Further Examination of Weems Family Myths

After my last post, I thought it might be useful to take an even closer look at some of Diana Muir's far-fetched claims about the Weems family history and journals. Although I intentionally tried to avoid getting sidetracked with irrelevant details, there is still plenty to expand upon regarding the exact circumstances of her alleged discovery of the journals, as well as the validity of her self-published research and long career as a professional genealogist.

Not wanting to leave any stone unturned in my attempt to verify the journal story, I decided to reach out and get the opinions of a few experts in Greene County, Tennessee. If there was ever any chance these journals actually existed, there would hopefully be some kind of documentation, or even the vaguest memory of this "old trunk" being stored in a basement for over a century.

After all, someone must have known enough about the journals to bring them to Diana's attention in 2005 when she mentioned the name John Weems. Supposedly, someone working right there in the library that day remembered that the old trunk was once the property of a Weems. For any of Diana's claims to be true, a number of people must have passed along the story of the trunk being rescued from the burning church, which Diana told with such confidence in her Henry Sinclair book and podcast interview. But who were they, and why weren't they specifically named in any of Diana's books, posts, or comments? Despite telling this story for years, she has never properly cited any of these sources. Fortunately, nothing is stopping anyone from conducting their own thorough investigation into these claims

In one version of her Henry Sinclair book, Diana included a photo of the saddle bag allegedly containing the journals. Although the resolution isn't great, it appears to be a photo of a weathered brown leather saddle bag. The bag is positioned on top of a long glass display case with a green frame. Inside the case and below the bag, there are at least two antique rifles with some sort of labels or signs placed alongside them. A golden or dark yellow colored material is covering the bottom surface inside the case. It is positioned against a cinder block wall, which has been painted a peach or muted orange color. The bottom edge of a brown wooden picture frame can be seen hanging on the wall above. The surroundings are what you might expect to see inside a typical local history museum, but the image lacks enough detail to reach any conclusions.

I've never been to the Greeneville - Greene County History Museum, but I can see from photos that this museum has similar display cases and painted cinder block walls. Any reasonable person would have to agree Diana's photo certainly looks like it could have been taken inside this museum. Interestingly, in Diana's book and podcast interview she uses many words to describe the basement location of the old trunk and saddle bag, including a historical society or library, but never refers to this location specifically as a museum.

First, I contacted Stevie Hughes of the Greene County Genealogical Society to determine if there was any possibility the journals were ever stored in the T. Elmer Cox Library building, since Diana once mentioned a building associated with someone by the name of Cox. Stevie assured me she knew the staff working at the time, and that there is absolutely no chance any of the Cox Library staff would have allowed the journals to leave the building. Material donated to the Cox Library can be copied, but the original journals would be library property and would not have left the building under any circumstance.

I next contacted Greene County historian and Greeneville Sun columnist Tim Massey, who seems to be the local expert in Civil War and Revolutionary history. Unfortunately, Tim had no knowledge of any Weems journals, but agreed the photo looks like it could have been taken inside the Greeneville - Greene County History Museum. He put me in contact with Betty Fletcher, Operations Director of the museum. Betty did not recognize the bag or surroundings in the photo either. She found no record of any journals, papers, or other items belonging to John Weems in the museum's accessions.

Over the last few months, I've also asked a handful of other Weems and Greene County researchers if they know anything about these journals, but no one seemed to have any knowledge of their existence. Despite my best efforts, the exact location of the leather bag in Diana's photo still remains a mystery. All I can say is that the bag and/or journals most likely did NOT come from the T. Elmer Cox Library, or the Greeneville - Greene County History Museum. I have continued to search for other potential locations in Greene County which might fit Diana's vague description, but I have come up empty-handed. Besides the main public library building in Greeneville and another in the town of Mosheim, there are some historic homes, civil war sites, and an antique market, but no other building open to the public appears to hold any historical records or genealogical materials.

If there is any truth to Diana's story, the journals would have been at least 140 years old when she found them in 2005. Any significant historical writings of this age would almost certainly be kept safely guarded by the organizations holding custody of them. In her book and interview, Diana seems to imply that the staff member in Greene County who showed her the journals had no issue allowing her to take possession of them. She claims no one had ever bothered to index, transcribe, or determine the historical significance of these documents before her discovery. In my experience, this entire scenario is completely inconsistent with the established practices and official policies of any reputable historical/genealogical society, library, or museum in the United States or elsewhere.

