William Bartlett Family Group Record and sketch — Robert Earl Wildermuth's research, 1990

The sheet that answers the question the Thomas Bartlett record left open. Printed the same day — 11 July 1990 — from the same research file, it is Robert Earl Wildermuth’s record of the generation above.

The narrative sketch

WILLIAM BARTLETT

William Bartlett was born in Virginia in 1720. He made his home in Loudon County, Virginia where he raised a family of seven boys. The names of the sons and their places of settlement are as follows:

William Jr. settled near Simpson, Taylor County, West Virginia Thomas settled in the Glades, Preston County, West Virginia Benjamin settled near Bridgeport, Harrison County, W.Va. Robert settled on the West Fork a few miles south of Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia John also settled on the West Fork James settled in Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia Sanford also settled in Clarksburg

This is the missing half of “one of seven sons of William Bartlett.” It is not a bare assertion — it is a settlement map. Seven brothers left Loudoun County in northern Virginia and fanned out across the same corner of the trans-Allegheny frontier: four around Clarksburg and the West Fork in Harrison County, one at Bridgeport, one at Simpson in Taylor County, and Thomas in the Glades of Preston County — Chuck’s line.

That clustering is what makes the sketch credible. It is also why the Bailey, Bartlett and Fleming records in this archive keep circling the same four counties: Monongalia, Harrison, Taylor and Preston were where the brothers put down.

The form

Husband — William Bartlett (0325). Born 1720, Loudon County, Virginia. Death, burial and marriage lines all blank.

Wife — UNKNOWN (0339). Not even a first name. Every field empty.

Children, page 1: William Bartlett Jr. (0371) · Thomas Bartlett (0314), died June 1836, Preston County · Benjamin Bartlett (0372) · Robert Bartlett (0373) · John Bartlett (0376).

Children, page 2: James Bartlett (0374) · Sanford Bartlett (0375). Both rows are otherwise empty — no birth, marriage, death or spouse.

Page 2 completes the seven sons — and repeats the wife line: UNKNOWN-0339, year of birth blank. Robert Earl carried her across both pages of the record without a single field filled.

A circular link on the form itself

The form contains an error worth recording, because it is the reason this parentage looked unreliable before the sketch turned up.

William Bartlett-0325’s Father field reads THOMAS BARTLETT-0314 and his Mother field SARAH-0315 — which are the IDs of Thomas Bartlett and Sarah, the couple on record 0094. Thomas-0314 is listed on this sheet as William’s son. The two men are each other’s father.

The cause is visible in the ID numbers. On record 0094, child 11 is “William Bartlett-0325” — Thomas’s son. Robert Earl had two different William Bartletts in his database, the 1720 patriarch and Thomas’s boy, and collapsed them into one record, 0325. The patriarch then inherited his grandson’s parents.

So the form’s parent fields are wrong, and the sketch is right: William (b. 1720) → Thomas (d. 1836) → William Jr. and twelve siblings. Three generations, two of them sharing a name.

What it settles, and what it does not

It settles the reading of the earlier sketch. “One of seven sons of William Bartlett” is now a documented household with a birth year, a county, and all seven sons placed on the map — not a stray clause.

It does not settle the disagreement with FamilySearch, which gives Thomas a different father entirely: Thomas Bartlett (b. 1733) of Richmond County and Anne Settle, a Northern Neck family with no Loudoun connection. The weight has shifted toward the sketch — Loudoun adjoins Fauquier, where FamilySearch itself places Thomas’s 1756 birth and 1783 marriage, whereas Richmond County is ninety miles east; and FamilySearch has that alternative father marrying in 1748, at fifteen. The argument is laid out in full on Thomas Bartlett’s page.

Still open: William’s wife, who is literally “UNKNOWN” on both pages of the form. His death date and place. And whether he is the William Bartlett of Loudoun County who appears in published Virginia genealogies — a lead, not a link.

Source: Robert Earl Wildermuth’s research papers, dated 11 July 1990; photographed 2026. Companion sheets: Bartlett Family Group Record 0094 and the Bailey Family Group Record 0019.