FHB Alexander Predecessors

Alexander Predecessors

For decades Alexander descendants have attempted to link the Lincoln County, Tennessee Alexanders to the Alexanders of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina who were associated with the (disputed) Declaration of Independence of 1775. Recent research, particularly a reading of a 1909 book titled Records of a Family of the House of Alexander: from 1609 to 1909 by Frances Alexander Butterworth, has provided a clue that might point to the missing link. Specifically, the 1785 will of Eli (or Elias) Alexander mentions a son named Lewis. If this Lewis Alexander is our William L. Alexander (whom at least one descendant said was named William Lewis Alexander), that would do it. Unfortunately, so far I have not seen any documentation to definitively prove that William L.'s middle name was Lewis, but of course it could have been. An early Tennessee land record does show he was known as "William L. Alexander", so there is that. Pending further results, then, the following genealogy is presented as provisional.

DNA Evidence

So far there have been no matches found between our known Alexander descendants and descendants of the Mecklenburg, NC Alexanders. It may be too far back to show up in autosomal DNA, and at this time we don't have Y-DNA to compare. If that changes, of course, it could answer the question of whether we are from the same family or not.

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