Talk:George Turner (judge)

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George Henry Turner[edit]

Assuming this fellow is the same as Captain George Henry Turner, as he seems to be, if he was the one captured at the Siege of Charleston, then most records seem to say his death was in 1804, e.g. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~turnerdna/group9.html

--Cake (talk) 08:09, 29 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Genealogy pages are not reliable sources. This George Turner was giving speeches and writing books after 1804, which is hard to do when dead. Perhaps the details of his military service have been conflated with a George Turner who died in 1804. —Kevin Myers 13:57, 29 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The captain George Henry Turner being conflated with this fellow is indeed something I am curious about. Perhaps they are not the same people, and there is no conflation, as http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi?turner::13713.html might suggest, and so many times the one captured at Charleston is given a death date of 1804. I do not wish to suggest these sources are necessarily credible, or I would have used them as citations in the article; I am only trying to show why I am perplexed and that, I hope, this does not come from nowhere.
Though, a conflation perhaps seems likely, the George Turner who was captured at Charleston (Turner, George (S. C.). Captain 1st South Carolina, 28th April, 1777; taken prisoner at Charleston, 12th May, 1780; Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army) seems to have been married to a Hannah Middleton and born in 1738 in Spartanburg, South Carolina(e.g. Yates Publishing. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA), with son James Turner, and often he seems to be marked as 'Henry Turner' (e.g. Spartanburg Herald-Journal May 25, 1975 pg. 3), and so one assumes a middle name of such. When listed with the death of 1804, which seems like everywhere but here, it is said to have been in South Carolina, meaning this George Turner would not have moved as much, and there is a George Turner in Lexington, South Carolina in 1800 (1800 Federal Census). Considering a different alleged place and year of birth, and place and year of death, one might well expect a conflation. That George Turner in the war was the same as the George Turner who married Hannah Middleton is the stance taken by Bobby Gilmer Moss in his Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution (pg. 492). An honest thank you for the reply. --Cake (talk) 01:46, 30 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You did well by noticing this issue, which apparently stems from an old error made by an amateur genealogist. Hopefully we can help correct the error. It seems that a descendant of a George Turner who died in 1804 mistakenly claimed this George Turner's service record for his ancestor. The error was perpetuated by the DAR application and by other genealogy enthusiasts, but was convincingly debunked by a researcher in recent years. The George Turner who died in 1843 claimed to be the officer from South Carolina in his pension application, and was recognized as such in his American Almanac obituary. We can thus be almost completely certain that the Captain George Turner of the Revolution is the guy who died in 1843. Whether the guy who died in 1804 also served in the military is unclear; whether he was notable is doubtful. —Kevin Myers 03:49, 30 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Makes quite a bit of sense now, thank you. --Cake (talk) 22:35, 1 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]