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I am determined to find out who Col. Rowan's parents are and his year of birth, if not his exact birth date.  According to his headstone Col. Rowan dies 26 Oct 1798 abt age 60y.  His will dated 8 Oct 1798 he has sign and noted it was "in my 58th year of life." 

So far in my research no one seems to know who his parents are.  I have researched  his uncle Matthew Rowan (1703-1760), and so far none of his 9 male siblings 'claim" Robert Rowan as a child.  I believe I have all of Matthew's siblings, and Robert was supposedly born here in Bladen County, so his parents had to be here, and one would think that some church record would exist, but so far nada.

With all the advances in genealogy the last few years, how are they, or any record of them not around.  I have found several church records from that era, but not them in the books.  The church records may have been destroyed in a fire or such, such as the "Great Fire" that destroyed Fayetteville in 1831.  So far I have not seen and mention of such records being among those destroyed, as minute books exist for these years.

Anyone have any new ideas????

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The answer is often there.  Since you apparently know his grandparents (as you mention nine uncles) you need to search all the available probate, land, court, tax, etc. records to make sure that Robert doesn't fit as a son of one of them. The other thing to consider if he doesn't, is the possibility that he was a son of a sister to the 10 brothers.  A child born outside of marriage usually took the mother's surname. 

Do you have y-DNA from a descendant of Robert compared with the y-DNA of descendants of at least two different of his uncles?  If the two uncles match each other, then you know you have the correct y-DNA, and that a non-paternal event didn't occur in those lines.  If Robert doesn't match them, you might consider that he was born to one of the sisters.  Even if Robert matches the uncles, it might be that he has branch markers in common with one specific line.  With ten brothers, it can be a long process to find multiple descendants of all to see if any of the brothers have branch markers that Robert matches (or even doesn't match, showing he is not likely from that brother).

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