The "brick wall" for descendants researching Alexander Love is his birth. Who were his parents? Where was he born? On what date? What about the "5 Love brothers"? Other researchers have provided speculation or specific answers, but no solid evidence.
His parents? Looking at on-line family tree submissions to Ancestry and Family Search (LDS), James Love and Margaret Miller are the most popular. James, born in either county Tyrone or Antrim, Ireland in 1670, 1678 or 1684 and dying in Antrim or Lancaster, PA in 1721, 1751 or 1753. Margaret, all agree, was born in county Antrim in either 1688 or 1689 and died in Antrim in 1715, 1719 or 1751. 1715 is the most popular date of death which makes it pretty unlikely that she gave birth to Alexander in 1718. This just points out how error ridden most of the trees are and that the errors multiply as people add them to their own trees without doing any research of their own. On Ancestry these submissions become "proof" for the information. Serious genealogists beware!
The discussions I have seen suggest James, John or Robert as the name of his father. One Robert often mentioned was born about 1679 possibly in County Antrim, IRE. He came to America about 1700 and died in PA in 1741. His will named the children of his 3rd wife, but it is assumed he had children by his 2 earlier wives. It has been suggested that Alexander is one of these. If so, Alexander's birthplace would be Pennsylvania. We submitted DNA to the Love family project. While they were processing the DNA, I received a letter giving names of direct descendants of this Robert to look for as a close match. Unfortunately, we discovered our DNA was not a close match.
There is a John who arrived in PA in 1682 receiving a grant from William Penn. I believe this John was a merchant from, Bristol England. If Alexander is Scots Irish as we have assumed, then this John would not be his father. Also Alexander does not name a son John which would be very atypical for that time.*
I lean toward Alexander's father being a James. He names his second son James.* Traditionally Alexander is thought to be the brother of James, "the weaver" who was born in Antrim about 1704, the eldest son of five. The direct descendant of this James is a close DNA match (at least a lot closer than the above Robert). Also, traditionally, the other brothers were John, born about 1705/6 who died in PA, William, born about 1710 who died in SC in 1780 as a direct result of his Loyalist sympathies and Robert, born 1716 who died in 1787 in SC. There is no proof, as yet, of this relationship.
Where was Alexander born? Some say Antrim, others PA. There is a DAR application which states PA and gives the date of 15 Jan 1718. We hope to see documentation in the application that proves it. The only real evidence we have of the year of birth is from Alexander's grave marker.
So, how do we solve this mystery? I assume that most or all of the obvious records have already been gone over by other researchers (that rare serious family historian plus a few descendants trying to fill out their DAR and SAR applications). It's always possible something was overlooked or some new papers have been discovered since the original research.
Since our Alexander hasn't shown up on a passenger list as far as we know, I would try searching any Philadelphia or New Castle, DE newspapers. They often had shipping news about arriving ships. It might mean getting a list of arriving ships and then checking the departures from Ireland for any records on that end (Road Trip!!).
Another possibility would be the Presbyterian church records, if they exist, from that time and place. There were a few congregations in PA, one of which was Fagg's Manor on the Brandywine River. John Love (1705/06) and James (1704) were deacons. Robert Love (1716 - 1787) was married on the "banks of the Brandywine". If these are Alexander's brothers, there is definitely a connection with Fagg's Manor, although Alexander moved west and was in York County by 1750. Any old Presbyterian records are likely at Swarthmore College (Road Trip!). Establishing when Alexander arrived in America would go a long way to answering the unknowns. Locating any early church records of baptisms and deaths would be a treasure. I guess the answer is: Road Trip!
* Information on naming patterns will be addressed in a future post.
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