Byron or Byram?

The middle name of James, the son of William and Mary Angeline (Wallace) Tapscott of Clark County, Illinois, has been a mystery. Most records give his name as “James B.” Four records—two documents from the probate file for his brother Millard, an obituary for his wife, and an obituary for his sister Cora—give it as “James Byron.” Two—a newspaper article and an obituary for his brother Millard—give the name “Byram.” His middle name is said to be "Byron" by at least some relatives, but it is consistently given as “Byram” in on-line trees, likely due to the copy and recopy syndrome suffered by their authors. One cannot ask James’s direct descendants. There are none. But we do know one thing. Two signatures in Millard’s probate file appear to read “James Byron Tapscott.” Although the vowel could be either “o” or “a” in the signatures, the last letter is almost certainly “n” rather than “m.”

Thus, against a tide of public opinion, I am taking James’s middle name as “Byron.” This appears to be what James and at least some family members used, regardless of the name James may have been given and regardless of what people creating unsourced trees may think.

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