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no
known
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William Fidler 1791 - 1865

My Great, Great, Great Grandfather
.

(& 19th Century Man of Mystery)



Married: Sarah (Elizabeth?) Clark
  (when)  June 14, 1814                                       
 (where)  unknown but apparently NOT Fluvanna Co. as NOT listed here.
                                Interestingly there is a William Fidler listed here
                                also married in 1814 but based on the wife's name
                                (Sally Lowry) we don't believe it's our guy.


 

          children
 


    Velarius J. Fidler
        1817 - 1892

    William Martin Fidler, Jr.
        1820 - 1901

    Eliza Ann Fidler
        1825 - 1903
 



    more about William...
  what we DO know
   what we DON'T know

Place of Birth:
  
Fluvanna County, VA.
 
What he looked like

Occupation:
  
Miller (Fidler's Mill)

Parents' names, and whether they
   ever lived in (or visited) the US.
Married:

 		   Sarah (Elizabeth) Clark
June 14, 1814 (but where unknown).

Anything about his wife other than
   her name, birth date, date of
   marriage, and date of death.
In General:   Fought in War of 1812.

If he had any brothers or sisters
  Had reasonable amount of money & nine slaves.
 (There was a Martin Fidler mentioned at the same time as William Fidler on early US censuses for Fluvanna Co., but we simply don't know if this Martin was a brother or not.)
  Had two sons and one daughter (see above).
 
 
Moved to Arlington about 1849 to establish Fidler's Mill.		  
Whether he built or bought the Arlington
   farmhouse (~1849)
 
He bought the mill site from Daniel Peck (1849).
 		    
  Owned a few other mills around WV (including in Fluvanna Co).    
 
Lived in farmhouse from about 1850 till death.		    
 
Is buried in family cemetery near the farmhouse.
 		   His nationality, nor any family history
   previous to him.


 

 

     
   

        A Note on Lost Virginia Records




 		 
     


 
    Was Fidler always Fidler (or something else)?
 
   Not knowing more about William Fidler has perhaps contributed to the long-standing
   family rumors regarding some sort of family name change, specifically that our
   Fidler name used to be Fielding or Fiedler. And it is a bit of a mystery, considering
   William was well-to-do enough to buy and sell grist mills all over the state, and
   when he moved to Arlington in 1847 he soon had one of the most prominent
   houses in the county. So, why is more not known about him? At the very least,
   why don't we know his parents' names, and where he came from?!

   Following are the name change theories, each presented with cons:

 

 

      Mispronunciation?
   

One mention of a name change can be found in the 1901 book A History of Upshur County which gives this simple blurb: "The name used to be Fielding, but became Fidler through careless pronunciation." Those subscribing to this theory are quick to point out that "Fielding" does in fact appear as first and/or middle names throughout the family.
  CON
If this was indeed true, then why wouldn't this unfortunate practice have also wiped out Fielding from first and middle names? Would people have been more "careless" with their last name than with first or middle? My conclusion is that while this phenomenon perhaps can happen over 100s of years, it's not the case here.

 

       On the lam?
   

One of my dad's cousins, Stephen Fidler, has an oral history
handed down from his father, John Fielding Fidler... The punch line
is that "Fielding" was changed to "Fidler" during the Civil War, to gain anonymity in conjunction with relocating from VA to WV... For the
text of that story, click here.

  CON
 


There are in fact pre-1860 records that indicate the family name was "Fidler" well in advance of the Civil War. Here's but one:

      Fluvanna County marriage records indicate that
        Eliza Ann Fidler married Thomas Desper in 1847.
         (See actual record online...)

 

    Fiedler with an "ie"?
 

 

  

My dad's cousin Stanley Fidler unilaterally changed his name to Fiedler. (It is actually spelled that way on his headstone.) And Stanley was in business with one of his uncles who did NOT change his name, so the name of that business became Fiedler & Fidler! Now, if Stanley was just an ordinary family member, this might not mean anything... But Stanley was the premier genealogist in our family at the time! However, his published work only addressed his mother's family (McAvoy) and how the McAvoys descended from some famous Goulds and Youngs. We know nothing of what he uncovered about the name Fidler, if anything, except that something compelled him to change his own spelling to Fiedler. What was it? What did he know, and why don't we know what he knew??
  CON
There's a total absence of evidence for any German connection which might imply the "Fiedler" spelling. Most of the family considers our heritage to be English and/or Welsh. Stanley's reason for the spelling change is unknown to us. (Although I hope there is someone somewhere in the family, perhaps one of his children or grandchildren, who knows the story... If anyone knows, please contact me!)

   Spelling Variations (in General)

 

    William Fidler adopted?
 

 

  

Another rumor on the whole name change thing is that William was born a Fielding but his father died shortly after he was born, perhaps even before he was born. His mother remarried a Fidler when William was a toddler and that man adopted William as his own, changing his name to Fidler.
  CON We haven't been able to find any proof of this, only word-of-mouth from a 4th-generation descendant of William (and which he heard from someone else).



 



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