Nathaniel Aldridge Jr.

Name:	Nathaniel Aldridge Jr.
Born:	circa 1760s probably North Carolina
Died:	circa 1830s probably Lawrence County, Alabama
Married:	uncertain
Parents:	Nathaniel Aldridge Sr.
Children:	Nathaniel Aldridge Jr.

Overview

Nathaniel Aldridge Jr., the son of Nathaniel Aldridge Sr., was born in the 1760s, probably in North Carolina. Nathaniel Aldridge Sr. was in modern-day Caswell County as early as 1761, and moved to Tryon County (modern-day Mecklenburg County) by 1770. Nathaniel Jr. moved to Tennessee by 1800, and by Lawrence County, Alabama, by 1830. He died in Lawrence County sometime after 1830.

Name

Nathaniel Aldridge Jr., like his father, is commonly referred to in online trees as Nathaniel Benjamin Aldridge. All extant primary sources, however, identify him as only Nathaniel Aldridge. There appear to be several cases of conflation between men named Nathaniel Aldridge and other, separate men named Benjamin Aldridge — Nathaniel Jr., in particular, being conflated with his son named Benjamin Aldridge — so it is very important to properly document the origin of this middle name, and be sure it is not based on an improper conflation.

Spouse

Online trees commonly identify the spouse of Nathaniel Aldridge Jr. as Jane Armstrong or Jane Brandon Armstrong. To the best that I've been able to tell, this identification is based on family tradition, and may or may not be based on a creeping tradition. By that, I mean, a tradition originated at some point that "the wife of Nathaniel Aldridge was an Armstrong"; later on, this was may have been joined with another, unconnected fact, "the wife of Benjamin Aldridge was named Jane." Later on still, the name "Brandon" was attached from some other source, and from several unconnected assumptions, Mrs. Aldridge now has a full name. Franklin Rudolph Aldridge wrote in Aldridge Records, vol. 2 (1975):

The wife of Nathaniel Aldridge, Junior is said to have been an Armstrong, however this may not be true. ... James Sidney Aldridge [born 1878, interviewed in the 1950s] said his Great-Grandfather's full name was Nathaniel Benjamin. [We feel sure that the] Benjamin Aldridge [who] died in Lawrence County, Alabama, about 1827/28 ... was a son of Nathaniel [Aldridge], Junior. Jane Aldridge [was the] widow of Benjamin Aldridge, deceased.

So it appears quite likely that the identification of Nathaniel Aldridge's wife as "Jane" is based on a probable conflation of Nathaniel (presumed to be "Nathaniel Benjamin") with Benjamin, his son, who died about 1826/27. Nathaniel Aldridge is not the same person; he was clearly still alive in 1830, per the 1830 census.

Per F. R. Aldridge, Jane, the wife of Benjamin, was also supposed to be an Armstrong, and this appears to be his reason for discounting the tradition that Nathaniel Jr.'s wife was an Armstrong. But it seems more likely to me that Nathaniel's wife was an Armstrong than Benjamin's, since Nathaniel did name a son James Armstrong Aldridge. In any case, a tradition is not documentation. Noting that Nathaniel's wife "was said to have been an Armstrong" is very different than giving her a full name without documentation.