I hope Fran doesn't mind that I am forwarding my response to her to this to the list, but it contains a general description of my Tucker line that perhaps might lead to other researchers making a connection. If my estimated birth date of my William Tucker is off and his real birth date is more like 1780 rather than 1765, then Fran's David Tucker (b. 1754) could be his father. But, this would then make my William Tucker too young to be the husband of Martha Ballinger, who was born in 1769. Quite a conundrum! -- Walt Tucker -----Original Message----- From: Tucker, Walt Sent: Friday, July 23, 2004 3:32 PM To: 'TENNFRAN@aol.com' Cc: 'TUCKER-L-request@rootsweb.com' Subject: RE: Tuckers Fran, We might have corresponded before. My ggg-grandfather was William Tucker (of course!). I don't have his birth date, but I my thinking (if correct) would put his birth date around ca 1765. I don't know how many children were in his family or the names of any brothers and sisters. His son (my gg-grandfather mentioned that his father was a "Kentucky Rifleman" (which I've documented), was "originally from North Carolina" and, as I mentioned before that "his ancestors were early settlers of Virginia and the Bermudas". This last line makes me think I could be tied into any number of well documented Tucker lines if I can just get back far enough. My gg-grandfather also wrote that his father was "killed in the war of 1812", which I've also documented. What I do know for sure is that my William Tucker lived in Adair County, Kentucky as early as 1802 and maybe before. He shows up as an Ensign in the Kentucky Cornstalk Militia (1802) and several tax records and census records as owning land along Wolf Creek in Adair County (1805, 1810, and 1812). That land might or might not now be in present day Russell county, which was carved in part from Adair. He enlisted in Allen's Rifle Regiment of Kentucky volunteers for the war of 1812 and was killed at the Battle for River Raisin (south of present day Detroit) in late January 1813. My William Tucker is sometimes confused with other William Tuckers who lived in Adair County between 1800 and 1820. I've managed to find four of them (the two most notorious being William Wofford Tucker, who doesn't move into Adair until 1818 and his son William Tucker; neither has a connection to my William Tucker that I've been able to find). My William Tucker had six children, believed to be five boys and one girl. The only one whose name I know is Henry Bellinger Tucker (my gg-grandfather), born in Adair County, KY on December 4, 1804. I've long lost my reasoning behind this, but I think Henry Bellinger Tucker might have been fourth in the birth order with three older male siblings and one younger brother and sister. Now we are getting into conjecture, but a lot of circumstantial evidence suggests that the wife of my William Tucker might have been Martha Ballinger (who we know married a Tucker from records on the Ballinger side, but the first name is unrecorded, at least in any records I've run across). My gg-grandfather Henry Bellinger Tucker indicated his mother's name was Martha, but didn't mention the maiden name. He also named his first born child Martha. If you look at the middle name of my gg-grandfather (perhaps a misspelling of Ballinger), and also look at the Ballinger line (Martha Ballinger had a brother named Henry and her grandfather was a Henry), making Martha Ballinger the wife of William Tucker and mother of Henry Bellinger Tucker in my genealogy files makes a lot of sense. I'd rate it as about a 95% certainty. Martha Ballinger's father, Moses Ballinger (a Quaker, I think), originated in Guilford County, NC and was part of a settlement in eastern Tennessee - New Market - first in the late 1780s, moved back to Guilford County for a few years, and then back into eastern Tennessee in the early 1790s. If we assume my William Tucker is the Tucker who married Martha Ballinger, he probably tracked these moves and might have met Martha in or around Guilford County, NC, moved with her family to Tennessee, and then moved north into Adair County, KY in the late 1790s or early 1800s where he starts to show up on the records I have. From this, any additional leads are appreciated. -- Walt Tucker