Even if Diana wasn't herself the forger of these journals, even if she was innocent of any wrongdoing and simply fooled by someone else, there was absolutely no reason to throw away or destroy most of the materials before they could be properly examined. Plenty of educational institutions and museums would have been happy to accept these journals as a donation. An academic with the kind of experience Diana claims to have would certainly understand this.

Diana says other experts have analyzed parts of the journal and map, including the use of radiocarbon dating techniques. In her podcast interview, she even mentioned determining the map was in fact sheep skin, and had traces of salt from ocean water when it was brought across the Atlantic. She claimed to have connections at the University of Iowa, but she has never provided any names, reports, or data from any such laboratory testing or examination. If she truly had these tests done, why wouldn't she include these details in her books? It would certainly seem like a waste of time and resources to keep this information private. This kind of data would go a long way in supporting her claims, yet Diana has chosen not to make any of it available to other researchers.

Some parts of Diana's story are easy to dismiss due to lack of evidence, but other parts do seem at least somewhat plausible on the surface. However, as I stated near the beginning of my last post, the smallest details often play a crucial role in revealing the full truth. If there are any lingering doubts about Diana's propensity for fabricating family history out of thin air, hopefully this further analysis of a few key points of contention will put them to rest

Specifically, there are three dubious claims Diana has repeatedly propagated about John Weems of Greene County, TN:

- He had a connection to a German church.

- His wife Kitty's maiden name was Dengler / Dingler.

- He came from Pennsylvania before living in NC and TN.

After a thorough investigation, I have found that none of these claims are likely to be grounded in truth. In fact, a strong case can be made that all three possibilities are somewhat unlikely. Yet for some reason, Diana has chosen to present them as fact. When faced with hard evidence which contradicts her research, Diana typically responds by either doubling down, or retroactively claiming she was only presenting one possible theory. She has certainly encountered her share of detractors in recent years, yet she insistently continues to spread this misinformation and aggressively defend the legitimacy of her research.

Let's examine these three claims as closely as possible...

In her Henry Sinclair book, and on several other occasions, Diana has asserted that John Weems was a member and/or founder of a "German" church. Over the years, she has made this claim about John Weems when he lived in Greene County, Tennessee, but also earlier in Orange County, North Carolina. Usually, Diana claims the church was "German Methodist Episcopal", but has sometimes described it as "German Lutheran", or simply a "German church".

Diana uses this as supporting evidence that John's wife was of German descent and her name was possibly Catherine Dengler or Dingler.

Here are a few specific examples of such claims:

"John joined the German Methodist Church in Hillsboro shortly after he appeared there." - Ancestry.com Weems Surname Message Board (1-10-2012, edited 7-29-2018)

"Yes, Cathrine Dengler was the wife of John Weems. It explans why he was a member of the German Lutheran Church in Greene Co., TN." - Genealogy.com Weems Surname Forum (5-02-2013)

"John Weems, his son-in-law Thomas Bailey, and Thomas's brother Claudius Bailey also received land grants. Claudius had already been living there for several years and had convinced them to join him, along with several other families who belonged to the German Methodist Episcopal community." - The Lost Templar Journals of Prince Henry Sinclair Book 1 - 1353-1395 (2018)

"John Weems was affiliated with the German Methodist Episcopal Church in Baileyton." - The Lost Templar Journals of Prince Henry Sinclair Book 1 - 1353-1395 (2018)

"However, the fact that they founded the German Methodist Episcopal Church in Baileyton gives credence to the fact that his wife was German, and in fact Catherine (Kitty) Dingler/Dengler." - Searching For Heritage Blog Comment (6-16-2023)

These assertions are almost entirely inaccurate, and show a general lack of familiarity with the history of churches in Orange County, Greene County, and the American Methodist movement.

In fact, none of the early churches in Orange County, NC or Greene County, TN were ever described as "German Methodist Episcopal", and there is no evidence that the Weems or related families had any significant early association with families of German descent, in a religious context or otherwise. Most of the prominent early settlers of both Orange County and Greene County were of Scotch-Irish and English descent, especially those who lived near John Weems.

