General Notes

Alexander was born, according to some family histories, near Loung Neagh or Lake Yoh in Northern Ireland. Family stories have reported Alexander's date of birth as early as 1690 and as late as 1723. The date of 1723, I believe was based on the fact that son Robert was born in 1747. His family believed Robert was the oldest child and backed into Alexander's date of birth based on Robert's age. It was known that son William's children intermarried with his brother Alexander's and other histories connected the children through other stories. The children were believed to be Robert, born 1747; William 1750; Alexander 1752; and John 1754. Currently, stories and other records make it clear that son William was born 1730-1740, as his son Robert was born in 1757. Alexander is said to have gone to Wales to visit his cousins and there married his cousin Mary Colwell (Cauldwell). They had little money, but wanted to go to America, so they bonded themselves to a ship's captain for a term of servitude. Alexander was able to pay off his debt within a year, and then worked a little longer to help Mary pay off her portion. They bought land about 6 miles North of Philadelphia. I had found records where Alexander was born in 1690 and died in 1766. This information seemed more believable, until I recently found records of another Alexander who was born in New Hampshire in 1690 and died in January of 1766 in Connecticut. Th is seems too coincidental, and I believe that someone has picked up these dates and passed them along as our Alexander. At this point, it appears that Alexander and Mary may have married closer to 1727-1735. They were said to be friends of William Penn, and I must assume this was the grandson of William Penn the founder of Pennsylvania. William, the grandson, was born in Ireland in 1703 and inherited his grandfather's estate after his older brother died without issue. As Alexander and Mary were said to have come to America after their marriage, I must assume all of their children were born in Pennsylvania. They may have come to America as early as 1727, at the time when a John Caldwell is said to have come to America. They may have had several daughters before their sons were born, but there are no records available or information passed down on the daughters. At some point, the family moved to Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania. Alexander died there, but his body was taken to the old family site near Philadelphia for burial according to various family histories. At this point, I'm not sure if Alexander actually died in 1766 or if this was a date picked up from the other Alexander. It is hard to know what stories are based on fact and what are from people related stories they have found on other Alexander's. As most of the children began to move to Kentucky around 1784, I believe Alexander may have died before that time.

- Taken from a Rootsweb WorldConnect member's Gedcom (dkrglasserG@@aol.com) 3/8/2002.