Winder or Wilder?

Researchers of the Winder / Winders familial lines have long been aware of the lack of consistency in the spelling of the name. Not only could a family have members called both Winder and Winders, even a specific individual could spell his name either way.

Recently, a participant in the Winder DNA project was found to have a 67 marker match with two participants in the Wilder DNA project. The administrator of the Wilder project, P. Beth Adams, informed me that she was aware of this name confusion, going back to Nathaniel Wilder (b. 1667) of Norfolk County, Virginia. She thought it possible that Moses WINDER who was in Washington County, Virginia in 1820 could be a decendant of Michael WILDER of Virginia.

In any case, the participants with DNA matching the WINDER / WILDER markers do not appear to have been descended from Thomas Winder and Sarah Bull. We have yet to discover their immigrant ancestor.