William Meeks Born in Cliburn England in 1699

Previous Post: So Many Williams

By and large the most popular belief for the identity of our immigrant ancestor is William Meeks, who was baptized in Cliburn, Westmorland County, England on  May 21, 1699. A quick google search and you'll find this record on 99% of online pedigrees, including familysearch.org. The internet has done wonders for family history research. But there are caveats, such as people accepting information as truth without question. This is the perfect example on how the internet can also do a disservice for family history research.

I haven't seen a shred of proof that this is our ancestor. From the previous post, I showed 46 records of persons named William Meeks that could possibly be our immigrant ancestor, and so why was this one chosen out of those 46? I can think of three other William Meeks' who have more reasons to be our ancestor, than Mr. William of Cliburn. I'm not saying that this William Meeks isn't our ancestor, I'm just saying we need proof that he is our ancestor before we embrace him. If someone out there has that proof, please share it, and if I concur that it is definite proof, then I will accept it.

According to the record, William Meeks, born in Cliburn England in May 1699, was the son of Isaac Meeks. About 90% of the pedigrees online claim that his father's name was William. To me, this tells me that not only do people cherry pick which records they want to use, but they also cherry pick the information in the record.

The records in Cliburn for this family are quite complete and Isaac had a lot of children. Most of his children however, died in infancy. It seems like this is the only Meeks family to have lived in Cliburn also. For no records of persons named Meeks appear in the Cliburn parish both before the time of Isaac, and after.

From the records, we learn the following about the family:

Father: Isaac Meeks, Buried 13 Feb 1728
Mother: Isabel, Buried 14 February 1710

Leonard: Baptized 26 Mar 1684 - Buried 1 Febraury 1758 (Wife1: Annas, Buried 22 May 1726) (Wife2: Anne, Buried 25 November 1744), (Daughter, Margaret, Baptized 24 August 1710)
Elizabeth: Baptized 7 Nov 1686 - Buried 25 May 1688
Mary: Baptized 12 August 1688
Isaac: Baptized 6 March 1690 - Buried 26 July 1691
Esther: Baptized 23 Oct 1692 - Buried 1 February 1705
Isabel: Baptized 17 March 1694 - Buried 6 April 1782 (age 88)
Christiana: Baptized 2 December 1696 - Buried 5 January 1697
William: Baptized 21 May 1699
Ann: Buried 10 Nov 1723

If anyone has more information about this family, please share.

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