I'm searching for more information on William Lear. Really, I am. I will be on Genealogy Bank as soon as I finish this post. But for the time being, let me talk about what research as absorbed my life for the past few weeks.
This story comes from my husband's family tree. My husband descends from a family of Dyers from Virginia. A lot of incorrect information surrounds that family all the way back. In this case, we are going to discuss the Isaac B. Dyer(s) of the family tree.
The problem came about when I was researching my husband's Isaac B. Dyer, Jr. He was alive and of fighting age during the Civil War. He as in a relatively pro-Union family. Up pops an Ancestry hint one day for an Isaac B. Dyer who was a Union cavalryman who died in 1865 and is buried in Nashville National Cemetery. My husband's Isaac B. Dyer is from TN. Same exact name, same approximate age. Seems like a good lead. Everywhere I look, online family trees say this is my Isaac B. Dyer. However, he appears as late as the 1880 census with his children, including my husband's direct ancestor. It states he is a widowed male. Not a female (so no, it is not the mother listed as Mrs. Isaac B. Dyer). Not to mention, my husband's ancestor, Robert Newton Dyer, was born in 1869. Kind of hard to father children four years after you have died.
Moving on, my husband's Isaac had a father, also named Isaac B. Dyer. Some family trees online put him as the one who died in the Civil War. Aside from the fact that he would have been exceedingly old to have joined up as a cavalryman during the Civil War...he could not any way...because he was dead. Some put his death year as 1856, others as 1852, and a War of 1812 lineage society says 1850. Either way, his wife is alone and living with a child on the 1860 census, so we can say he is not the Isaac B. Dyer who died in 1865 either. An let's not forget that he is the incorrect age according to the service records.
However, this is not enough for everyone. It is too big of a coincidence, some say. Isaac B. Dyer, same age, enlisting right around the corner from our Isaac. Well finally, we can say who this third Isaac is. Yes, I am counting on information from family websites on the internet, however, they are citing original documents. This Isaac B. Dyer was the son of Abraham Dyer, Jr, who married Docia Courtney. Family members have cited a letter from Abraham's son, Samuel, to his wife, Nancy, stating that his brother Isaac was killed by rebels in 1865.
I think it is safe to say the Isaac B. Dyer buried in Nashville is the son of Abraham Dyer. And I can certainly say that he is not the two Isaac B. Dyer's of my husband's family. Whose information I will gladly add as soon as the ancestry app starts working again and I can more easily access it.