Without knowing much about the early life of John Weems, it is important to understand the broader historical context of the various religious denominations in America at the time. The Scottish and Scotch-Irish were almost entirely Presbyterian when they came to America, and they founded Presbyterian churches up and down the East Coast as they established their early communities. Their desire for freedom and independence was strongly tied to their common national heritage, whether they came directly from Scotland or from Ulster, Northern Ireland. As a Calvinist denomination, some predominantly Scottish Presbyterian communities had various degrees of association with the Dutch Reformed and French Huguenots who were also immigrating in large waves at the time.

However, with the new frontier opening up, many were heavily influenced by the traveling Methodist preachers of the time. Methodism was derived from the teachings of John Wesley, beginning as a revival movement in the Church of England. It became a separate denomination as it quickly spread all over Britain and America before and after the Revolutionary War. While other Protestant denominations tended to be much slower establishing churches to meet the needs of a population rapidly expanding westward, Methodist churches sprung up in large numbers and filled the void. As Diana has noted, the founder of American Methodism and one of the original circuit riders, Bishop Francis Asbury, kept journals throughout his travels and actually mentioned visiting John Weems in Hillsborough, NC in 1783.

The entire time John Weems was known to be living in Hillsborough, Orange County, NC (from about 1767 to 1791), there was only one church, St. Matthew's Episcopal. It was established in 1766 by Reverend George Micklejohn, an Anglican clergyman licensed by the bishop of London and appointed by Royal Governor William Tryon. There was never a significant population of German-Americans associated with this church, and the next church (Methodist) wasn't organized until 1807, after John and his family had moved to Tennessee.

In Greene County, Tennessee, Wesley’s Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, also known as the "Old Brick Church", was established in 1797 and burned down in 1880. The new Wesley's Chapel was built just down the road in 1887, where it still stands today. A historical marker describes the original church being founded by a group of trustees including "Seth Babb, John Carter, John Weems, Claudius Bailey, Thomas Babb, William Crumley, Stephen Babb, Thomas Bailey, and Thomas Doan". Notice the lack of any German names.

Zion Methodist Episcopal Church is located approximately four miles north of this area, in Baileyton. The original church was a log cabin built around 1830, which was replaced by the current building in 1858. Some of the descendants of John and Kitty Weems are buried in the cemetery there. In her book, Diana seems to imply that Wesley's Chapel was replaced by Zion M.E., but this is not the case. Both churches existed separately since they were founded in 1797 and 1830 respectively.

Other than Diana's description, I can find no reference to either of these Methodist Episcopal churches in Greene County ever being called "German". The Bailey family were of Scotch-Irish descent, and the Babb, Carter, Crumley, and Doan families were all of English descent. Two of the first religious leaders in Greene County were Rev. Samuel Doak and Rev. Hezekiah Balch, who were both of Scotch-Irish descent. There may have been a small handful of families of German descent among these congregations, but largely the associated surnames are distinctly non-Germanic in origin.

These early church histories in Greene County follow the typical pattern of Americans of Scotch-Irish and English descent founding Methodist (and sometimes Baptist) churches as they moved into the backcountry of the Carolinas, Tennessee, and eventually further west, gradually leaving their former religious affiliations behind. While it's certainly true that Americans of all backgrounds joined Methodist churches in large numbers after the Revolution, there is no reason to associate Methodist Episcopal churches specifically with people of German descent, especially in Orange County, NC or Greene County, TN.

Some German families from Virginia and Pennsylvania did settle in Greene County as early as 1790, but very few if any were involved in the founding of any Methodist Episcopal churches in the area. Most of the German families tended to live near Blue Springs, which eventually became the town of Mosheim. Other Germans lived in St. James, Cove Creek, and Sinking Springs, which are all in the southwestern part of the county, closer to the Nolichucky River. The only churches in Greene County with any notable German affiliation are the few Lutheran churches which came along in the early to mid-1800s in these areas, and they have no significant connection to the Weems, Bailey, or related families who settled in the Lick Creek area.

I struggle to find a reasonable explanation for Diana repeatedly insisting that John Weems was associated with a "German" church in Orange County, NC or Greene County, TN. There doesn't appear to be any factual basis for this description whatsoever.

Sources of information on the churches of Greene County:




Sources of information on the churches of Hillsborough, NC:


Diana has often claimed that John Weems must have come from Pennsylvania before he settled in Orange County, NC. Although such an origin is certainly plausible, there is no clear or direct evidence to support it. When considered in combination with the entirely inaccurate German church claim, it becomes obvious Diana is more interested in cherry-picking or bending the facts to support her theories rather than simply following the facts where they lead. The picture which emerges is therefore the result of several different types of confirmation biases working together, and bears no resemblance to what you might expect from a serious researcher.

