Thursday, January 8, 2015

Two Charles Gibsons




In August last year I had a discussion about the Revolutionary Service of one Charles Gibson of Hancock Co., Tennessee with one of his descendants.  I questioned that his application was correct since I had found on one page it said SUSPENDED and then later in the file it said REJECTED.
This lady told me there were TWO files and I just didn't look hard enough.  I said I knew of the other Charles Gibson pension application that was approved but they were not the same person as Charles Gibson #2 died in 1820 - 19 years BEFORE the Charles Gibson #1 had filed his pension.  Couldn't possible be the same man. I asked her where she found the *other file* but she never did respond.

Last week on a public forum she again wrote that her 3rd great-grandfather was a Revolutionary Soldier.  And so I proceeded to post papers out of the two files.

CHARLES GIBSON S41575 -Wayne County, North Carolina 10th Regiment

  • State of North Carolina } Court of Pleas and quarter Sessions  Wayne County } August term 1818 
  • Enlisted Northampton Court House
  • Private Soldier under Capt. G Bradley [George Bradley] and served nine months in the North Carolina Continental Line in the Regiment Commanded by Col. Hogun  got an Honorable discharge at Philadelphia 
  • while in service he took the small Pox, and caught cold
THESE THREE DOCUMENTS ARE FOUND IN FILE OF CHARLES GIBSON S41575





 Now Charles Gibson of Hancock County, Tennessee filed  application R3995 on the 19th day of January 1839. 

  • Entered the Service under the command of Captain Richard Varnum of the Regulars & was commanded by James Shepherd and Major John Armstrong of the Regular troops
  • Enlisted some time in the month of April as this declarant believes in the year of 1780 in the State of North Carolina near Salisbury
Now this is clearly two different Charles Gibsons'  - Charles Gibson of Wayne County, North Carolina was deceased in 1820 so we know he cannot be the same Charles Gibson who filed for pension in Hancock County, Tennessee in 1839. 

Looking at the two records found at Fold 3 it is easy to see what happened here. When Charles Gibson of Tennessee filed for his pension in 1839 they apparently found the service record Charles Gibson of Wayne County, North Carolina who served in the 10th Regiment. 




So it would appear  that Charles Gibson of Hancock Co., Tennessee was allowed a pension "having served in the 10th Regiment" and when the mistake was discovered his pension was SUSPENDED.



Rogersville, Tennessee
April 18th 1839
Sir
Herewith you will receive three claims for Pensions ---- John Mallorys, Charles Gibsons and Nancy Johnson. The Pension certificate of her husband, Moses Johnson forwarded and two or three others....
Mr. Gibson says his name will be found on the roll in the Secretary of States office, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Your Obd Servant
D. Alexander


This notation is found in the file of Charles Gibson  Tennessee



August 21, 1839
The claim of Charles Gibson has been examined and W. Hill Esqu Secretary of State at Raleigh N.C. has been written to for proof of his alleged service.
The claim of John Mallory has also been examined and his declaration filed with suspended case. Before a final decision can be had in his case satisfactory proof should be exhibitied of his being the identical person of that name who served in the Virginia line.
D. Alexander esq
Rogersville Tenn

Apparently no record of service was found at Raleigh for Charles Gibson and his pension was ultimately REJECTED.


