Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Was the wife James Phelps (Caswell Co, NC) a Killingsworth from Johnston Co, NC?

Assuming James’ wife, Mary, was a Killingsworth, could James have come from where Mary’s family came from, possibly Johnston or Edgecombe counties, NC or Surry Co, VA? Even though there is no evidence to disprove a Killingsworth connection, I found no such marriage claim by the Killingsworth researchers nor was there any other evidence of such a marriage. Also, I did not find a potential James Phelps in any of the new areas. If either could be found our line might lead to the Felps/Felts of Surry Co, VA in early 1700s. The research of others indicates the Felts of Surry/Sussex moved to Warren Co, NC – and by 1835 the Felts name appears in Caswell, not far from there. (One DNA test for a Thomas Felts in NC did not match our line’s DNA. See the Phelps DNA Project)

This intriguing possibility resulted from the curious appearance of the name “Freeman Killingsworth Phelps” in at least two descendants of James’ son Obediah. Below you will find all my research. I will summarize here. I have provided many source records, but unfortunately nearly all the Killingsworth genealogies have very little real proofs. A Killingsworth Farmily Book has been named but I was unable to determine what sources were used in that book. Since no one ever claimed a Phelps marriage, I did not make every effort to prove or disprove the Killingsworth family claims.

The rest of this report can be seen at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jamesphelpsresearch/killingsworths-felps-feltsconnections.htm

This is one of the studies found at the James Phelps Research web site http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jamesphelpsresearch/index.html