Examining the possibility of John's wife Kitty being a Dengler / Dingler from another angle, I decided to learn more about the Denglers / Dinglers who came from Germany to Pennsylvania in the mid-1700s. It might be useful to understand whether they lived in any of the same communities as the Pennsylvania Weems, and get a better idea of the movements and religious affiliations of these families. We know that John Weems purchased land in Orange County, NC in 1767 and lived there until about 1791. This means if John met his wife as a young man growing up in Pennsylvania, as Diana claims, then we need to look specifically for Denglars / Dinglers living there before 1767.

The earliest records I can find show a Jacob Dengler and a Johannes Dengler coming to Philadelphia in 1750 and 1752. Jacob Dengler eventually owned a farm in Douglass Township, Philadelphia County, which became Montgomery County in 1784. It appears some of his descendants continued to live in this area for several decades.

There was also a Johannes Dingler who arrived in Philadelphia in 1753 with his wife Maria Gaertner and one child, also named Johannes. This family settled in Northampton County, which was formed in 1752 from part of Bucks County and a largely unsettled area. There has been some debate about whether this family was related to the Denglers who came previously, but it is believed the original spelling was different and they came from different parts of Germany.

By the late 1770s, there were also Denglars / Dinglers living in Chester and Berks Counties, but it is unclear if any or all of them were related. Some Denglars / Dinglers also lived in Dauphin County after it was formed in 1785, and some in Bucks County as early as 1787, but John Weems had been living in North Carolina for two decades by then.

I have seen a lot of confusion and speculation about these family lineages, and I can't say that I've been able to sort them out with any confidence. Frequent migration and spelling changes were common in this era. What's very clear is that none of the available records show a Catherine or Kitty Dengler / Dingler, or any daughter with a similar name coming to, living, or marrying anywhere in Pennsylvania during the mid-1700s.

There is a 1748 birth record in Germany for a "Catharina Magdalena Dingler", and the parents' name do appear to match up with the Johannes Dingler and wife Maria Gaertner who came to Pennsylvania in 1753 with their son, but no daughters are listed immigrating with this family. It appears Diana has taken the name directly from this birth record and assigned it to John's wife Kitty without any evidence that this Catharina Dingler ever lived in America, or could have come into contact with John Weems.

In any case, it appears all of the Denglers / Dinglers in Pennsylvania at this time were associated with German-majority communities and belonged almost exclusively to Lutheran churches. So how does this compare to records of Weems families in Pennsylvania at the time?

One of the earliest landowners by the name of Weems in Pennsylvania was a John Weems who owned 100 acres in Abington Township, PA in 1734:

http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/montgomery/history/local/mchb0046.txt

Diana seems to have decided that this John Weems must be the father of the Orange, NC / Greene, TN John Weems. In her Henry Sinclair book, Diana claims that "John Sr and his wife Isabella Scott raised their children in the Quaker faith and educated their boys at the Abington Friends School."

It appears Diana has probably not realized that a 1726 baptism record for an "Elizabeth, daughter of John Whims" in the Abington Presbyterian Church Register would seem to directly contradict any Quaker or German association.
 
Abington Presbyterian Church Register, 1713-1821
Image 16 of 170
Presbyterian Historical Society
Ancestry.com. U.S., Presbyterian Church Records, 1701-1970

Although the spelling is different from the 1734 land record (Whims vs. Weems), there is every reason to believe these are most likely one and the same family. While "Weems" tends to be the more popular spelling, "Whims" is certainly a known variation. No similar surnames can be found in or near Abington at the time, and there are no additional entries for any Whims or Weems in the church register. It is unclear if this John Weems had other children, or if they were still living in the area after 1734.

In researching the history of Abington Presbyterian Church, it is noted that some Quakers have joined the Presbyterian Church over the years, but the two communities have largely remained separate up to the present day. Logically, in the early decades of the settlement of Abington, it would be extremely unusual to see a Scottish family baptized in the local Presbyterian Church and then immediately joining up with the Quakers. Therefore, the children of this Weems family were most likely not raised in the Quaker faith as Diana has claimed.

