Hi Martin,
You have marked the thread as completed, sadly without making any further replies responding to the questions posed.
William's Dad was married more than once, and his children by each marriage are of course either full or half siblings to William, so it is not likely that he was the only child, particularly as even the likely obit for his dad names another surviving son.
The accuracy of information any family historian includes in their own tree is of no particular importance until they share their tree with others. When we share information we should make sure that we are able to demonstrate that we have validated the info we share. One of the great benefits of Rchat is that anyone can google up a name of a deceased ancestor and easily find there's a mention at RChat. That google search does NOT require the searcher to log into RChat to be able to read the threads. This public forum aspect means that if perhaps someone else searches for Ephraim and/or Mary Ann that they may well read through this thread, with the thought to seek to share/swap info with you.
JM
