Re: William Polk b.1700, d. 1753
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In reply to:
William Polk b.1700, d. 1753
Sally 12/10/98
That 1849 tree was subsequently shown to be incorrect by William Harrison Polk in his "Polk Family and Kinsmen," 1912.The wrong William was made the body of the tree.The William who was in the tree was the son of John Polk, brother of the William of Maryland.There is at least one other tree out in the public which has the erroneous information on it.Both of these trees were available in Columbia, TN., at the Polk Home gift shop some years back (probably still are available).I wish the Polk House and historical group there in Columbia would put some sort of note with these trees that would explain that they are not correct so as to quit confusing people about the Polk line.There is a lot of information on the Internet about President Polk's family line which is based on this 1849 tree and a series of articles in the late 1890s by Mary Winder Garrett.Her information was updated by William H. Polk (above) and Angellotti's "The Polks of North Carolina and Tennessee."Another part of President Polk's ancestry (and the ancestry of most Polks in America for that matter) that, I believe, is incorrect, is that which shows the immigrant Robert Bruce Polk's father and grandfather as married to Annabelle Stewart and Jean Mowat. I know of no research done which shows the Irish connections (the two or three generations between when the Pollok/Pollock ancestor left Scotland and Robert Bruce Polk coming to America)as having established.The connections mentioned above are (I believe, based on History of Renfrewshire and other sources) for the Pollocks who remained in Scotland.Yet, this stuff is all over the Internet seeming to be fact; but it is not.It is just being repeated and confuses folks. I have copy of the book on Leonidas Polk written by his son William Mecklenburg Polk, and he just repeated the lineage as given in the 1849 tree.Keep in mind when it was written; everyone then involved in Polk genealogy believed the line was correct in the tree; perhaps that is why the incorrect line has persisted to this day.
Bill Polk, Kansas City, MO.
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Re: William Polk b.1700, d. 1753
8/25/99