frontier round11 partS

Headlines

• John Sayles probate ("Book of Probate p.64") — the WikiTree citation is now DISPROVABLE, not merely unverified. Full non-truncated djvu text of the only plausible candidate volumes (Early Records of the Town of Providence, Vols. VI + VII, "Will Book No. 1") was grepped exhaustively for "Sayles"/"Sayle" — zero probate/will hits for a deceased John Sayles anywhere in either volume. The manuscript page marked [64] in Vol. VI is verbatim part of Thomas Olney Senior's will. All genuine Sayles mentions (pp.119-121, 187, 218, 317 in Vol. VI; pp.31, 40, 164 in Vol. VII) are 1682-1716 Town Council administrative entries naming a living John Sayles or Richard Sayles — never a probate for a deceased John Sayles Sr. Roger-Williams-descent chain stays ANCHORED-PER-AUSTIN, unaffected either way.
• James Morgan Sr's (ahn 414) death-date estimate gets its best anchor yet: DAR Ancestor Database #A132519 states "Death: POST 1-18-1785, RANDOLPH CO NORTH CAROLINA." Free, no-login, direct fetch; spouse field "MARY DAVIS" confirms this is our man (not the quarantined Welsh James Morgan Sr, WikiTree Morgan-15829). DAR's own cited service source (a 1779 Randolph Co. tax list, "The North Carolinian" Vol.2, June 1956) was independently located and corroborates the service entry but not the death date itself — the underlying death-date document is not shown publicly.
• Genuine root-cause found for the tree's conflicting Morgan death years: the Randolph County Public Library's "Revolutionary Patriots" roster CONFLATES James Morgan Sr and James Morgan Jr onto one row, and mis-copies DAR's "post 1-18-1785" as "post 18 Jan 1784" — i.e. the previously-circulating "1784" figure is a compiler's transcription slip of the same DAR record, not an independent document. The tree's own prior "~1804" estimate still has no traced source at all.
• No estate/probate record for James Morgan Sr found in any free index. NC Genealogical Society's Randolph County Estate Files Index (1779-early 1900s, confirmed by direct fetch) has no "Morgan, James" entry — an honest negative suggesting he died intestate or the estate paperwork is unindexed/lost.
• Aquilla Wilson's will (Rockingham Co. NC, c.1802): a second, independent free abstract (NCRoots.com) corroborates the existing "no Richard Wilson among heirs" finding and adds unsourced/uncited new detail (daughters' married surnames, one grandson's name) that stays POSSIBLE-tier, doc-only, per the single-uncited-source rule. Grimes' 1760-1800 NC wills supplement was fetched in full and confirmed NOT to contain an Aquilla Wilson/Rockingham entry (genuine negative).
• Roger Pemberton's 1627 will and 1628 Sentence (PROB 11/152/801 vs PROB 11/153/522) independently re-confirmed as two separate TNA-catalogued documents, reproducing round 10's finding via a fresh catalog fetch (not merely re-citing round 10). New content surfaced from Waters' full NEHGR article: a 7 Nov 1627 codicil naming further grandchildren, a College of Arms Funeral Certificate giving Roger Pemberton's death as 13 Nov 1627, and the register/folio "Skynner, 117" independently corroborated by the British Record Society's Index Library (1912). All of this stays doc-only / off-viz per the standing "Pemberton upstream — HOLD list" convention (round 8) — Roger Pemberton has no ahn assignment on this tree and this round does not change that. Does NOT upgrade the Roger Williams parentage theory past its existing "anchored-per-Austin, not flat fact" status.

VIZ-CHANGES

1. UPDATE_DATE — ahn 414, James Morgan Sr — field: death (ed) — new value: "post 18 Jan 1785, Randolph Co, NC (estimate retained; PROBABLE per DAR Ancestor Database #A132519)", replacing the prior "~1804" estimate — confidence: PROBABLE (DAR is a compiled lineage-society database, not the underlying primary document itself, so per house downgrade rules this cannot be CONFIRMED; retain the "estimate/bound" framing rather than presenting as an exact settled date).