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Now all of this was laid out on the open fourm, documents and all.  Did the descendant of Charles Gibson admit she had made a mistake? No.   This was her reply;
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I do not use these transcriptions because even though we are fortunate to have them and someone spent a lot of time and effort, they are open to human error. I try to go back and look at original documents. Charles Gibson Rev. War soldier from Hawkins Co. was my 3rd gr grandfather. He does not go back to the Gibson you and I share, Someone wasting a lot of time trying to dispute his record and trying to get a lot of people involved and I don't have a clue why, I stand firm on my documentation and will not be tricked into defending it, particularly to individuals who have no connection whatsoever. This is one of the oldest tricks in genealogy as you know. Is it to try to "discredit" my work? The reason you are posting their info to this is so that I will see "new data" on the "other" Charles which has no bearing on my 3rd gr grandfather what so ever.
Before that a lot of time was wasted on disputes over Valentine Gibson. I promise the stork didn't drop us down. You and I are close kin and I am not going to involve you so we agree to not work this one to death since he is not our common ancestor, You do not have to "choose up sides" so just know that I won't ask you to, or even try to discuss it, and get you caught up in a waste of time.
It all goes back to they want to disagree with who he married, I'm sorry you got sucked into this not knowing the full story, It's also a mystery to me why some folks get so obsessed with other people's families when they have zero connection and they certainly don't have to consider themselves the final authority or "auditor" on everyone else's work. Heck as far as I'm concerned they can "have the last word" because even though I don't agree with some of the work ,most of the time I would rate them a very good researcher and one who has contributed a lot to our family research, for whatever reason, over the years and shared a lot of "good" stuff also. I thank them for that. 
 I consider this type research "high maintenance" and I don't have time for it.
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WOW -- FIFTY YEARS as a researcher and this type of research she doesn't have time for?  Seriously?  

For the record I descend from Valentine Gibson, his DNA does not match that of Charles Gibson, but that is another story.  Valentine and Charles were both in Louisa County, Viriginia in 1739 AND I HAVE NO RIGHT TO RESEARCH THE GIBSON FAMILY?  You will note she did NOT produce one record, one document, NOTHING at all to dispute the records I posted.  Apparently when she can't dispute the facts she ATTACKS THE MESSENGER.  I mean seriously, she "won't be tricked into defending" this?  That I am just trying to "discredit her work"?

Does she realize the Charles Gibson of Wayne County, North Carolina had a family too?  Well he had one, but now she has wiped them out with a stroke of her pen!  I am "sucking people in" and trying to get them to "chose sides"? And how in the world can she "stand firm" when presented with the above documents?

My Story

I spent the first three years of my research chasing bad transcriptions, bad genealogists who drew some very wrong conclusions.  I spent much time and money for over three years on wild goose chases.  Wasted a lot of time, effort, money and labor and it has been the center of my research since 1990.  I hate seeing misinformation being spread and I DEPLORE people who are made aware it is MISINFORMATION and refuse to admit and correct it.  

And so for the New Year I decided to add a HALL OF SHAME to my blogs. I hope you will find the documentation I post here and if you have misinformation in your tree or posted it online you simply correct it.  It is the right thing to do.

The inductee for January 2015 this lady who has spent 50 years researching and when shown the mistakes she has made simply turns it into a pissing match. How could someone with with her supposed credentials not see she has made a mistake?  Instead she tries to make this look as though I have a personal vendetta against her.

I have exchanged research with many people over the past 25+years, they have corrected my research and I have graciously thanked them and changed it, and I have have contacted many people about mistakes in their research.  Some have thanked me and changed it - some have ignored me but none have ever made a personal attack against me.

I would think a 'newby' could look at the above records and see these records are for two men named Charles Gibson.  Unfortunately the Government could not find the record of her 3rd great-grandfather and he never drew a pension.



PS - If anyone is interested in the service of these two men I'd be glad to forward it.  There are records that show Charles Gibson of the 10th Regiment did indeed have the smallpox, hospitalized in Philadelphia and from there discharged. Now if Charles Gibson of Hancock County had the smallpox or was in the hospital in Philadelphia, one would expect to find that in his application.

The sad part of this story is that there is a record of  Charles Gibson, Revolutionary Soldier, - Drummer and Fifer - serving under Richard Varnum, James Shepherd and Col. Armstrong. Shame -shame on his descendants.

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3 comments:

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  3. What would be the point of "marrying" the two distinctly different Charles Gibson's? To what end? And....where did the other two comments go?!

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