Marmaduke Semme, I - Origins and Parentage

One My Heritage profile claims he's from Laval, Dordogne Aquitaine France, but again from what I've looked at, there's very little evidence to support that either.

Not sure where the idea that he's from France came from in the first place it just seems so random considering his name.

Wonder if someone may have seen an unsourced tree somewhere and thought the information looked good enough to add it on here?

The Ancestry looks like nonsense to me ...

I uploaded an extract from the Semmes book, which makes no claims for Origins. Most of the 70,000 or so arrivers to the southern colonies are unfortunately untraced.

The English Simms tree this currently connects to is a speculative Ancestry for a different Simms family.

See http://users.rcn.com/lsimms21/tsdescent.html

APPENDIX A

Mrs. Marilyn Mees in 1991 sent me a typewritten page which she had received from a Mrs Ruth Knott (no address noted) in 1975. It isn't clear who typed the page or when it was typed. It says, "The following data concerning the Sims Family was given me by Miss Edith Sims, daughter of Thomas Whitelaw Sims, Dr.,112 deceased, who was a descendant of Frances Walker (b) 113 6 20 1778 and Alexander Hunton. Frances was a daughter of Captain William Walker, son of our Edward Walker." There are other references on that page that indicate that the person who put this sheet together was apparently descended from a Reuben C. Sims (1793 1847) 114 who had married Frances Graves (1792 1871).

The page in question attributes ancestors to Thomas Sim(m)s (who married Rebecca Petty) who are entirely different from those listed in the body of "Purported Descent...." The lineage, as shown on the typed sheet is:

THE SYMES (SIMS) FAMILY

I. Marmaduke Sims (b) _____ died 1692/3 St. Mary's Co., Maryland, married in 1668 Mrs. Fortune Medfern (or Mitford) from England 1664, died 1701.

Erica Howton. Thank you very much!

Since we are examining the family, I think that we should also take a look at the daughter attached to Marmaduke, Elizabeth Broadwater, which I think is a duplicate for this Elizabeth Broadwater. Going by the curator note on the latter Elizabeth Broadwater: "Possibly the daughter of Francis Simms (b 1667) & Elizabeth. Married 1) John Turley 2) John West 3) Charles Broadwater (b 1678)" and the discussion about the unproven attribution of the name Semmes to Elizabeth on her FindAGrave memorial: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61698781, I believe that we should disconnect Elizabeth from Marmaduke.

Elizabeth is also not listed as a daughter of Marmaduke in the The Maryland Semmes and Kindred Families or here: http://users.rcn.com/lsimms21/tsdescent.html.

I have also disconnected the ancestry for Elizabeth's husband, Col. Charles A Broadwater. The profiles for the father and grandparents were originally Elkins and perhaps they were connected accidentally and then someone tried to fix it by removing their names. Charles Broadwater has been disconnected from these parents in the past, but it did not stick apparently.

I have merged the two Elizabeth Broadwaters and merging down the line we reach Amelia J. Sebastian, for whom the two trees list two different Benjamin Sebastians as husbands: Benjamin Sebastian Jr and Reverend Benjamin Issacs Sebastian. The curator note for Benjamin Sebastian Jr says that he is the one who married Amelia Broadwater.

Can anyone please verity that this is correct. If it is, then what happens to Amelia's son with Rev. Benjamin Isaacs Sebastian, John Sebastian ?

Location of birth and death make Benjamin Sebastian, Jr the more likely choice.

I locked relationships for Marmaduke so “bad parents” don’t come back.

I have disconnected John Henry West from Elizabeth Broadwater. I see no evidence for him to be her son, and trees on Ancestry have all sorts of parents for John Henry West.

I have also disconnected Elizabeth Broadwater from Marmaduke and locked her relationships, as the Marmaduke connection has spread from Geni onto many MyHeritage trees.

Marmaduke Semmes. You may want to look at the book "The Maryland Semmes and Kindred Families: a genealogical history....." which can be found on archive.org. Also book sold on Amazon and Abe Books.

https://archive.org/details/marylandsemmeski00newm/mode/2up?q=marma...