Was Elizabeth Mizell the wife of James Bynum?
Theres not a shred of proof. This theory was originally put forth, I believe, based on the abstracted records of Surry County in other words, on an incomplete set of facts. There are only four records that associate any Bynum with any of the Mizells all within a 12-year period and all are explainable if we look at them closely. My guess is that one or more early researchers looked at the abstracted records and decided that there was a close association between the Mizells and Bynums that could be only be explained by a marriage. So a marriage was theorized between James Bynum and Elizabeth Mizell. As with many theories, repeating it often enough turned it into a fact. However, if we look closely at the records, there is actually a complete lack of any evidence of a connection: There is no association at all between any Bynums and Mizells prior to 1691. They lived in different parts of the county, were enumerated in different tax districts, and their paths never crossed in any record. T