Many of the surnames in Abington at this time were English and Scottish, with some likely coming from Northern Ireland. There were also some Welsh, and a significant Dutch population - Holland Dutch, not German/Palatine. Like many similar small communities at the time, most of the population were probably loosely united by their Calvinist identity, and distinct from the Quakers or Friends who also lived in the area. Interestingly, Rev. George Whitefield, one of the founders of Methodism, preached at Abington Presbyterian Church in 1740.

Whatever the case may be, Jacob Dengler living approximately 30 miles away from Abington in the largely German township of Douglass at least 20 years later is not sufficient evidence to establish any relationship between the two families. Same for Johannes Dingler living approximately 60 miles away in Northampton County. As far as I can tell, these are the closest possibilities of any Weems or Denglers / Dinglers being documented in the same place at the same time, but it's still quite a stretch.

There is also a 1737 land warrant in West Caln (Chester County) for a John Weems. It is possible this is the same John Weems who lived in Abington earlier, but this would place him even farther away from the earliest locations of the Dengler / Dingler families.

By the mid-1760s, there were Weems families living in Mount Joy (York County, later Adams County), and eventually New Garden (Chester County). Both of these communities were largely Scotch-Irish and English, with very few Germans names. Just like in North Carolina and Tennessee, there is no trace of anyone with the last name Weems associated with any German church in any of these Pennsylvania locations, or living reasonably close to any German families.

Most importantly, I've been unable to find evidence of any Dengler or Weems families having any interaction whatsoever. I'm not saying it's completely impossible, but if Diana is going to use physical proximity as evidence to support this theory, then she needs to show something much more specific than the two families vaguely living in the same general area of Pennsylvania several decades apart. She makes no attempt to show the kind of evidence a professional genealogist would include in a book if they were to present such a theory. On top of all this, there is no direct evidence that the John Weems who settled in Orange County, NC even came from Pennsylvania in the first place.

Diana might now argue this was only ever a theory, and she never claimed a Dengler / Dingler connection as fact, but this doesn't match up with all of her books, message board activity, and social media posts. Anyone coming across this information would be led to believe it has been thoroughly confirmed by historical records, which simply isn't the case. There is nothing wrong with presenting such a theory and clearly citing "word of mouth" or "oral tradition" as the only direct source, but instead Diana has chosen to embellish and twist the facts to make her theory seem much more plausible than it really is. You only notice the discrepancies when you take a close look at all of the records and realize John Weems (of NC and TN) was never associated with a German church, there is no evidence he lived in Pennsylvania, and no evidence of any Dengler / Dingler connection.

I've never heard of any professional genealogist making so many huge leaps and outright mistakes, failing to distinguish baseless speculation from sufficiently documented facts repeatedly for years. It is clear on numerous occasions Diana has haphazardly grabbed any record for the last name Weems in colonial America and run with it, forcing all sorts of connections which never existed in reality. A few minor errors here and there might be easy to understand, but much of her Weems research, including the Dengler / Dingler connection, crosses the line into pure fiction.

Additional Dengler / Dingler information:

It came as no surprise that Diana responded negatively to my last blog post. She accused me of trying to destroy or ruin her, and posted a rambling comment containing multiple completely inaccurate statements and irrelevant details of her personal life. I want to reiterate that I am only trying to get to the truth about Diana's genealogical research, and have no interest in engaging in such a nasty personal battle. There is plenty of damaging information out there about her shady past which I intentionally left out of these posts, because it's not directly relevant to documenting our family history. Nevertheless, it's easy enough to find if you go looking.

I do think it was important to investigate whether the various academic credentials she has claimed were legitimate or not, considering the consistently poor quality of her work is generally incompatible with the kind of expertise it takes to earn these degrees. When you really take the time to analyze everything, it becomes obvious. But perhaps more importantly, if she's willing to falsely represent herself in such a public way which can be easily checked, what else is she being completely dishonest about?

One thing I've learned about Diana Muir is that she has a notable tendency to rewrite the same history multiple times over, with little regard for consistency or plausibility. In her recent comment, Diana now says she never actually claimed to have earned any PhDs, doctorates, or advanced degrees. Sure enough, when I revisited her profiles, she had been busy removing any references to these degrees. Unfortunately for Diana, once you put something on the internet, it's virtually impossible to completely erase. Take a look at the following screenshots from Diana's various pages before I called her degrees into question and see for yourself:
 
Don't just take my word for it. You can also view the following archived links for further evidence:



Based on her recent acknowledgement that she never actually earned these degrees, despite claiming otherwise all over the internet for most of the past decade, the best approach might be to simply ignore all of Diana's genealogical research. That would be easy for me to do, if I hadn't witnessed her completely unverified Weems info spreading everywhere, growing year after year. If this constantly evolving fantasy is just one example of the overall level of quality and accuracy of her work, then it appears she has likely spent a lifetime causing immeasurable harm to the various family histories she has worked on.

