The marriage of the fictional father of the early Knox County settler siblings, "John McClure" and their fictional mother "Jane Margaret Anderson" occurs early in the saga, soon after the deaths of her "parents." According to the tale, Jane's parents, "John and Ruth Anderson," recorded their 1715 marriage in a Bible and then inscribed the birth of their daughter, “Jane Margaret Anderson," as September 9, 1724, in the Bible as well (Baxter (1987), p. 12). No other children were born to the fictional Andersons. In 1742 Jane records her parents' deaths: fictional father "John Anderson" on April 1, 1742, and fictional mother "Ruth Anderson" on April 15th of the same year (Baxter (1987). p. 12). Shortly thereafter young Jane happens to meet John McClure because his fictional uncle "George McClure" is the local Presbyterian minister. The marriage of fictional "John McClure" and fictional "Jane Margaret Andrews" occurred in May of 1742 according to the novel (Baxter (1987), p. 16).
Interestingly, an editing omission on page 16 of the novel helps to explain the occasional attributions of "Andrews" as the maiden name of the real widowed Jane McClure. Instead of "Jane Margaret Anderson" in one paragraph on this page the fictional Jane is called "Jane Margaret Andrews, soon to be Jane Andrews McClure." In reality, this matters little as both are fictional maiden names devised solely by this novelist. No historical evidence supports either of these two surnames as the maiden name of the widow Jane McClure.
By the early 2000s, the fictional McClure and Anderson (or Andrews) ancestors were mistakenly added to online McClure family trees as though they were historical people. They are not. A few online trees cite the novel as a source even though it provides no documentary evidence to support any historical genealogical relationships. The various "hints" systems have fueled the propagation of the fictitious family members among hundreds or thousands of family trees and they also decorate the online collaborative family trees.
It would be best to wipe the ancestral slate clean, removing all the fictional debris that for many years has obscured whatever the ancestral truth may be. Note that all the appearances in family trees of the fictional ancestors of the five Revolutionary War era McClure siblings are not supported by any historical evidence. The next step is to locate records that connect the McClure siblings to their parents. Other than the family knowledge of their mother, Jane, no such documentary evidence has yet surfaced.
