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The goal of this post series is to illustrate a research process in conjunction with the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. The goal is to reaffirm my direct line connection with a remote ancestor, Francis Cooke LZ2F-MM7, and then monitor the status of this "Revolving Door" ancestor and try to slow down the number of changes made to this person. I am begging this process with a well-verified ancestor named Thankful Tefft LKKM-LWN. I verified this particular ancestral line many years ago and since that time, I have added a substantial number of additional sources to the Family Tree along that line.
As I have written before, the idea here and with every entry in the Family Tree is to verify with sources the connection between every child and every parent. In following this rule, all of us need to make sure the places, names, and dates are reasonable and supported by those same sources. Adding an inappropriately sourced child to a family is easily one of the most common mistakes made when working on the Family Tree. Sometimes it is a real challenge to get the children right. I will be returning to this issue frequently in this series.
Now, starting with Thankful Tefft LKKM-LWN, there are presently 56 sources. Let's see if any of them substantiate her birth and the identity of her parents.
Here are the sources with both birth information and the identity of her parents (by the way, there are several duplicate entries):
- Tifft, Maria Elizabeth (Maxon). A Partial Record of the Descendants of John Tefft, of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and the Nearly Complete Record of the Descendants of John Tifft, of Nassau, New York .. Buffalo, N. Y. : The Peter Paul book company, 1896. http://archive.org/details/partialrecordofd00tiffiala.
- Rhode Island Births and Christenings, 1600-1914", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F87W-QSZ : 17 December 2019), Thankful Tefft, 1757
- Ancestry.com. Rhode Island, Birth Index, 1636-1930 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. https://search.ancestry.com/collections/4262/records/4195
- Book Title: Descendants of John Tanner : Born August 15, 1778, at Hopkintown, Rhode Island : Died April 15, 185, Ancestry.com. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. (Only father identified)
All of these entries are consistent as to the date, place, and name information. There have been some issues in the past over the correct place information but a timeline of the name changes shows that the most accurate place name is "Hopkinton, Kings, Rhode Island." FamilySearch adds "British Colonial America" to its standardized entries but there is a lack of consensus as to whether or not this is an appropriate geographical or political designation.
Do I feel confident in moving on to the next generation? The places are reasonable because her children were also born in the same location. The time is reasonable because calculating her age at the time each child was born is possible and consistent. This, along with marriage information adds a degree of certainty to the birth information. Although none of the sources are first-hand accounts of her birth, they are all reasonably reliable and consistent.
So, I move on to William Tefft and Mary Kenyon. The first obvious issue is that none of the Thankful Tefft sources except the first one give Thankful Tefft's mother's maiden name. But the book is very specific and gives the marriage information. Here is a screenshot of the entry in the book.
Remember, the Family Tree is an open, collaborative wiki-like website and someone could find a document or record at any time and challenge or change information. That is the main reason that I keep adding sources.
In this case, since the next generation to connect to Francis Cooke LZ2F-MM7 is through William Tefft LZ2F-MM7, we do not have to spend a lot of time in this post looking at his family. Of course, I have done research on his family, including his wife. Mary Kenyon LWQZ-JG2, Thankful Tefft's mother is well documented with 34 sources. In this series of posts, because the ancestral line connecting me to Francis Cooke is through William Tefft's parents, I will focus on whether or not there are sources connecting William Tefft to his parents.
William Tefft has 47 sources. Let's see if any of those sources indicate his birth information and the identity of his parents. His birth information is as follows:
This entry says there are five sources for his birth. Let's see if that is correct (I never really have any confidence in automatically generated information)
- Rhode Island Births and Christenings, 1600-1914", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2HH-K48 : 17 December 2019), William Tefft, 1731.
- Book Title: Descendants of John Tanner : Born August 15, 1778, at Hopkintown, Rhode Island : Died April 15, 185, Ancestry.com. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
- Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Individual Records [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
- Tifft, Maria Elizabeth (Maxon). A Partial Record of the Descendants of John Tefft, of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and the Nearly Complete Record of the Descendants of John Tifft, of Nassau, New York .. Buffalo, N. Y. : The Peter Paul book company, 1896. http://archive.org/details/partialrecordofd00tiffiala.
In going through these records, one of the entries has an exact birth date for him. It is 29 February 1732. This is an unusual date because it indicates a leap year. I confirmed that 1732 was actually a leap year so this date may be correct. Since we have a source already cited, I decided to add the specific date to his individual record with an explanation. This entry also shows the maiden name of his mother.
At this point, I wanted to see if there were any other sources showing his parents and/or exact birthdate. Time to do some research. So stay tuned to see what that research shows and to continue on with working my way up the pedigree.
See these previous posts
Re 29 February 1732 being a Leap Year Day. I suspect that you skipped a step in your write up - especially given the previous birth on file. The missing bit is which 1732? February 1732 OS or February 1732 NS? It's bad enough putting my brain in gear for the old calendar, but Leap Years? I guess that you went through this, but I think I'm right in saying that the Leap Year Day was 29 February 1732 New Style because the spacing of leap years remained at every 4 years through the various calendar changes. Contradictions welcome!
ReplyDeleteMarking up which calendar is in use, is crucial - and I've forgotten how I do it in FS Family Tree....