unknown father of William Gifford

Not the same as Ambrose Gifford [Giffard]

Please see Paul Gifford's IDENTIFYING WILLIAM GIFFORD'S ORIGINS:  FRAUDULENT, FICTITIOUS AND FAILED ATTEMPTS

He noted:

"A glance at RootsWeb’s WorldConnect Project, which contains submitted gedcom files, shows that there are 541 William Giffords with 1687 as a death date.  The proliferation of copycat genealogy, however, means the proliferation of inaccuracies, errors, and fictions, even well-meaning ones.  Thus, of the 541, 232 list his father as Philip or Phillip, five as the fictional Walter, three as Ananias, three as Anthony, and two as Anthi.  Many of the listings seem to indicate that people have picked and chosen various elements from these above sources and combined them ..."

To summarize:

- DNA testing, as of 2013, has revealed no British matches to the (largest) American family

Eliminated ancestral possibilities; he is NOT

1. Walter Gifford, who is fictional
2. Philip Ambrose Gifford, who is fictional
3. Peter Giffard of Chillington
4. Philip Gifford, descendant of the Giffards of Halsbury, Devonshire
5. Ananias Gifford of London
6. Mr. William Gifford, merchant tailor and citizen of London
7. Anthony (Anthi) Gifford who was son of Humphrey Gifford, a poet and schoolmaster of Barnstaple, Devonshire

Feel free to add to this list ....

More notes

From https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gifford-99

Disputed Existence of the Name Ambrose

According to the most trustworthy accounts, a fictitious William Ambrose Gifford was created to connect the Giffords of New England with a prestigious family in England. He is also identified as William Gifford, who is sometimes assigned a fictitious father named Ambrose. (In the 1600's, people in England didn't have second names, which also leaves most genealogists suspicious of this particular line.) William is proven; his first wife is unknown, but possibly Patience Russell; second wife is Elizabeth Grant; and his last wife Mary Mills. In the 1800's many people paid genealogists to find their family trees, and many of these genealogists created connections with English aristocracy and nobility, which is what most people wanted "proof" of.

Disputed Parents

It has been proven that Philip Gifford and Mary Turner are not William's parents. William's parentage has been searched for many times and has not been found. Philip and Mary being his parents was first published as fact in 1926. And there was a William born to Philip and Mary around 1615. However, this William has been identified as a draper who died in Turkey in 1649, working for his step-father's brother in the military there. Letters were sent to other sons of Philip and Mary about it.