Person talk:Comfort Fairbanks (3)

From Comfort Fairbanks (4): Why? [5 June 2018]

On the one hand, I have about a million secondary sources, including a NEHGR article, naming Joseph Billings' wife as Comfort Denison.

On the other hand, none give a birthdate, or parents, nor are records of a person named Comfort Denison found. So how does it happen that we think Joseph Billings' wife's maiden name was Comfort Denison? Can't be father's will since parents aren't known. Can't be proximity to Preston as birthdate and place are not given. Can't be age, because neither birth or age at death seem to be known.

There is a cemetery inscription in a Preston cemetery that gives the death of Joseph Billings' wife Comfort in 1740. (For grins consider the son Samuel Billings, b. 1718, and attributed to his second wife. It appears that there has been no exhaustive study of this family, just a bunch of people copying the already-available answers.)

The same cemetery inscription mentioned gives an age at death of 50, which corresponds to a birth in 1690. This just happens to match a Comfort Fairbanks born in Sherborn to Jonathan Fairbanks and first wife Sarah --- on 30 Oct 1690. In her father's will she is named as Comfort wife of Joseph Billings, and the marriage to Joseph Billings is found in Sherborn VRS Oct 1712. 3 months later, Joseph and Comfort have their first child born in Preston and no further record of a Joseph Billings is found in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

I will be changing the page and posting appropriate sources to fix this. --Jrich 21:09, 5 June 2018 (UTC)