Unknown father of Thomas Gunn, of Amelia Co., Virginia

Disputed Parentage of Thomas Gunn

The Boatwright Family Association claims that Thomas Gunn was the son of James Gunn and Virginia Woodhouse. They believe he was born in c.1688 in Amelia County, Virginia. See their information at http://www.boatwrightgenealogy.com/johnboatwright4.html

Some web trees name Thomas Gunn as his father, with varying dates of birth. They use a suffix of II or Jr. after this Thomas' name. No proof is offered for this parentage.

It should be noted that the Gunn family researchers dispute some of the data accepted by the Boatwright Family Association. The Gunn family does not accept James Gunn and Virginia Woodhouse as his parents, and they place his date of birth as 1700, not 1688, with no place of birth given. The Gunn Family does not give the DNA evidence but state that it proves Thomas was not related to James Gunn or John Gunn. Once we are past the thorny issue of Thomas' birth, their view of the lineage is similar to the Boatwright Family's mateal. You can read the Gunn family point of view here - http://www.cgmaxwell.net/ThomasGunnHistory.html

The colonial records of New Kent County were destroyed by a fire in 1787, which was set by John P. Posey, for which he was hung. Among the Virginia counties with records that were burned and/or lost in acts of war and court house fires are; King and Queen County records from 1654-1691, and King William County records from 1654 to 1702, Hanover County records from 1654 to 1728, Louisa County records from 1654 to 1728, and part of Caroline County from 1654 to 1720, and again New Kent County records from 1787 and 1864 were all lost to fire. These counties are all north of the James River.

In light of the fact that we are not likely to ever find documentation to prove parentage, I have elected, as curator of the profile, to remove all parents from Thomas' profile. Maria Edmonds-Zediker, Volunteer Curator, June 27, 2014