock [S167] [S169] and it is weaker — that is a two-census chain, this is one sheet. It is published as a CANDIDATE, not probable, not confirmed, and nothing has been written to the tree. 🔑 Age 15 contains the tree's 30 May 1835 by two days. Reference day 1 June 1850; 15 requires a birth between 2 June 1834 and 1 June 1835. The tightest corroboration the date has; the day itself is still unattested by any document. 🔑 The family left Tennessee between c.1842 and c.1845 — Nancy, 8, born Tennessee; Abraham, 5, born Kentucky. Lydia was a child of about seven to ten when they moved. 🔑 Lydia's birthplace is Tennessee, in her own household, at fifteen — the first of three contemporaneous records to say so, with the 1856 bride's column [S143] and the 1860 Travellers Rest sheet [S171]. ⚠ Both parents illiterate (col. 13 ticked). ⚠ Line 21's given name is unread. Ancestry indexes James, 18; the ink is no longer on the page, and he is recorded here as unread, not as James. ⚠ The $750 leads with a 7 in this hand; $450 cannot be wholly excluded. ⚠ What would settle the parentage is the 1840 schedule with the same household, an Owsley County marriage bond for Lydia in 1856 naming a father's consent, or a probate for Moses Williams. None has been pulled.
2. S6351880 U.S. census — Boston Township, Madison County, Arkansas, p. 37. Ancestry record 5403284. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed Enumerated 23–24 June 1880. Dwelling 312: Sam Evans, 43, farmer, born North Carolina; Nancy, his wife, 37, born Tennessee; Mary, 11, and Geo. B., 9, born Kentucky; three younger children born Arkansas. Next line: Nanci Williams, 78, mother-in-law, widowed, born Tennessee, mother born Virginia; cannot read or write. The Ancestry index makes her a head of household; the page says mother-in-law.
3. S863W. M. Wilder, Wilder and Some Connecting Families (typescript), p. 571, “A Tennessee Fragment”. Ancestry U.S. Family History Books, record 4519537298. Image examined, read 28 September 2026. Probable “F-2 James Wilder b in Va. m Nancy Hays, came to Tennessee with his father [David Wilder of Luther, Hancock Co.] and later moved to ‘Old Settlement’ Ky. They had: G-1 Nancy Wilder (dau of James & Nancy Hays Wilder) b in Tenn. abt 1802 d in Madison Co., Ark. after 1878, m Moses Williams (b abt 1799 in Tenn. d 7/27/1874 Madison Co., Ark.)”, “who was a veteran of the War of [1812]”. A compiled family history; the entry continues on p. 572, not yet read.
4. S8711850 U.S. census — James Wilder household, Subdivision 32, Hancock County, Tennessee. Ancestry collection 8054, record 6185865 (image 4206039_00301). Image examined, read 28 September 2026. Confirmed Dwelling and family 24, lines 22–24: James Wilder, 60, tanner, born North Carolina; Jane [Wilder], 72, born Virginia; Elizabeth, 37, born Tennessee. ⚠ This James Wilder, born about 1790 and still in Tennessee, is not the James Wilder of S863, who was born in Virginia and moved to Kentucky. Cited to keep the two apart.