I’ve been frustrated with Alexander Youth for a while, but after visiting Scotland last summer, I’m giving him another shot, especially after visiting the Culloden battlefield. I have a bunch of Scottish Highlanders on my paternal side, but this is the only Scot on my mother’s side.
Alexander Young’s birthdate of 1737 seems accurately set, so I brought up all the A. Youngs on Ancestry that have the same birthday. There were 9 Alexander Youngs born that year (or at least recorded). Almost all were born in the lowlands. Two were from Moray (Elgin and Drainie), technically considered the lowlands but near enough to Inverness that they may have considered themselves Highlanders.
I checked to see if they showed up in the marriage records later on, but only saw one A. Young married, and he would have been in his 40s if born in 1737. Interestingly, the one from Elgin had parents listed as Andrew Young and Margaret/Mary Sinclair. Alexander Young and Eliza Sneed had a son named Andrew and two daughters, Mary and Margaret (however, these two are very common names). Young Clan history states that a Young presence in Elgin existed for centuries. I checked out my DNA matches for ‘Sinclair,’ but although I had some Scottish matches, there weren’t any patterns of locality. So, still a mystery.
Regarding your comment about is wife Elizabeth Sneed and the “unsourced family trees.” Actually, that might be my fault, so let me explain. Elizabeth Sneed’s marriage to A. Young is listed in the U.S. marriage records as occurring in 1761. It states that she was born in NC (North Carolina) in 1742. When I plugged in the name Sneed for a DNA search, there were quite a few Sneeds with ancestors dating back to the mid 1600s in New Kent, Virginia, and a few in North Carolina. At this time, the borders between states were not yet legally defined, hence the confusion with North Carolina.
The families in this community intermarried extensively, thus creating a common group of ancestors among those who share the Sneed name. For example, in addition to the Sneed name, most of the people I match up with also have some of these surnames: Poindexter, Tinsley, Crawford, Buford, Randolph, etc. When I plug in the name Poindexter, all the people I match with, are from this same family.
I was able to locate Elizabeth Sneed (b. about 1842), whose mother was Susanah Poindexter and father was John Sneed. This is documented in published Parish Records. I am not sure how Eliza and Alexander met. He was serving in Montgomerie’s 77th, and they were actually in the Carolinas fighting the Cherokee in the early 1760s, so it is possible they met while on the campaign. They married in 1761, but the war didn’t end until 1763. I couldn’t find any records of their marriage in the local parish records. I’m assuming that after the war ended, he was rewarded with an allotment of land in New York and then sent for her.
So, I am convinced that my info is correct based partly on existing records but mostly on the preponderance of DNA evidence. However, there are researchers who have simply copied what I have without checking it out for themselves, and this can be a little annoying—especially when something is added that is incorrect. This is not to say that I’ve never made mistakes or haven’t gone fishing for hits by listing potential ancestors I’m not sure about.
Hope this helps a little with your research. Have you had your DNA sorted out?
Jocelyn