| Name: | Nathaniel Aldridge |
| Born: | circa 1730s probably Virginia |
| Died: | between 1790 and 1800 probably Abbeville County, South Carolina |
| Married: | Rosamond (maiden name unknown) |
| Children: | Nathaniel Aldridge Jr. |
Overview
Nathaniel Aldridge Sr. received land grants in colonial Orange County, North Carolina, in 1761 and 1762, on the waters of the Flat River in what is today Person County. He had the unfortunate coincidence of settling in the same colonial county at around the same time as William Alldredge and his family, and of being born close to the same time as William's son Nathan Alldredge (b. 1739). The has led to a great deal of genealogical confusion between Nathaniel and Nathan, both to records of Nathaniel being ascribed to Nathan, and vice versa; to Nathaniel and Nathan sometimes being conflated as the same person; and to both men being connected to the same family. Recent DNA research, however, has concluded that the two men were distinct, separate individuals, belonging to completely unrelated families.
Name
It is common for family trees online to identify Nathaniel Aldridge as Nathaniel Benjamin Aldridge. This is perhaps a family tradition, but I am concerned it is a case of name creep, the tendency of extra names to attach to individuals by conflation of records and other mistakes. Franklin Rudolph Aldridge wrote:
- Nathaniel Aldridge appears to have removed to South Carolina. [He had land grants in Ninety-Six District, South Carolina, in 1786 and 1798, and appeared on the 1790 census in Abbeville County, South Carolina.] One Benjamin Aldridge also had two land grants in the Ninety-Six district, one for 200 acres 5th December 1785 and the other the exact date as Nathaniel, 5th February 1798 for 500 acres. No Benjamin is found in 1790 census for this district and we may assume that Nathaniel and Benjamin are the same person, however this is not conclusive. An interview with a descendant of this family says the full name was Nathaniel Benjamin. This may be the answer for the absent Benjamin in 1790 census.
This is highly suspicious to me. Is Nathaniel Aldridge only called Nathaniel Benjamin because of this assumption that Nathaniel Aldridge and Benjamin Aldridge are the same person, because the latter cannot be found in 1790? This is a very shaky leap of logic. Isn't it just as likely that Benjamin Aldridge was missed on the census, was living in someone else's household (Nathaniel Aldridge Jr.'s household shows two adult males), or any other number of possible explanations? I have never seen a record of Nathaniel Aldridge using a middle initial. And why would someone making a legal claim to land use two different names on the same day? That makes absolutely no sense. Because of this conflation of names, I have seen other records of "Benjamin Aldridge" attached to Nathaniel Aldridge in cases where clearly they were two different people. As an extension of this conflation, the name "Nathaniel Benjamin Aldridge" has been mistakenly attached to my own Nathan Alldredge.
Origins
It is unclear where Nathaniel Aldridge was born. He appeared in North Carolina receiving a land grant in 1761. Based on the fact of his shared DNA with Francis Aldridge, supposed to have been born in Virginia, I consider it likely that Nathaniel Aldridge also came from Virginia.
Nathaniel Aldridge settled in what was then Orange County, North Carolina, with land grants adjacent to Joseph Aldridge, who appears to have been about the same age. It appears likely that Nathaniel and Joseph were brothers.