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- or - William James Smith |
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Who was
James William Smith? Was his name James William Smith or William James Smith?
He was the brother of Luke Lee Smith, Jr. His father was Luke Lee Smith, Sr.
and his mother was Mary Elizabeth Allen. There arises a question over his
name. In the Census of 1850,
he is identified as: James T.
(1 year old which means he was born in 1849 or early in 1850. I now believe
that the ”T" was written in error. See below.) In the Census of 1860,
he is identified as: W. Smith
(11 years old) In the Census of 1870,
he is identified as: William
(20 years old, laborer) In the Census of 1880,
he is identified as: William
J. (30 years old, brother, farmhand) I have
looked and looked at the 1850 Census. As a MrSID file, ending with .SID, I
was able to magnify the image and it is still not fully clear whether the
initial is a "J" or a "T". However, if you look at the
"J" of James, you will note that it is different from the initial.
I believe that the census taker wrote an erroneous "T". The one and
only time that a “T” was used was in the 1850 Census. I now
believe that the 1880 census gave his name correctly as, William J., the
"J" meaning "James". I think it is possible that his full
name was William James Smith or James Williams Smith. That would explain the
reason for the "J" initial in the 1880 Census. In all
subsequent censuses afterwards, he is always named as “William J. Smith”, the
“J” for “James”. |
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