Saturday, April 11, 2026

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun --- An Ancestor Without Exact Birth and Death Dates and Places

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):


1)  Do you have an ancestor with no defined birth and death dates or places?  

2)  This week, please tell us about that ancestor and what clues you used to estimate a birth and death dates and places.

2)  Share your ancestor and their estimated birth and death dates and places with us in your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

NOTE:  I could use ideas for different SNGF topics.  Please email me (randy.seaver@gmail.com).

Here's mine:

Hannah Brown (ca 1725 - before 1773) is my 5th great-grandmother.  I don't know her parents names or residences. She married John Phillips (1722-before 1800) on 3 May 1749 in Southborough, Worcester County, Massachusetts Bay Colony.  They had five children (Sarah, Jonathan Joanna, Martha and Elizabeth) between 1750 and 1764, the first two in Southbroough and the last three in Shrewsbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Phillips married Mary Richards on 3 June 1774 in Southborough.  The birth of her last child in 1764 is the last record I hsave for Hannah's life.

I estimated Hannah's birth year of "about 1725" based on a range from at marriage of 16 (so before 1733) and at birth of last child of 50 (so 1714).  "About 1725" would make her about age 23 at marriage and John would have been age 26. Since I don't know Hannah's parents names (I've looked for birth records from all over eastern Massachusetts!) I estimated that she was born in Massachusetts Bay Colony, nad perhaps in Worcester or Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony.

I estimated Hannah's death year as " before 1774" because of John's second marriage date.  A reasonable assumption would be "about 1772" because John would need some time to find and marry a second wife, but it could have been "sometime after 15 June 1764" when daughter Elizabeth was born in Shrewsbury.  Hannah's death place could have been Shrewsbury (where she was in 1764) or Southborough (where John was in 1774) or some place near those towns. 

Are those estimated dates reasonable?  What other records might help me better determine the actual birth and death dates?

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