Carole:

Having the Bible record and your great-grandfather's list of siblings 
is great.

Could one of John W Spencer's sisters or half sisters have married a 
Russell? Was John W's wife a Russell? Could William P be her half brother?

The value of a Y-DNA study initially would be to verify whether 
William P is indeed a Russell and perhaps save you time and money in 
searching the wrong paper trail(s). It would be interesting to find 
out whether William P is related to our group of 5 closely related 
Russell men in Southside Virginia counties who have had 
direct-male-line descendants test for them. It is possible for you to 
sponsor a test subject, be the contact person with the genealogical 
world, and preserve the test subject's anonymity.

Adoption as we know it is pretty much a 20th-21st Century phenomenon. 
In earlier centuries children frequently grew up under the surnames 
of stepfathers and others whom we today would consider foster 
parents. Rarely would someone go to court in England or America to 
formally adopt someone. Even then it might be the case of a childless 
adult male adopting another adult male for purposes of inheritance.

The book _A Place in Time: Middlesex County, Virginia, 1650-1750_, by 
Darrett B. Rutman and Anita H. Rutman (New York: W W Norton, 1984) 
may be a help to you in understanding guardianships and the plight of 
many children and their complex families. "From the standpoint of 
children, parents were ephemeral" (p. 118). "By the time [Agatha] was 
ten, she had lost a father, two stepfathers, a mother, and her 
guardian uncle" (p. 119).

Please report back whether your trip to the Halifax County courthouse 
answers any of your questions.

--Ida Skarson McCormick, [log in to unmask], Seattle

At 06:24 AM 11/9/2009, Carole D. Bryant <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
><snip>Mainly, I'm trying to  discover if it is possible that the 
>father of William P.
>might be discovered  through genealogical means, rather than DNA. There are
>living direct male line descendants of William P. whose names are Spencer,
>but whether they have enough  interest to have a DNA test, I could not say.
>
>John W. Spencer's father was married twice. He had six children by his
>first wife before her death, then remarried and had ten more. That 
>explains the
>  wide spread of ages for the other siblings.<snip>

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