Thomas
Wannall may be the common ancestor for most Wannalls profiled in these
pages. Most of what we know about Thomas comes from George Wannall of Winter
Park, Florida, official keeper of Wannall genealogy. According to George,
| "In the 18th Century, it appears ... Thomas Wannall was born about
1783. This is presumed from the 1850 ... census, which lists a Thomas
Wannall as a shoemaker, age 67 (or 64) born in Maryland (this could be
the same area that became the District of Columbia by 1800.)
"The earlier years between 1800 and 1850 provide scant hard data
to link known families to certain individuals found in this time frame.
[A] Thomas Wannall (Wannell) opened a shoe store on May 4, 1815, on F Street
in Washington, DC. By 1820 indebtedness seems to have wiped him out,
but by 1827 he had a shop on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. The
1820 Census of DC has a very brief description of his family of wife, four
sons, and two daughters. As was the case in early census records,
no family names are listed.
"This gives rise to the speculation as to whether four grown men,
Joseph, William, Charles and Thomas appearing with the Wannall name in
1850 and beyond were the four sons in the 1820 Census. Efforts to
link any of the four to Thomas of 1820 have not been successful, even though
their ages fit in the range of ages listed in 1820. Family genealogy
descendent charts list the four as sons, but there are no factual data
to back it up." *
* From the written genealogy
notes of George L. Wannall
|
Since
George's research we found a historical record from the Muster Rolls of
Washington, D.C., showing Thomas assigned as a private in the 1st Regiment,
District of Columbia Militia in the War of 1812. We also uncovered
from the D. C. archives a record of the marriage of Thomas and Mary Roberts
in 1816 in Alexandria County, District of Columbia. Of the four alleged
sons, the only verified birth year was for William H. (1804), which means
he could not be the son of Mary Roberts Wannall. Birth years for
the other three sons are conjecture: some, none or all may have been children
of Thomas and Mary. As George indicated, as yet there is no actual
family link between Thomas and any of the listed children.
Last
updated: December 1, 2002. |
