Thanks for all that information. I'm not suggesting your research is faulty. Just I was never able to figure out which James Giles was the right one. No one else I have talked to knew where the 1797 date came from, or which of the several James Giles born in Somerset that year was the one who married Mary Willey. For that matter, no one seemed to know where the Somerset information came from, either. This has been my sticking point, too. Based on the way he named his sons, I thought his father might have been called Thomas, though I suppose it could have been after Mary Ann's father, since we know even less about her! Also, the personal names of his children were much more common in Kent than in Somerset, so I wondered if the Somerset thing might be a red herring. Too bad his parents didn't have the foresight to name him Ulysses, or something else we could use to find the right guy 200 years later
Happy hunting,
Gene-ee-us
