Trees

Great news. Today I found that "One World Tree" generated by Ancestry.com has been discontinued. Ancestry.com "stitched together" trees submitted by users to make "One World Tree." "One World Tree" was then being used as a "source" for information in family trees which were then used to create One World Tree. A vicious cycle promulgating massive errors. You may ask what this has to do with the Tapscott family. As of today, Ancestry.com has 156 trees posted showing Henry Tapscott, the immigrant, having a father Edward. Most of these also show his mother as Elizabeth Hill. Of course there are no reliable sources for any of this fiction, but the source most often cited is "one World Tree." Unfortunately, it is now impossible to stop these errors. In a few months time there will be many more than 156 trees, all copying each other with the same (or more) misinformation. I am going to repeat what I have said in the past and what is now in the draft of the second edition of my book:

It is often stated that three Tapscott brothers, including an Edward Tapscott, came to America in 1659.[i] Edward is said to have lived in Virginia until 1730[ii] (in Northumberland County according to many), to have married an Elizabeth Hill,[ii] and to have had a second wife, Ann Lee Davis,[iii] though others state that Ann Lee Davis (sometimes just Ann Lee) was Henry Tapscott’s wife. It is also claimed that Edward was Henry’s father and came to America with John and Lawrence Washington.[iv],[v] No primary or reliable secondary source is provided for any of these statements, and none has been found. Many of the claims are, in fact, nonsensical, placing Henry’s father, whatever his name may be (“Edward,” an exceedingly rare Tapscott name, is unlikely), in America at the time of Henry’s conception in England, and having Edward Tapscott live in Northumberland County until 1730 without his name appearing on a single contemporary record in that well-documented county. Moreover, as we will see, upon Henry’s arrival in America, a letter was sent his mother requesting permission to indenture Henry as a servant. Why would there have been correspondence with Henry’s mother if his father was with him in Virginia? The fact is that Henry Tapscott traveled to the New World alone, without father or any other relative. And there is no reliably documented connection with an Ann Davis or an Ann Lee. I apologize for the polemics, but the truth demands to be told.

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[i].         “Historic and Genealogical Notes,” William and Mary Quarterly, Ser. 1, Vol. 8, No. 3, 1900, p. 209.

[ii].        Mary Louise Marshall Hutton, Seventeenth Century Colonial Ancestors, Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., 1983, p. 247.

[iii].       Ancestry.com family trees.

[iv].       Ancestral Records and Portraits, Vol. 1, The Grafton Press, New York, 1910, p. 313.

[v].        Higdon, pp. 1, 3.