Hmmm. Maybe I'll change my name to Tom Thatcher so that in a couple hundred years new people will be scratching their heads. Or better yet, I'll have a son and name him Thatcher. Gotta go talk to the wife... ----- Original Message ----- From: nelhatch To: hatcher@rootsweb.com Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 2:50 PM Subject: Re: [HATCHER] For our Quaker Hatchers.......... HATCHER website: http://hatcherfamilyassn.com HALL DNA project: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nhatcher/hall/HDNAtest.htm "If you can't stand the skeletons, stay out of the closet" - Val D Greenwood Burris, This is too funny! Fascinating what you can find on Worldconnect. Just found..... 1) Joseph Thatcher, s/o Richard with a note that says he was listed as Joseph HATCHER on a tax list. He also has a son, Wm THATCHER, who md Ann Van Sant....... 2) 2 files - Joseph Thatcher with son, William HATCHER who md Ann VS.... 3) Joseph Thatcher deeds land to son, Wm HATCHER, in 1726. Here is the Note on this particular file "Joseph deeded land in 1726 to his son, William Hatcher (Thatcher), born in Bucks County, PA. By this time the name appeared as Hatcher.(In old style handwriting the capital letter H with its flourish appears to be TH) The family name may always have been Hatcher. He does not normally appear in the family designated as Thatcher, and probably would be better traced as "Hatcher". RT Goodiel This family later is listed as the "Hatchers of Loudoun County Virginia(?)" One problem here - "by this time the name appeared as Hatcher." This implies a gradual change over a period of time where an individual is found going from Tom Thatcher to Tom Hatcher. That is not the case here. We have the name Thatcher for Joseph and Hatcher for William in a single deed. It's as if Wm suddenly decided to change his name in the middle of this deed - I wonder if "dad" got a little ticked :-) I will again note that this does not explain Wm HATCHER who witnessed the deed in 1718. If that guy is Joseph Thatcher's son, he is not our Wm bn 1705. And I have a transcript of the 1728 deed where Wm sells this land that he bought of Joseph HATCHER in 1726. There is nothing here to explain the relationship between the two. I do not have a copy of the 1726 deed though. We know Richard Thatcher appears to have lived near the Hatchers in BucksCo. He apparently left land to his son, Joseph, in his will. Perhaps there is not a Joseph Hatcher but only Joseph Thatcher with the following mess-ups in recording (clerks make errors, too) or transcribing records. Joseph Hatcher in the tax list (what year?) is really THATCHER. Joseph Hatcher in my 1728 deed is really THATCHER who sold land to Wm HATCHER. The 2 men are unrelated (and seems DNA proves it) but has caused consistent and ongoing confusion for one and all. The Wm Hatcher of the 1726 deed "may" be our Wm/Ann VS. By 1726 he "might have been" of age. So that still leaves us with Wm Hatcher of the 1718 record. There is NO evidence from Richard's will that he had a son, William, nor anything yet seen that shows any of his other sons had a William. In my opinion, this 1718 Wn IS a Hatcher and not a Thatcher. I think the entire problem begins and ends with recording clerks having brain burps while recording these records and forgetting whether they're dealing with the Hatchers or Thatchers, so.......hey, who cares how I spell it! Nel ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to HATCHER-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message