Family talk:John Cowen and Sarah Mitchell (1)

need sources [9 November 2013]

I have added some sources and places to this page. I find some websites that mention this couple in Scituate, RI, but I personally only find the marriage in Providence, then the births of children in Smithfield in the same county, and then marriages of those children in Glocester RI.

On this page is something called: Cowen Birth Records for Scituate, RI, pre 1800. Most of the births listed are in Scituate, Mass, not Scituate, RI, with a few in other places. Those two places, according to maps.google.com, are about 75 miles apart, and there is no way that Scituate, Mass., ever become part of Rhode Island (say, the way parts of Bristol County did).

Meanwhile, in Yarmouth Mass. there is the marriage of John Cowing to Rachel Crowel in 1726, and at least one (non-authoritative in my eyes so I'm still investigating) source says this is John, b. 1692 to parents John and Sarah in Scituate. I can verify that this marriage record exists, and that John and Rachel moved to Braintree which is only 18 miles from Scituate, Mass., and had at least 2 children there in 1735 and 1740, before Rachel died there in 1745, the "wife of Jn'o Cowin."

John and Rachel and John and Sarah are two different couples, having children at the same time. Both had children in the late 1730's so it would seem neither John could possibly be the widower of Desire (Hawes) Hatch who would be way too old to be having children (over 70 if he didn't die in 1729 or whatever estimate you prefer). However Provincetown where Desire died, and Yarmouth where John married Rachel, are both towns in Barnstable County, so it seems likely to be his son. Normally, with no other evidence available, if forced to arrange this, one would assume the Rhode Island family has Rhode Island origins, and the John who married Rachel is the Scituate family.

If you have any serious reason for thinking the John who married Sarah Mitchell is from Scituate, it would be most useful if you added it. --Jrich 19:36, 9 November 2013 (UTC)

baptism [9 November 2013]

The link you labeled baptism of John is NOT a baptism. The film number specified, 22256, is Vital record of Rhode Island, 1636-1850 : a family register for the people, Author: Arnold, James N. (James Newell), 1844-1927. This source is already cited on John's page (where it belongs) and it is a birth, and besides that, the date in the original source is Jan 1724/25, not Jan 1724 as the familysearch indexing shows. Don't know why you waste your time with a redundant child list on a family page that already lists all the children? Hope you don't expect anybody else to maintain it if it ever changes. It that happens I'm just deleting it. I don't need to enter data twice. --Jrich 23:29, 9 November 2013 (UTC)