Thomas Rees family 1681-??

 This is the most confusing family I've come across, in my 18 years of working on family history.  At this point, I have little to say about the Thomas Rees who was born in Wales and traveled with his parents, David and Elinor Lloyd Rees, to Philadelphia, where he eventually settled in the Welsh Tract, at least for a time. Thomas Rees and Morris Rees, whose family I wrote about last week, are brothers.

I should point out that the name Rees was a common Welsh name, originally spelled Rhys, and Thomas was also a common name for men.  I suspect that there are several men by the name of Thomas Rees in the time period of 1680-1750, and in Pennsylvania.  It appears that David may have had a brother Thomas.  David certainly had a son named Thomas, and he is most probably the one who belongs in this lineage.  But is our Thomas the one who died in 1713, or the one who died in 1740?  I cannot decide so I'll lay the two possibilities out.

The Thomas who died in 1713 had children Thomas, Sarah, Daniel, Mary, David, Isaac, Philip, Miriam, Thomas (again, likely the first one had died) and John.  Our Thomas, the sort of subject of this post, married Francis or Rebecca Price, the daughter of Philip Price, so including the name of Philip as a child is completely logical. Thomas and Rebecca had married in 1692 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.  But I am wondering if this Thomas was actually the age of David's brother, which would explain the early birth date.  There are several references to Thomas Rees as taxpayer and landowner in the 1680s and 90s, which would be prior to the time our Thomas would have been of age to own land and owe taxes, if his 1681 birthdate is correct.

Another Thomas Rees died in 1740 in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  I do not know where this list of children comes from but I show his children as Thomas, Henry, William, David, Robert, Solomon, Jane, Margaret, Mary known as Polly, and John.  I show son Thomas as having been born in Chester County, also.  This is likely to be either our Thomas or the son of the Thomas who died in 1713, but there are other possibilities, also.  

Since I have not much faith in either option (or in none of the above), I am not going to try to trace the children of Thomas until I have more confidence that I'm following the correct family.  I will simply note that both of the men I've mentioned had sons named Thomas, and in my next post, I'll follow that Thomas.  

If I've thoroughly confused you, join the crowd!  And if you have answers, please contact me.