Another Problem to Be Solved & Other Stuff

#1. I've decided another problem needs to be added to my list of candidates for SLIG Problem Solving 2016.


(6) Wright/Bowater/Davis: Who was the wife of James Wright, Quaker of PA & VA? For many years, it was believed that Mary Davis was the wife of James Wright. In 2000, Stewart Baldwin published an article in The American Genealogist stating his case for Mary Bowater being Wright's wife. Recently, the case for Mary Davis as Mrs. Wright has resurfaced. That leaves a question that needs an answer: Was Mary Davis or Mary Bowater the wife of James Wright?


This one would probably rank in the 3rd slot for SLIG consideration.


#2: I've been reading Thomas Fleming's George Washington's Secret War about the Valley Forge encampment and the disgruntled political leaders and officers dissatisfied with Washington's leadership in 1776 &1777. I'm only about 100 pages into the book, but early opinions are forming about our civilian leadership during the early years of the War for Independence.


Pennsylvania's civilian leadership was an embarrassment. Hard-liner whigs were the chief problem. They were afraid of a standing army, among other issues. The Massachusetts leadership, primarily cousins Samuel & John Adams, couldn't get past their Puritan roots and Harvard education to act intelligently. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia was aligned with the Adamses. There were numerous other Congressional and military leaders of like-thinking. All of this would lead to an attempt to remove Washington from command [the Conway Cabal]. Oddly enough, the favorite son of the anti-Washington set was Horatio Gates, the alleged hero of Saratoga. [Benedict Arnold was the key to the victory in my opinion] Gates would show his stripe in 1780 fleeing the disastrous Battle of Camden. 


I wonder how my Revolutionary War ancestors felt about the issue? Most of them seemed to have stayed the course. I can't recall coming across any references to ancestral support for Washington's ouster.


#3. It is well past time for me to reorganize my genealogy files. I have folders for some 20-odd families [at least!] that need to be placed in the cabinet. There are numerous articles and items that need to be placed in folders. The catch? Getting around to doing it!


#3.