52 Ancestors: Uncertain

This week’s 52 Ancestors prompt is an odd one for me. (Insert low-hanging joke about it making me uncertain as to what to write.)

But I thought I’d catalogue my current mysteries.

The first one is a bit of a golden oldie, and one I discussed here several years ago: Who is Thomas Halliday Hurcombe’s father? His mother was a widow at the time of his birth. Is it true that her husband’s brother was the father? Who can say.

Then there is the mystery of George Adams, the father of my great-grandfather Jacob Calvin Adams. According to Jacob’s obituary, he died when Jacob and his brother were small boys, but so far no records have been found detailing who he was or where he came from …

Sticking with America, but switching sides, where did Mary Payne nee McMillian go? The mother of Robert Boone Payne is last seen in the 1860 US census, and she isn’t mentioned in her husband’s will of 1871. Family lore states only that she ran away. What happened to her?

And finally, was the father of Herman Isacks op den Graeff truly Johann Wilhelm von Kleve, Count of Altena and Duke of Jülich-Kleve-Berg, via a morganatic relationship with a nun that took place before his marriage to Jakobäa von Baden? (YES, YES, DAMMIT, PLEASE YES!)

This will, of course, resurface in a full post at a later date. How could it not?!