Family talk:Abel Butterfield and Mercy Unknown (1)

marriage date [3 February 2014]

I removed the marriage date "21 Jan 1765 Date shown on P646 Family Group Sheets on Film 0488192 "The Butterfield Family: Origin and History" by Claude Wilson Butterfield. Family History Anestral file shows only 1765.."

It is frustrating to find a precise marriage date for a marriage when the identity of the wife is wrong (Person:Marcy Hale (2), involved in a different marriage, see the talk page). Only a comedy of copying errors offers itself as an alternative to people making up data.

What we know about the mother is that she was named Mercy. Possibly Marcy or Mary when the town clerk preferred.

Certainly she could be a different woman named Mercy Hale. But not without evidence.

Some websites think she is Mercy Farnsworth. This is presumably an assumption, based on naming a daughter Lucy Farnsworth Butterfield, but that name is just as explainable by the fact that Abel's mother's maiden name is Farnsworth. While people often married cousins or distant relatives - how big was their circle of acquaintances when they lived their whole life in one town - evidence is needed.

I am renaming this page to Mercy Unknown having refuted the identified wife and spent a day unable to find evidence for anything more than "Mercy". --Jrich 15:33, 3 February 2014 (UTC)