Jonas Anderson and Sarah Acklin are NOT your ancestors
Sara WhitfordMay 1, 20260 comments
If you’ve been researching the Anderson family of Swift Creek in Craven County, North Carolina, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered a widespread error on Ancestry: Jonas Anderson and his wife Sarah Acklin are listed as the parents of Susan Anderson — and possibly other Anderson children of that generation. This post exists to correct that record.
Who Was Jonas Anderson?
Jonas Anderson was a member of the Anderson family that had been established on Swift Creek since at least the 1750s. He obtained a bond to marry Sarah Acklin on July 13, 1782, with Christopher Neale as bondsman. The couple lived in Craven County until Jonas’s death on August 15, 1796.
Proof that Jonas and Sarah had no children (at least none who survived)
Because Jonas died suddenly enough that no formal written will was prepared, his final wishes were recorded as a nuncupative will — a deathbed declaration made before witnesses. This type of will is actually more revealing than a formal document, because the witnesses aren’t chosen for legal formality. They are simply whoever was present at the time of death.
Jonas’s nuncupative will was witnessed by Thomas Anderson and Charles Anderson — his brothers — and recorded on August 19, 1796, just four days after his death. It reads, in part:
“his Will and Desire was that his Brother Henry Anderson should have a piece of Land on Neuse River containing ninety five Acres, and as much of the shingles which he had on hand as would satisfy him for what he owed him — and all the Rest of his Estate both Real and Personally he gave to his Wife Sarah Anderson during her natural Life or Widow hood“
This will is the complete disposition of Jonas Anderson’s estate. He leaves his brother Henry land and some shingles to satisfy a debt. His wife Sarah receives everything else during her lifetime or widowhood.
There are no children. No daughters. No Susan. No one else.
A man making his final declaration on his deathbed does not forget his children. If Susan Anderson — born approximately 1772 — had been Jonas’s daughter, she would have been approximately 24 years old at the time of his death, and she had already been married to James McIntosh since December 1789. Jonas would have had every reason to provide for her or acknowledge her existence. He did not, because she was not his child.
The Generational Problem
Beyond the will itself, the generational math doesn’t work. Jonas Anderson belonged to a sibling group that included Henry, Jacob, Lewis, Thomas, and Charles. They were all already operating as adults in Craven County in the 1770s and 1780s. Susan Anderson was born approximately 1772. She is the same generation as Jonas’s children would have been — but Jonas and Sarah Acklin didn’t marry until 1782, a full decade after Susan was born.
Susan Anderson was Jonas’s cousin, not his daughter.
Who Was Susan Anderson’s Father?
Susan Anderson’s father was Thomas Anderson Sr., one of Jonas’s contemporaries in the Anderson family on Swift Creek.
The evidence is fairly straightforward.
When Susan Anderson married James McIntosh in December 1789, Thomas Anderson served as bondsman — the role typically filled by a father or close male guardian.
Further confirmation comes from a 1814 gift deed in which Thomas Anderson Sr. conveyed land to Thomas Anderson Jr. Gift deeds of this type between two people of the same name almost invariably represent a father providing for a son. This document establishes the Thomas Sr. / Thomas Jr. father-son relationship and places Thomas Sr. firmly in the correct generational position to be Susan’s father.
A Note on the Name Confusion
The Anderson family of Swift Creek reused a remarkably small pool of first names across multiple generations. Names like Thomas, Charles, John, and James appear repeatedly. Unfortunately, this makes it easy to attach the wrong person as a parent, especially when one is filling out their tree primarily from Ancestry hints or other Ancestry trees instead of going back to the original documents.
Doing solid genealogical research means always going back to the original records to check whether the generational math works and whether the documentary evidence actually supports the relationship. Without that, you may start climbing the completely wrong family tree!
Jonas Anderson and Sarah Acklin had no surviving children. If your Anderson ancestors from this area trace back to this generation, keep reading — your people are here, but Jonas isn’t one of them.
There are other articles on this site about the Anderson family and there will be more in the near future. I did a deep dive last winter on the Anderson family and I’m still working on pulling it all together in a post, but I had to post this Family Tree Fact Check right away because AncestryDNA can’t give good Thrulines data since Ancestry sees so many of you who claim to come from Jonas Anderson and Sarah Acklin when it’s actually impossible.
Also, another Family Tree Fact Check is coming. William McIntosh is NOT the father of James McIntosh of Craven County, NC. Stay tuned for that one.
