Uriah Edwards of Spotsylvania: Who Were His Parents?
I have run into a lot of Uriah Edwards descendants over the past couple of years. He is universally everyone's "brick wall" ancestor. As far back as 1901, this led Edwards Fortune scammers to sweep him into their genealogical dumpster fire, as I pointed out in a previous post . The truth is, I don't know who his parents were, but I thought I'd try to shed some light on what we do know about him and hopefully lead genealogists in the right direction. What do we know about Uriah Edwards? He first appears in the order books of Spotsylvania County, Virginia in the 1750s. In an old typed genealogy of unknown origin titled "The Family: From Virginia to the Pacific", dated 1974, Uriah's parents are identified as "John Edwards II and unknown wife." It notes Uriah can be placed in Spotsylvania County, Virginia via public records as early as 1753, when he appears "as a party to an apprenticeship." The author states that Uriah was by trade...