Carole:

An interesting problem presents itself. In the 1880 census taken in 
June for Halifax County, William P. Spencer age 8 appears as the 
brother of the head of household, John W. Spencer age 45. The 
household includes his sister Malinda age 26, and his brother (?) 
John L age 17, besides John W's wife and cousin,  This is a very wide 
spread in ages for siblings; it seems impossible for John W and 
William P to have had the same mother. How can the different surname 
be explained? Was William really a nephew of John W, perhaps 
Malinda's child? Or John W's father's child out of wedlock? Or John 
W's child out of wedlock? Did the census taker's eye slip as he was 
copying data from his notes to the census ledger sheet?

There are no Halifax County cases in the chancery index online. Are 
they still in the county courthouse? Have you checked deeds, wills 
and administrations of estates? Probate or administration could last 
until after the youngest child reached 21. A chancery suit could drag 
it out even longer.

At least in some places in the US in the 1800s, a child born out of 
wedlock could carry the biological father's surname. I don't know 
whether that was the case in Halifax Co., VA.

If you have a living direct male line descendant of William P whose 
surname is Spencer, you could have his Y-DNA tested. There are 
already 5 closely related men named Russell from the late 1700s and 
early 1800s in Southside Virginia counties who are represented in the 
Russell Y-DNA project 
<http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/russell/> through Family Tree 
DNA <http://www.familytreedna.com/>. My ancestor is one of the 5 in 
haplogroup R1b, lineage V. The paper trail for these 5 is still 
pretty murky. Most likely this testing would show you whether William 
P's father was a Spencer, a Russell, or someone else.

It is best to go in for Y-DNA testing through an established surname 
project. After testing you can switch to another project or more than 
one, wherever the matches lead you. You would need to post a pedigree 
for the man being tested on 
<http://www.worldfamilies.net/forum/?topic=2908> and explain by 
e-mail to the administrator why someone with the surname Spencer is 
requesting testing under the Russell project.

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


At 06:10 AM 11/6/2009, Carole D. Bryant wrote:
><snip>
>In the case, I'm looking at, the surname of the person placed in
>"guardianship" was CHANGED to that of the guardian. So far, all I've 
>found on  the
>case is:
>
>"On the motion of John W. Spencer and for reasons appearing to the Court he
>  is permitted to qualify as the Guardian of Wm P. Russell<snip>October 1880
>
>Basically, I'm trying to learn HOW TO FIND OUT who Wm P.  Russell's natural
>parents were. It seems like understanding "guardianship" might  be the
>first step. <snip>

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