Joseph's date of birth is unknown. No birth record has been found for him. Joseph was initially believed to have been born about 1739/1740. He was "assigned" this date by researchers using the old "make parents about 25 years older than his first child" rule of thumb when it was mistakenly believed that Joseph was married to a woman named Elizabeth Vance before his proven marriage to Rachel Smith and had several children with Elizabeth including alleged oldest son Ephraim Hatfield, born about 1765. An actual examination of the records show that Joseph was only 7-14 years older than Ephraim. There is no documentation or even circumstantial evidence to show that this particular Joseph Hatfield & Elizabeth Vance had even crossed paths with each other let alone got married. Based on what few Virginia documents there are Joseph was born sometime between 1751 and 1758 but more likely between 1756 and 1758.

Since this particular Joseph did not marry Elizabeth Vance then he is not the father of Margery, Ephraim, Valentine, Andrew or any other of Elizabeth's children.

WIFE: Rachel Smith. Married: 28 October 1779 in Washington County, Virginia. The date and location comes from Rachel's affidavits in support of her application to receive a pension as the widow of a Revolutionary War Veteran.

Joseph and Rachel's children are:

ALE (1788 Va-1841 Indiana), born while Joseph/Rachel were "shacked up" waiting for the circuit judge to show up in the Virginia mountains (very common practice). Name for Rachel's brother, Ale Smith. "Ale" is not a misspelling of "Eli" or a nickname for "Alexander" but an old Swedish name and the Smiths were of Swedish/German/Finnish heritage and residents of the New Sweden colony (Delaware) before coming to Virginia; married (1) Millie Gibson, divorced and married (2) Elizabeth Young.

JEREMIAH (1780 Va-1840 Tennessee) married Elizabeth "Betsy" Alley.

JAMES (1782 Va-1838)

JOHN (abt 1785 Va-abt 1858 Ky) married Mary "Polly" Craig.

NANCY (1786 Va-1870 Mo) married Aaron Whitecotton.

JOSEPH JR. "Joe" (abt 1787 Va-aft 1860 Mo) married Martha (Milly) —maiden name unknown—.

WILLIAM "Bill" (abt 1795 Va-aft 1870 Ark/Ind) married (1) Nancy Oakley, divorced and married (2) Melinda Helms.

LEANDER LAURA (abt 1795 Va-abt 1860 Tenn) married Moses Sexton.

RACHEL PHARIBA (abt 1795 Va-after 1860 Tenn) married Isaac Reed.

SARAH (1800 Va/Ky/Tenn-1884 Calif) married Benjamin Sollers Cecil.

There is a dispute as to the parentage of Reuben and Stanley. Some have them as sons of Joseph/Rachel while others have them as sons of Joseph's brother Jeremiah Hatfield and his wife Fanny Holland.

Joseph is said to have been buried in Walker Cemetery in Scott County, Tennessee. There are 2 different Walker Cemeteries in Scott County and Joseph is not listed on the cemetery roster for either cemetery. A Find-a-grave photo request was made but the volunteer could not find Joseph's grave at either cemetery. If Joseph is buried in one of the cemeteries then he is in an unmarked grave.