Re: 1829 -- 129 Acres William Fly

Hi Darlene,

Joyce is determined to confuse everyone on the Fly Forum with her GROSSLY INADEQUATE grasp of many of the facts in present-day Fly-family's efforts to "see" the structure of the early-family in Gibson, Carroll, Weakley, Dyer and nearby counties in West Tennessee.

I feel that I have a good grasp of almost all of the picture, save the George/Nathan Rochell(e) Fly mystery.William, b. 1799 is NOT an unknown.We have Jeremiah (father) and William, b. 1799 (son) and Asher (Asia), b. 1804 and Elisha (son) b. 1811.THIS William is the one in these records under discussion. There is NO Other POSSIBLE WILLIAM in sight

Joyce's inaccurate information in her message #529 is dead wrong.The William she points you to is William Abijah Fly, b. 2 Jun 1836. He was not yet born when the William, son of Jeremiah, was generating these records we see in 1824 and 1828.In the late 1950's when we were just getting started, Tom Lincoln, Vivian and I had NO NOTION of the "iceberg" size.We were just starting to try to circumnavigate the TIP.It was, and is, MIND-Boggling. I urge the forum to go slow reaching back to anything speculated at in 1959 or before.

I DON'T want to come across as MISTER Know-it-all, but I MUST get across that I DO KNOW A GREAT DEAL that is the product of lots of LUCK, lots of HARD WORK, and lots of WONDERFUL CO-OPERATION by family members that I have INTERVIEWED, SPENT PHONE MONEY ON, and PERSISTENCE to the point of OBSESSION.

So I'm begging the Forum to bear with me when I can, with confidence, straighten out unnecessary confusion, principally caused by Joyce's well-intentioned, but ill-considered efforts to guide your thinking.She apparently has not realized yet that the "George" that she first offered to be the George/Nathan Rochell(e) George CANNOT be the one she proposed who lived, produced a family and died in Pennsylvania.Also, - he was born LATER than 1828, when the George in question was a grown man already. But HER candidate for this George was George Mitman Fly; and HE stayed in Pennsylvania.

I have talked about "the overview" ad nauseum, I'm sure, but the fact of the matter is that it takes a "critical mass" of data, absorbed by the researcher to the point of familiarity, until the "overview" becomes possible.At THAT point your HUNCHES become more productive of where to look for records that will undergird or disprove your hypotheses.

Take note that Micajah Fly was names for his maternal grandfather Micajah Woodard.It is NOT "Macajah".Spelling IS important, else the records are unnecessarily polluted with avoidable error.

Have a good week.!!!

Cousin Jim
James W. Fly