   • Verbatim source quote: "MORGAN, JAMES ... Birth: CIRCA 1729, MARYLAND ... Death: POST 1-18-1785, RANDOLPH CO NORTH CAROLINA ... Service Source: THE NORTH CAROLINIAN, VOL 2, JUNE 1956, PP 179-180 ... Spouse: MARY DAVIS" — DAR Ancestor Database A132519, https://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/default.cfm?action=full&p_id=A132519 (fetched directly 2026-07-28, no login).
   • Rationale: spouse match (Mary Davis) ties this record to our James Morgan Sr, not the quarantined Welsh conflation profile. The prior "~1804" figure traces (per this round) to unsourced web noise; the "1784" library-roster variant traces to a documented one-year mis-transcription of this same DAR record merged onto a father/son row. No primary probate/estate/pension document was found this round to fully pin the date, so the estimate flag stays on — this only tightens the bound and swaps its source from "no anchor" to "DAR's own official record."

2. UPDATE_STORY — ahn 2818, John Sayles — field: bio / probate-citation note — new value: add that the WikiTree "Providence Book of Probate p.64" citation is disproven (not merely unverified): manuscript page [64] of the only plausible candidate printed volume (Early Records of the Town of Providence Vol. VI, "Will Book No. 1") is part of Thomas Olney Senior's will, not any Sayles record — confidence: CONFIRMED (primary-source verbatim quote).

   • Verbatim source quote: "...As also unto said son Epenetus Olney I doe give my fifteene acrs of land on the south side of the said Wanasquatuckett River... Also unto my said son Epenetus Olney, I doe give & bequeath all the Right of land & Comoning which I bought of John Joanes." — Early Records of the Town of Providence, Vol. VI, original ms. page [64], part of "The Enroulement of the last will and testament of Thomas Olney Senior" (archive.org id earlyrecordsofto06prov, full djvu.txt, 542,196 bytes / 20,520 lines, verified non-truncated).
   • Rationale: exhaustive case-insensitive full-text grep of both complete candidate volumes (Vols. VI + VII, 917KB combined) for "Sayles"/"Sayle" found zero probate/will hits for a deceased John Sayles anywhere before original-ms. page ~100+ of either volume; all genuine Sayles hits are 1682-1716 administrative entries naming a living council member. This corrects the tree's standing "unverified WikiTree citation" note (round 8, line 198 of the tree doc) to "disproven as applied to this printed edition," which should prevent future rounds from re-chasing this specific page/volume without new evidence.

No other CONFIRMED/PROBABLE-tier changes surfaced this round from the Aquilla Wilson or Roger Pemberton targets — everything new in those two targets is either POSSIBLE-tier (single uncited source, doc-only per rules) or reproduces/corroborates findings already on the tree without changing any field.

NEW-PEOPLE

None this round. No new ahn slots are warranted from any of the four targets:

• Roger Pemberton (d. 1627, will-writer) remains off-viz per the round-8 "Pemberton upstream — HOLD list" convention; he has no ahn assignment and this round's findings (codicil, funeral certificate, register/folio) are documentary enrichment only, consistent with round 10's own treatment of the same person.
• The BRS Index Library's separate "Pemberton, Robert, gent., of St Alban's, Herts. 69 Barrington" probate entry is a genuine new lead (likely Roger Pemberton's son Robert, d. 1623, per Waters) but is unmatched to any tree person — flagged as a lead only, not added.
• Aquilla Wilson's newly-named daughters' married surnames and grandson name stay POSSIBLE-tier / doc-only (single uncited volunteer-transcription source) — not promoted to named tree entries.

ESTIMATES-RETIRED

• James Morgan Sr (ahn 414): death estimate "~1804" retired, replaced with "post 18 Jan 1785, Randolph Co, NC" (PROBABLE per DAR A132519). The estimate/bound framing is retained (not upgraded to an exact CONFIRMED date) since the primary document underlying DAR's death field was not located this round.

