Notes for William Curtis: Dear Marie, I just read your message on the Humphreys County Rootsweb board. I have been researching this CURTIS family for quite a while now. I have no knowledge of an Elizabeth Curtis as sister to Joel but I can tell you that evidence is strong for two of Joel's brothers being a Solomon Curtis b. 1797 Buncombe County, NC (my ancestor who m. Charlotte Heaton) and Benjamin Curtis born 1798 and who m. a Sarah. From the research of James Boruff and Rosala Curtis I have learned of the William Curtis who was apparently Joel's father. I am in touch with Rosala but have yet to be able to find James Boruff's current email address. Rosala thinks the full name of this William Curtis was Wiliam Carroll Curtis and I think she must be right because my Solomon Curtis had a grandson named William Carroll Curtis. I am wondering if these two are your sources for the father of Joel being a William Curtis?
I have worked with the Curtis-Curtiss Society, Dick Curtis (project administrator) and Family Tree DNA in Houston, TX to compare DNA samples of various CURTIS lines in order to find the most common recent ancestors and the progenitor of each line. So far we have 10 people in our group whose DNA has matched at the 25 marker level. My CURTIS cousin, Eldon Curtis, from Winston County, AL submitted DNA and matched the husband of Rosala Curtis (Jack Curtis). Also very interesting is that a descendant of William Curtis who m. Edith Cottrell submitted DNA and matched as well. This man lives in Posey County, IN. The parents of his ancestor William Curtis were, according to a 1903 obituary of his son Thomas Cottrell Curtis, a Joshua Curtis and Sarah Clark. Some have this Joshua Curtis as the one who was a RWS and who died in Davidson County, TN. I have many clues corroborating this but there are a few who dispute this. The father of this Joshua Curtis was most likely either a senior Joshua Curtis b. 1732 or Samuel Curtis who m. Lovey/Lovit and who was on the 1758 Rowan County, NC tax list. This Samuel Curtis is our brick wall but the fact that a descendant of the Burlington County, NJ Quaker and then Primitive Baptist CURTIS family submitted DNA and matches our group perfectly makes me think we have found our earliest known ancestor. He was Thomas Curtis b. 1605 and m. Joan Ann Clay and this couples were friends of Quaker founder George Fox (mentioned a few times in the autobiography of George Fox). He is not really the progenitor in this country because he stayed in England but I believe his sons John and Thomas came to NJ.
I have been in touch with Gary Frazier who sent me some scanned copies of information given to him by Nashville researcher Elise Curtis Miller. I plan to visit her as well as Rosala Curtis in the next few months in order to view their research.
I was led to your message because of recent communications between my cousin, Sue Abernathy, and Bill Lapeer. They are discussing Eli Thomas Curtis and Bill has given Sue the information that the parents of Eli Thomas Curtis were William Curtis and Mary Cottrell. This sounds a lot like the Posey County, IN William Curtis who m. Edith Cottrell. I am wondering if her name was actually Mary Edith Cottrell. I am also wondering what is the source of this information and hoping that it is someone other than myself. At one time I came to the conclusion that Eli Thomas Curtis was the son of William Curtis who m. Edith Cottrell and I told this theory to quite a few people on the internet. Then I arranged for a DNA test of a descendant of Eli Thomas Curtis but it did not match our group. There is a 5% error rate in these DNA results due to secret adoptions and illegitimacies.
I would like to settle once and for all whether my original theory about Eli Thomas Curtis is correct. Anything further you might know would be of great interest to me.
Ruth Gravitt
More About William Curtis and Mary Or Nancy Or Edith Unknown Cottrell: Marriage: Unknown950, 951
Children of William Curtis and Mary Or Nancy Or Edith Unknown Cottrell are:
+Eli Tom Curtis, b. 1790, North Carolina, d. 1838, Tennessee.
William Curtis (d. date unknown)
Notes for William Curtis: