Friday, April 25, 2014

Getting Mary--?--- as Right as Possible - Still not a Sherman IMHO

I posteAm I Really Benjamin Franklin's 5th Cousin 9 Times Removed? on Monday, Follow-Up on Geni.com Collaborative Tree - Getting It Right on Tuesday, and Getting Mary --?-- As Right As Possible - Not a Sherman IMHO! on Wednesday this week.

Back on the Geni.com profile for Mary (Sherman) Fish, there has been more discussion about my issues with Mary Sherman, a purported daughter of a Samuel Sherman, being the husband of Thomas Fish.   Here are three screen shots for the discussion at present (some overlap):





I wrote my comment on 21 April, and had responses from four other users within two days.  As a result, the link of Mary --?-- was removed from the Samuel Sherman family that it had been attached to and her name on Geni.com was modified to "Mary Fish."  

I'm glad that my civil comment with referenced material was seen, read and persuaded several readers that the parent-child relationship for Mary should not be present in Geni.com until further evidence is provided.  

I recalled that the original Geni.com profile for Mary (Sherman) Fish said that her parents were Samuel Sherman and Esther Burges, not Samuel Sherman and Grace --?-- as I wrote about in the third post.  So I went back into the NEHGR articles and found the Samuel Sherman and Esther Burges family in:

Michael Johnson Wood, "The Earliest Shermans of Dedham, and Theiur wives: Part 3: Henry Sherman the Younger and his Wife," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 168, Number 1 (January 2014), pages 16-33.

The sketch for Samuel Sherman (1593-1644, son of Edmund Sherman and Anne Clere) who married Esther Burges (????-1646) starts on page 28, and lists eight children (Samuel 1622, Hester 1624, Hannah 1627, John 1629, Edmund 1631, Bezaliel 1633, Deborah 1625, Nathaniel 1639).  The sketch indicates that both Samuel and Esther died in England, left wills naming all of their children, and all of their children resided and died in England.  

Note that there is no Mary in that sketch.  If you believe that this information is authoritative, and I do, it is apparent that Mary (--?--) Fish is not the daughter of this Samuel Sherman and Esther Burges.  

There may be other assertions that Mary, the wife of Thomas Fish, is a Sherman in an online family tree, whether on Geni.com or another website.  Sherman researchers using Geni.com would be well-advised to utilize Michael Johnson Wood's six articles to document these England and colonial New England families for the benefit of all other researchers.  

We all have to do our part in this process.  I appreciate the curators that I've discussed these issues with on Geni.com, WikiTree and WeRelate, all interconnected family trees, to date.  My opinion is that they try hard to do the right thing, are usually objective in their judgments, and rely on sources when they can be found.

I will add source citations to the Wood articles and links to all four of my blog posts on this issue to the Geni.com profile for Mary (--?--) Fish.  Since I don't have a known Sherman ancestor at this time, I'll leave it to others to add the Sherman data to the Geni.com profiles.  

Shoot - my complimentary Geni.com subscription expired this week and I cannot edit the profile or add another discussion item.  Drat.  Now I can't see if there is another relationship between myself and Benjamin Franklin.

I also wonder if Mary (--?--) Fish is turning over in her grave, and cheering us on, because some obscure geneablogger is digging in her roots 315 years after her death?

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/04/getting-mary-as-right-as-possible-still.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


1 comment:

Brayer said...

I appreciate your efforts to pinpoint (or not) Mary's surname. Ayers, Soule, and Sherman are bantered about often. She is my 8th great grandmother. Oh, I am also related to ole Ben - 1st cousin. But, my link is through the Folger line.