CONTRADICTIONS

• Root cause found for part of the Morgan death-date conflict: the Randolph County Public Library's "Revolutionary Patriots" PDF roster conflates James Morgan Sr (DAR A132519, b. c.1729 MD) and James Morgan Jr (Rev., pension S7251, b. 26 Apr 1760 Baltimore MD) onto a single row, and mis-copies DAR's own "post 1-18-1785" as "post 18 Jan 1784." This resolves why a "1784" figure has circulated but does not resolve the origin of the tree's prior "~1804" figure, nor the unsourced "1810" figure — both remain untraced after this round's negative searches.
• WikiTree Morgan-1173's "after 23 Feb 1804" claim (cited to a Rowan County, NC deed) directly conflicts with DAR's "post 1785, Randolph Co, NC" for what is nominally the same profile. WikiTree's own Research Notes for this exact profile flag a documented history of identity conflation (wrong GEDCOM parents, a wrongly-attached "Mary Elizabeth Davis," a disputed 1737 marriage claim). Not adopted this round — logged as an open question, needs the underlying FamilySearch deed image (founder-hands) to determine if the Rowan Co. deed names a different same-name man.
• Sayles: "Providence Book of Probate p.64" moves from "unverified" (round 8/9/10 status) to "disproven as applied to the only plausible candidate printed volume" (see VIZ-CHANGES #2 above). This also surfaces, as an unadjudicated open question for a future round rather than a contradiction to resolve now: John Sayles Sr's own death year (~1681, per WikiTree) has never been independently confirmed in any round to date — no probate, will, or death record for a "John Sayles Sr. d. ~1681" was found in either candidate volume this round.
• No contradictions surfaced this round for the Aquilla Wilson or Roger Pemberton targets.

FOUNDER-HANDS

• Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, SAYLES family main entry (archive.org id genealogicaldict00aust, printed pp. ~370-372): needs a BookReader page-IMAGE pass (not raw OCR, which merges the two-column genealogical table unreadably) to confirm/deny a "Catharine" child listed under John Sayles Sr. + Mary Williams.
• NEHGS/AmericanAncestors (paywalled, often available via public-library card) as an alternative deeper-source route for the Sayles probate question.
• FamilySearch catalog #2346133, apparently "Randolph County, North Carolina Will Abstracts 1783-1850," and FamilySearch Randolph County Will Books A-F & 1-8 (1720-1960) — both login-gated; would directly test whether James Morgan Sr appears as a testator.
• WikiTree Morgan-1173's cited Rowan County, NC Record of Deeds 19:814-815 (FamilySearch ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-998Q-QVBZ, DGS 7517738, images 345-346) — login-gated; verifying this is the crux of whether the "1804" figure has any documentary basis at all versus being a same-name Rowan County conflation.
• DAR "record copy" purchase for Ancestor #A132519 (services.dar.org record_copy links) — would likely reveal the actual document underlying DAR's "post 1-18-1785" death field.
• Interlibrary loan / library-holds request for Irene B. Webster's "Rockingham County, North Carolina, Will Abstracts, 1785-1865" (Southern Historical Press, 1973/1983) — held at Euless TX Public Library, Knox County TN Public Library, Huntsville-Madison County AL Public Library, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; this is the one document that would give the actual book/page citation and full verbatim text for Aquilla Wilson's will (OW/172).
• TNA document orders: PROB 11/152/801 (Roger Pemberton's actual 1627 will, register "Skynner" folio 117, ~£3.50 PDF or free at Kew) and PROB 11/153/522 (the 1628 Sentence, register "Barrington" folio 45, ~£3.50 PDF) — would reveal the codicil's full grandchild list and the substance of the ~5-month probate dispute, neither of which is narrated in any catalog abstract or Waters' partial quote.