David Fleming adopted? Nope!

I ran into a family tree on Ancestry.com that claimed to have a record of the appointment of John Fleming as the guardian for David. The summary of the tree owner was that this court record indicated that David Fleming had been adopted by John and was not his biological son.

Naturally, I dove into this right away. This week I received a copy of "The Profiles of the Fleming family in Lycoming, Chester and Northumberland, Pennsylvania" from the Pennsylvania Historical Society.

It provided a bigger scoop than just the answer to this adoption issue. First, to answer the adoption question, David was only 13 or 14 when Squire John Fleming died in 1777. He was named in his father's will to receive 200 acres of land. The court records show that his brother John Fleming was appointed as his guardian. At that time, since there is no mention of, or provision for, John's wife in his will, it must be assumed that she preceded him in death. His young age must have required the appointment of one in particular since he was now a land owner. So his brother John Dolan Fleming was appointed as his guardian.

The packet I received also included a number of historic references, newspaper articles, pictures and a family tree. It was a trove of information. Much of it centered around the descendants of John Dolan Fleming, for whom Flemington, Pennsylvania is named.  But some information was provided about the ancestry of Squire John Fleming as well.

Squire John Fleming was one of three sons of William Fleming and Mary Moore, the daughter of William Moore. His brothers were Robert (1730-1778) and George (b 1732). According to the file, William migrated with his family to America about 1732 and settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Sadly, he died shortly after arriving.

All three sons would play key roles in the American Revolution. Squire John was a member of Bald Eagle Township's Safety Committee. Robert became a Lieutenant in the Continental Army and was killed at Fort Horn in 1778. Youngest brother George enlisted as private in Chester County, Pennsylvania for the Continental Army.

This is just the tip of the iceberg on this package I received. More posts to come.