@Erica Howton I'm involved in the Trent Y-DNA project, which has a project participant claiming descent from Thomas Benjamin Trent Based on the results there, Thomas can not be a descendant of Frederick Trent, since their Y DNA doesn't match. Frederick is Group 2 and Thomas is Group 1, which descends from William Trent BTW William has no known middle name, so we should cut the "Alexander".
The documentation isn't available that would let us trace Thomas Benjamin Trent all the way back to William Trent - there are probably two or three missing generations. But the DNA says that this is where he belongs, and there is no known documentation that could be used to tie him to Frederick Trent instead.
William is shown as the son of Henry Trent, of Varina Parish which is sort of true and sort of false. We believe that William grew up in Henry's household, but the DNA indicates that he is not Henry's biological son. BTW Henry's parents are unknown, and in the past I've tried to get him disconnected from the "ancestors" that are currently shown for him. At present they're still attached, but I would be grateful if they were disconnected and he was given Unknown parents instead. .
Frederick is kind of a murky character and there are some unresolved issues about his wives and exactly who was the mother of his children. There has been a debate about whether there two Fredericks or just one, but the available evidence points toward there being just one. So a while back, I asked that the two Fredericks (both created by me) that were on Geni at the time be merged into just one, which was apparently done. This is the profile that survived the merge: Frederick S. Trent, Sr. But now it looks like someone has added back the second, unwanted Frederick: Frederick Trent, Jr. There really is a Frederick Junior, but it isn't this guy. It's this one: Frederick Trent, Ill If you're interested in reading about the documentation for Frederick, I have a long article on it here: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/chzonie/trentfredericks.html There are a lot of internet sites showing "doppelganger Frederick" so locking the profiles is probably the only way to keep people from adding the extra Frederick back to the tree.
But that's not all! Frederick's father Major William Trent was originally shown as a son of William Trent until the DNA project showed that he couldn't be a biological son. William Trent & Ursula Branch really did have a son named William, who is not currently listed among their children. We don't know if "my" William is from an unrelated family, or if this is another non-paternity event within the same Trent line. But we do know that his father is definitely not the founder of Trenton. The Trent DNA project was originally begun to find out whether the Trents of Varina Parish were related to the founder of Trenton, and the results said there was no connection.
The "fur trader" history that's currently attached to Frederick's father belongs to someone else (maybe the actual son of the founder of Trenton). The children are a mess too; there are people who belong here and people who don't. To prevent future problems, it might be wise to separate the profiles and give "my" William parents named Unknown, or even add him back to William & Ursula as a traditional but non-biological son.
I can split this up into several separate discussions if you want me to. Thanks!
