Family talk:Johnathan White and Margaret Alexander (1)

This marriage is probably bogus [2 March 2011]

Source:White, Carlyle Snow. Book of the White Ancestry, the Early History of the White Family in Nottinghamshire, Holland and Massachusetts, p. 46, cites Source:Davis, William Proud. White Family of Yarmouth, pp 1-3, to justify that Jonathan "m. 2d, Aug. 8, 1708, Margaret Elizabeth Alexander, b. about 1670, d. Apr. 12, 1718, and had two or perhaps more children. ... His chn. were Jonathan, Ebenezer, Joseph, Esther, Mary, Sarah, Elizabeth, Alexander, Margaret, possibly John. The line of Alexander is carried on in the book White Family Records, by R.R. White, 1939, of Clarksburg, W. Va. price $6.50." The last mentioned book also cites White Family of Yarmouth in giving the same information. In detailing the life of Alexander, no evidence is presented that refers to, or happened prior to, his time in New Jersey. The book cited by the two sources, White Family of Yarmouth, appears to be a pamphlet in the Source:Smith, Leonard H. Cape Cod Library of Local History and Genealogy (#88, starting p. 1283), but I don't have full access to check exactly what it says.

Even with these sources, no William is mentioned. Which is not surprising since the William on this page is shown as being born and died in Virginia????

From what I have available I have the following problems:

1. The three boldened names above are not mentioned in the will of Jonathan.
2. There is no evidence tying Alexander White to Massachusetts, much less to Jonathan.
3. Use of middle names, as in Margaret Elizabeth, was very uncommon at this time.

This whole scenario has a bad smell to it. Bottom line, some sources and explanations are necessary. --Jrich 20:34, 2 March 2011 (EST)

I checked out "The White Family of Yarmouth" and find it offers no support for this marriage or these child. Like the Vital Records of Yarmouth, it mentions a death record for Jonathan's second wife Elizabeth on 12 Apr 1718. There is no mention of a Margaret, no indication of an Alexander family in Yarmouth (i.e., former husband or parents), no mention of an Alexander White. In fact, the pamphlet says that one can only "suppose from the record of Deaths that Jonathan was married a second time", meaning that the death record is the only shred of evidence about his second wife, and all it offers is the given name Elizabeth. The rest appears to be decoration.

Both the original (vol. 1), and updated (vol. 13) William White volume of Mayflower Families Through Five Generations contain the same note about this: "The authors [Robert M & Ruth W Sherman] have found no evidence to support the claim of Roscoe R. White in White Family Records (1939) pp. 22-25, that Jonathan White married 8 August 1708 Margaret Elizabeth Alexander, b. ca. 1670, and had two children: Alexander, b. 8 Sept. 1709, and Margaret. Alexander is said to have died at Greenwich NJ in Sept. 1776, having had ten children, including one named Peregrine. When Roscoe White submitted this lineage to the Mayflower Society, the only evidence offered was a record in a family bible printed in 1870, with all entries in the same hand. The Society does not accept this lineage."

The smell has gone from bad to putrid. I am removing Jonathan White from this page. Perhaps Margaret and Alexander existed somewhere, but they don't belong to this husband/father. --Jrich 09:27, 30 March 2011 (EDT)