I've certainly spent a lot of time trying to determine to what extent, if any, Diana's claims about the journals and the genealogy of the Weems family in colonial America might possibly be true. At times I have given her more credit than she deserves, only to discover yet another small piece of the puzzle which doesn't actually fit. At the end of it all, there is a strong case to be made that Diana has never intended to present anything close to an accurate view of the Weems family history. A serious researcher does not misrepresent various historical records to fit their preconceived theories, yet we can see countless examples of Diana intentionally doing this.

Just how much of her erroneous work has gone largely unnoticed? Are there similar dubious claims included in her past research, besides the 1983 Mormon letters incident? What exactly are her skills as an "accredited" genealogist? Scrolling through her dozens of print-on-demand genealogy books, a handful of negative reviews highlight some of the obvious problems. A few of the only positive reviews seem to come from Diana herself. However, it certainly appears her overactive imagination hasn't been focused exclusively on the Weems family.

A researcher named Alastair J. Gunn addresses the claims Diana made about some all too familiar sounding Orkney Island origin myths in her book The House of Gunn, finding them completely lacking in evidence and largely disproved:



The WikiTree page for a Virginia settler named James Frame (1687 - 1754) mentions a researcher named Diana Muir locating emigration records for James' sons in Dublin, Ireland. She claimed "the papers were so old and flimsy that they would never be published."


While I can't say for certain this is the same Diana Muir, it sounds suspiciously similar to the circumstances surrounding her other claims. Like in many of her stories, there always seem to be factors beyond her control which prevent the information in the crucial records being accessible to anyone else. What an incredible coincidence!

As an online educator, Diana has had a role in founding several businesses and non-profit organizations specializing in distance learning, including the One World School, the Hawking Institute, Personal Learning Center International, and E-School! International, all based out of Iowa.

In 1995, she founded the Iowa Digital Education Association (IDEA) which ran a virtual school based in Iowa City. Like many of her online schools, educational courses on genealogy were offered for several years before the organization ceased to exist. Some of this material can still be found archived and floating around on various corners of online genealogy communities.

In an article titled "Genealogical Education: Online and Home Study Courses" by Kathleen W. Hinckley, a review from The Genealogical Web Site Watchdog has this to say about Diana's IDEA school genealogy course:

"There are 15 lessons in the course covering what one would expect to find in a beginning genealogy course. Problem is, much of the information is too generic to be useful and there is a lack of qualifications on how different laws and time periods affected the records available. Additionally, the beginning genealogist is frequently referred to secondary sources, with no mention of the primary sources and their availability. Granted, the course is free, but the cost can be high to someone sent off in the wrong direction with bad information."


This review certainly seems to correspond with the improper techniques and generally poor quality of Diana's work on the Weems family. It almost appears as if Diana has no real expertise in genealogical research whatsoever, and has no desire to actually establish herself as a knowledgeable professional beyond a very superficial level. For some reason, Diana thinks she can just pretend her way into being an expert, hoping no one will notice the difference.

Despite Diana's best efforts, the truth is still out there for anyone to find if they go looking hard enough. If there is any upside to this long journey, it has revealed just how tricky and pervasive misinformation can be. When certain mysteries prove too difficult to solve with the available resources, they become an open vessel for all sorts of fantastical claims. Sometimes accepting your own lack of knowledge is the key to being open-minded and patient enough to discover the truth. Going forward, I now have a much better idea of which sources and supposed "facts" to exclude when attempting to get a more accurate understanding of the Weems genealogy.

Obviously, there is still a lot of work to be done to fill in the gaps and document the history of the Weems family. How exactly was John Weems of Greene, TN related to Thomas Weems of Abbeville, SC, and where did they come from? One promising, yet mostly overlooked possibility is that this Weems family was actually Scotch-Irish, coming from Ulster or the surrounding area in Northern Ireland, rather than coming to America directly from Scotland. In future posts, I will be examining this possibility, exploring all of the DNA evidence, and expanding on the early history of both the Abbeville and Greene County Weems families.

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