It is the opinion of Doug Couch, owner of this site (adkinshorton.net), that the following children were not children of Parker Adkins, even though the death record of one of them (Elizabeth) gives him as her father.
• Sarah Adkins, born 1851
• Elizabeth Adkins, born 1853
• Elizabeth Adkins, born 1857 or 1858
• Cumberland Adkins, born 1859
Reasons:
1. When Parker, born in 1763, married Mrs. Mary Willis in 1851, he was approximately 88 years old. It is very unlikely that he then continued to have children right up until his death in 1857.
2. Per his gravestone, Cumberland was born approximately two years after Parker's death.
Caveat: Although Cumberland's gravestone gives his birth year as 1859, he appears with his "mother", Mary, and siblings in the 1870 census as being age 14; which would place his birth year around 1856.
3. Parker's last will and testament, issued by him and bearing his witnessed mark on May 9, 1857, included Mary, his then wife, and
all his children
(by Mary Lefon) as heirs, even including his granddaughter, Rebecca. However, no mention is made of these later children. If they were his children born before he died, he would have included them.
Possibility: These children were adopted and given a home and a life, but not inheritance. Such a possibility would also explain why his daughter Elizabeth, born in probably 1857, was cited as having Parker as her father. Her death certificate gives her birth year as 1858; which clearly would preclude his being her father, adoptive or otherwise. However, death certificate birth dates are sometimes the mistaken recollection of the person giving the information. The birth years of these children indicate they were not stepchildren at the time of Parker's & Mary's marriage, and adoption seems the most likely reason for their being cited as children of Parker and Mary.
