This is the place for mysteries & "brick walls" involving Wan(d)lesses. Send your mysteries via email to for inclusion here! Be specific and give as many details as possible - tell us where you've looked, what leads have NOT panned out, names, dates, locations, and exactly what question you're trying to answer!

I've been trying to solve the riddle of Luke Wandless (my g/grandfather)'s wife. I have his marriage certificate dated March 6 1865 when he married Elizabeth THIRTLE. When I obtained the birth certificate for his son Luke (my grandfather) it showed the name of his mother as being 'formerly HUNTER!' The known family of Luke the elder was John (1866), Mary (1867), Edward (1871), Thomas (1874), William (1877), Luke (1881), and Christopher (1883). On the birth certificate for Mary (5 August 1867), her mother is shown as 'formerly THIRTLE.' On the certificate for Edward (25 July 1871), his mother's name is shown as 'formerly HUNTER.' On Christopher's certificate (9 January 1883), his mother is shown as HUNTER. These certificates suggest that at some time between the birth of Mary and the birth of Edward, something happened to either cause Elizabeth to go by a different name, or Luke was first married to Elizabeth THIRTLE and then to Elizabeth HUNTER. However, we can find no trace of a death of an Elizabeth Wandless after the birth of Mary, nor can we find a record of a re-marriage of Luke at any time after the birth of Mary up to the death of Elizabeth (Hunter?) in 1912. The death certificate for Elizabeth in 1912 does not give her maiden name.
Has anyone any suggestions as to the reason for this name change?
Doris Farley dorisf@blyth1.freeuk.com

Ian Whipple: I am trying to find information on the parentage of James Wanlass born about 25 Sept 1825 in Edinburgh, Midlothian,Scotland. He married Margaret Neilson born 4 Jan 1821. Our records show that they had 13 Children. He died in Salt Lake City, UT the 8 Oct 1895. I am a descendant of James' and Margaret's son James born 9 August 1846 in Beatty's Row, Tranent, East Lothian, Scotland.
Family Tradition says that James #1 was placed in an orphanage after the death of his mother. We have been unable to confirm this or find any information on his parents. The story is told that James #1 did not believe he was Scottish by birth. He believed that he was English. He told his daughter-in-law, Edith Elizabeth Wanlass, that he was of English descent, and that his parents had been visiting Scotland with their children when something happened and his mother was killed - some kind of accident - and that his father remarried.When James #1 was older, he ran away from the orphanage and was raised by a family named Ramsey for a while. It is believed that the Ramsey family was paid well for the care of James and that James was from a family with resources.

Holly Cochran: What was the relationship between Margaret Wandless who brought her teenage children from Newcastle, Northumberland, England to Augusta County, Virginia in about 1772, and Thomas Adams of Virginia? My 4th-great-grandmother Margaret Wan(d)less, presumably a widow, brought her 4 teenage children Ralph, Stephen, Margaret, and Mary from Newcastle, England to America in 1772/73. They were assisted in emigration by Thomas Adams of Deerfield, Augusta Co. (We know this from a letter in the VA Historical Society, written in July 1772 by an agent of Thomas Adams named Richard Hylton, in which he talks about carrying out Thomas's orders to get Margaret from England to VA.) Once in VA, Margaret & her children lived with Thomas in Deerfield, Augusta County, for several years, and Thomas left her son Ralph land in his will dated 1785, probated 1788. All this would seem to indicate a close relationship. Margaret, in her 40s or 50s, in 1783 married John Carlisle on the CalfPasture in Augusta Co. John d. 1796, Margaret d. 1807. She spent her last years living with her daughter Margaret Clayton near Deerfield. I speculate that Margaret was somehow related to Thomas Adams, but have not been able to prove that yet. I have checked birth records for Thomas Adams's family, and there is no Margaret and no sibling unnaccounted for in later records. I have checked records for his wife Elizabeth Fauntleroy Cocke; again, no siblings or cousins named Margaret. The marriage record that best fits Margaret in England is the marriage in 1749 in Newcastle of Ralph Wanless to Margaret Wylam, and a Ralph Wanless was buried in 1770 in Newcastle, which fits nicely with Margaret being a widow in 1772. But I have found no marriage record in VA or England for Margaret Adams to ___ Wylam. So who WAS she???