Vote for the World Virtual School at Pepsi Refresh Everything!

Vote for the World Virtual School at http://www.refresheverything.com/ so we can earn a $250,000 grant! Vote every day! We are listed under education. Tell everyone you know!

We can use all the help we can get. Thanks!

Diana

Thomas Scott Weems and John Weems Greene Co., TN are COUSINS!!!

Hi All,

Well, it appears that the 1771 will in NYC is from John Weems, married to Isabella Scott of Bucks Co., PA. I have also found John Weems, owning 100 acres in Abington, PA in 1734, which means that this is their earliest place of residence, which is where Thomas Scott Weems, born. 1704 would have been from.

It also appears that Alexander Wemyss of NYC is Thomas Scott Weems's brother. He died in 1782 and would have been born about 1710. There are undoubtebly other brothers and sisters, just need to find them. :-) Abington, PA will give us a new place to start.

I believe that Alexander Wemyss is the father of John Alexander Weems, b. 1745 of Greene Co., TN, meaning that the Greene Co., TN Weems and the Abbeville, SC Weems are first cousins. Still trying to find the will of Alexander in 1782, but it wasn't in the Surrogate Court of NY, but probably in the county somewhere. Still looking!

This also provides for a direct line back to the royal lines. Just need to fill in the blanks now! If anyone has any supporting information or odds and ends that just didn't fit anywhere else, please let me know. It might prove helpful in the end.

Thanks!

Diana Muir

Http://www.motherhubbardscupboard.net/

Alexander Wemyss?? Will?

Before I spend $90 to retrieve the will of Alexander Wemyss, landowner in New York, died in 1782, does anyone already have a copy?

It is a real possibility that James Alexander Weems b. 1745 of Greene County, Tennessee is his son, but the NY Archives charges a huge fee and it takes forever. I have all the films on order for Bucks Co., PA, Calvert Co., MD, Anne Arundel Co., MD to definitely find out who his father is, but thought maybe someone might have already found the will of Alexander.

Please let me know!

Diana Muir

FOUND THE WILL OF CAPTIAN JAMES WEEMS!!!!!

Dear Bill,

We found the will for James Weems d. 1723 in New York City!

The archivist was so excited that she found it, she actually called me! She's never been asked to find anything from that time period before and she was amazed that they actually had it.

She found the original will and the one that was recorded int he Liber books. She said originally the name was spelled Wemyss, which tells me he is related to the Scottish Weymss line from Scotland, a direct line into Sinclair and all the rest!

YES!!! She's sending it by email. I'm so excited!

Diana

UK Archives returns...

Well, the requests for information from the UK archives came back, and it was nothing that we didn't already have. Just a letter for supplies to the English army for supplies, signed by Capt. James Weems. They did refer me on to somewhere else to see if they have his records of enlistment. Still waiting for the will to come from back to New York! I'm so impatient!!!

Hmmm. The plot thickens...

Well, so far the National Archives in London has responded to one request. Turns out just to be a letter signed by Captain James Weems, which we already knew about.

However! The NY archives has his and Alexander's wills and I'm so excited, I can hardly wait till they arrive by US mail. Of course with all the snow, they'll probably come by Santa Claus on his sleigh. 10 more inches coming tonight!

In the meantime, I've been looking at Thomas Scott Weems and wondering... why don't we have record of his immigration or his parents to the Americas? Is it possible that he was born here and not in Scotland?

More pieces to the puzzle are coming. I'm just so impatient....

Estate of Capt. James Weems

Good evening!

Ohh! Lots of luck today! Got your envelope, went to the bank and took care of the mundane chores of life, and then spent most of the day at the public library in Davenport.

Interesting place! They have a huge collection of books, almost all of which are included in Ancestry.com's database. Most everything I looked at, I already had but it was good to be able to look at the indexes for different spellings of the names; which eliminated the group from Sumner Co., TN. Almost any time they married or died, they used the names of Wims. Only the census listed them as Weems. They may fit in later, but right now I'm concentrating on NY.

It's sorta like finding all the pieces to a puzzle, putting them in the box, throwing them up in the air a few times to see where they land, and then trying to put them together.

Anyway! Today I found a cornerpiece! There is a book called "Genealogical Data from N.Y.'s First Newspaper" which has an entry for Capt. James Weems.

Weems, Capt. James late of NYC, dec'd - estate (7/7/29)

Because the date is repeated on the next couple of entries, it is most likely the date of the newspaper. I also searched the National Archives in London and found a corresponding entry for a James Weymss deceased, with a corresponding date, sort of.

According to the NY Colonial Records, he was replaced in 1723 after death. The will probate in London is in 1724 and the newspaper article is 1729, which means it took a while to get completed. I know it sounds a little odd but probates between the states of England often took several years, especially if they owned property in both places, which is probably what happened.

I also found the birth records of 2 of Thomas Scott Weems and Eleanor Jacobs children in St. Stephens Parish in Bucks Co., PA, giving me a place to look for other children.

I'm going to see if I can't find the original newspaper article, a copy of his probate in NY and a copy of the will from London. Pieces are falling into place!

Diana