----- Original Message ----- From: GeraldCollins601@aol.com To: DeepRoots@sisna.com Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2003 7:18 AM Subject: Re: William Riley Pate Marsha, I would like other people to know of Jane Sturgis possibly being the wife of William Pate. We know that Jane was living in 1824 because she was called Jane Pattey in her father's (John Sturgis) Will, which was probated in Sangamon County, Illinois 7 February 1825. A lot of the other Sturgis children moved to Morgan County, Illinois around 1828 and later to other locations. The mother was in the 1830 Morgan County, Illinois census and died there in 1857. I have since found out that the wife of John Sturgis (Anna Wright) had a father named Bartlett Wright who moved to Warren County, Tennessee. I checked this county and found a William Pate who witnessed a deed there. I could find no evidence that John Sturgis was ever there. We know that his son was born in Blount County, Tennessee in 1811. John Sturgis lost all his property in South Carolina and left the state as a result. His son said that he tried to avoid people that knew him, so doubt that he would have gone to Warren County where his father-in-law lived. One of the Sturgis daughters married and went to Georgia. I once thought that the sister might have accompanied her. There were a large number of Pate's living within a mile of where she lived ( Fayette County, Georgia). I studied this Pate family for about six months and could never make a connection so gave up. Now that I know that William Pate lived in Sangamon County during the critical time period it appears likely that he might be her husband. In hind sight this appears more likely to me. I have refrained from identifying William Pate as the husband of Jane Sturgis although I believe he might have been. After the Sturgis family moved to Morgan County, Illinois a sister of Jane's, Arcada Sturgis also mentioned in the will, married James Boman (shown as Bowman in 1830 census) in 1825 and they lived in Sangamon County, Illinois in the 1830 census. We know that Jane Bratton Sturgis was born ca 1790 in York County, South Carolina. I checked the census for William Pate and his wife also was born around this time. Whether this was Jane or Elizabeth is open for discussion. The James Boman family moved to Hancock County, Illinois around 1834 but I couldn't find a William Pate there. If a record is found it would reinforce my assumption. Regarding the Elizabeth Pate. I could be entirely wrong and she was indeed the wife of William Pate in the 1830 census. If so, Jane Sturgis Pate, would have died between 1824 and 1830 in Sangamon County, Illinois. William Pate could then have taken a second wife. Have you considered the possiblity that Elizabeth Pate might have been a spinster sister of William Pate, or the widow of a brother taken in by the family. She was of right age to have been the wife in the 1830 census rather than Jane Sturgis so you could be right. If Jane Sturgis was in fact the wife of William Pate, all of the children born before 14 May 1824 would have been her children. The fact that William Riley Pate asked for a different guardian in 1827 could indicate that he might not have cottoned to his new stepmother, Elizabeth Pate -- assuming that his mother Jane Sturgis Pate had died. I have noted that the Pate children's names are not necessarily Sturgis names. If they were I would expect to see the names Wright, Bratton, Draper, Daniel, Bartlett among them. These names appeared in various Sturgis lines for years, i.e. Daniel Bartlett Morgan, John Wright Trammell, etc. We have never seen the name Riley in our line. Of course this could have been a Pate family name. I don't know that we will ever find the evidence we need to resolve this, but it is a good idea for people to consider it and discuss the possiblities. Who knows, a Bible record could appear one day clarifying the name of the wife. Gerald Collins