

I found this discussion that indicates William's parents cannot be John and Elizabeth Adkins. (https://www.ancestry.com/boards/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=3164&...). The sources cited by the author don't seem to be online yet but it seems the only evidence for his parents is the wrong assumption that he's the same person as William Adkins born 1689 in England. However, the William Adkins seems to have died in England according to the link. What do people think? Should he be disconnected from his parents or is there better evidence?
I found some of these sources on the FreeReg indexes.
Marriage of John Adkins, of Henrico and Elizabeth Adkins: (https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_records/5817abdce93790eb7f5c4706?...)
Birth of William Adkins: https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_records/5817b565e93790ec8bfe8cdf?...
Death of John Adkins: https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_records/5817acb2e93790ec7541a7c9?...
Death of Elizabeth Adkins: https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_records/5817acb3e93790ec7541a9fa?...
Death of William Adkins in 1704: https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_records/5817acb4e93790ec7541ac01?...
Ive done said this time and time again, if you dont go to these backwoods, areas and read the damaged documents yourself everything is fudged. 3 big coal guys came to wv, and stole all our land and records in the 20s, then used the stolen land against us by building huge coal slury ponds that over flowed and wiped out whoe towns court house, land office graveyards etc etc etc,, my belcher line on geni was linked to belchers coming from Tazewell wv, but my dads 93 yr old brother thats perfect minded and all dads sisters know there line first came out of Greenbrier never being in Tazewell. this goes for Cabell co, Mingo, Fayette, kanawha co, etc.. we have had a few times and areas in history here this has happened to steal rich resources we owned, read ramp hollow a close idea of this issue, our land was stolen with documents for lifetime job, promice free home were there missions for stealing. this has been proven in the supreme court my lin won there one of many cases. also up till 1940s, there was only two blocks to check on cencus documents Black or white. thats all there was for a option. WV has proven this in supreme court, you live on rich resource land and you can get marked the race for the chooising. one has to be from the area and live the long hardships of this lifestyle to know how to find true lines in WV.
I'm not disputing the Virginian records. There doesn't seem to be a problem with William's descendants in America. The problem here is that the British records conflict with the information on the tree. The evidence for his parents is based on the assumption that he is the William Adkins born March 28, 1689 in Bedfordshire, England. However, the Bedfordshire records seem to indicate that William Adkins died in 1704, so they may not be the same person.
Thanks Diana, that's interesting. Where exactly was William Vortimer from? It also looks like there's a duplicate for his father here Joseph John Adkins. Interestingly, this could be the correct parents for William Vincent though since it has his grandfather Robert Adkins marrying a Parker and William Vincent married Elizabeth Parker. But this would solve the problem with the Bedforshire records.
I'm not sure if we can rely very much on the distinction between the names Vortimer and Vincent. All of the primary sources that I can find lack the middle initial. The Ronnie Adkins book says "There is absolutely no evidence that William has a middle initial let alone a V... About ten years ago someone saw a record signed by William Jr - he signed his name with an upside down A. They mistakenly thought this was a V and added it to William Sr., Jr. and Parker". I also can't find a primary source that lists him or his children with the name Vortimer.
But I do think there could be a good case that William Vortimer's parents on Geni are the real parents of William.
While I understand this discussion was two years ago, it seems that no one has cleaned up the profile.
His middle name was NEVER Vincent, nor was it Vortimer. Just because someone down the long line of William's was named that and in some record he was called a Jr. does not mean that we assign the middle name to everyone back down the family tree as some inexperienced researcher has done to this poor man.
I am an Adkins by birth and this is my 5th, 6th and 7th Great Grandfather (yes- I had multiple cousin marriages!) I've recently corrected his profile over on WikiTree and believe me, it wasn't without it's issue over there as well but it now contains the truth of the matter.
His parents have been and current are unknown. Several possibilities have been suggested but there is no proof to any of them. His last name was ALWAYS Atkinson (sometimes spelled Adkinson, Atkisson, Atkkison, etc.) but never shortened to Atkins (or Adkins).