Person talk:Ebenezer Woodworth (1)

From Ebenezer Woodworth (3): Real sources needed [25 November 2012]

Citing a source that is not primary, and does not cite sources themselves, is asking for errors. Case in point, Ebenezer born 12 Mar 1691 in Little Compton.

First place to check is Arnold's Vital Record Rhode Island, for Little Compton: vol. 4, part 6, p. 196: no birth of Ebenezer listed in Little Compton. First event found is his marriage to Rebecca Smalley in 1717 in Barbour's records for Lebanon.

Genealogical and family history of the state of Connecticut by Cutter, p. 886, says Ebenezer was "probably" the eldest child of Benjamin, b. 12 Mar 1691 in Little Compton. Later he says, "children [meaning all of Benjamin's children], mentioned in the will, but not recorded in Lebanon or Little Compton" and proceeds to repeat that Ebenezer was born 12 Mar 1691. How can Cutter know the birth date if it was not recorded? How does he know if he is the oldest if he doesn't have the births of the others? Actually the will of the father mentions Benjamin, Ichabod Ebenezer and other sons, so it is likely Ebenezer is the third son, assuming the will is in order, which it gives all appearances of being. Cutter does not mention whether Benjamin had a wife, or how many. There are other problems, too, such as the father being born in 1674, but having (one? three?) sons by 1691 when he was underage. Clearly an unreliable source.

Cutter appears to be mostly parroting Descendants of Walter Woodworth of Scituate by William Atwater Woodworth. Further investigation of this source says that "Ebenezer appears without any doubt by the consensus of the Lebanon records to have been the son of Benjamin". Apparently not by virtue of an actual birth record, yet Woodworth asserts that he was born 12 March 1691. How?

Well the clue is on p. 30, where the author Mr. Woodworth is incredulous that the Porter genealogy could claim that the Ebenezer who married Rebecca Smalley was a son of John, b. 12 March 1691. A little searching, and the birth record for Ebenezer, son of John and Rebecca Woodward, is found in Newton, Mass., on 12 March 1690-1 (presumably the Ebenezer who m. 1716 Mindwell Stone).

While Mr. Woodworth is most likely correct about the father being Benjamin, not John, that apparently didn't stop him from borrowing the birth date of the son of John. It seems likely that Ebenezer, s/o Benjamin, was the one who signed the petition for a new church in the North Parish of Lebanon in 1714, suggesting he was born before 1693, but given the alleged birthdate of his father in 1674, the whole genealogy needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

Having a date is nothing, it is only useful when you know where it comes from. --Jrich 11:05, 24 November 2012 (EST)

The death date is not listed in Barbour records for Lebanon, nor found in americanancestor.org's collection of vital records. Descendants of Walter Woodworth of Scituate does not give a death date, nor provide any information about a will. A search brings back a snippet view of Vol. 6 of Mayflower Families Through Five Generations (Stephen Hopkins), which on p. 296 says, "Ebenezer Woodworth <Jr.> sold land purchased of his father Ebenezer Woodworth, late of Lebanon, deceased, on 20 Nov 1784." In this sentence the date is the date the land was sold, and not the death date of his father. If this is the source of the death date, not clear since no sources are cited to tell how it is known, it needs as a minimum, the addition of "before". Though, if the son "purchased" the land, there is no reason to think that the death of the father was the cause of the sale, and hence, no reason to think there is necessarily any proximity between this sale and the death of the father. A DAR lineage gives his death as 1728, but that is probably wrong too, as children were born after this date, as late as 1737, and this probably represents confusion with the death of the probable father Benjamin in 1728. --Jrich 17:10, 24 November 2012 (EST)

I merged Person:Ebenezer Woodworth (1) with Person:Ebenezer Woodworth (3) because it was clear those pages were talking about the same persion, both originally showing b. 1691, and death in 1784 or 1785. However, right in keeping with the mood of the above comments, neither page had sources. Unfortunately, the genealogy of this family is not very good, and this page reflects that sad fact, since (for example) the known records for Benjamin and Deborah in Scituate show twins Elizabeth and Deborah who are not here, but the children show here with first wife Deborah seem to be given to the second wife Hannah by most sources, and the marriage date reported here is not found in the records and so cannot be verified. I cannot find records for most of the dates shown on this page. What needs to happen is to find all the primary sources, and then throw away all the accumulated assumption. Unfortunately I believe about 90% or more of the data on this family is accumulated assumption, and there does not seem to be enough documentary evidence to figure out any kind of reliable genealogy. --Jrich 20:33, 25 November 2012 (EST)