Person talk:Prudence Billings (8)

estimated birth date [18 August 2011]

More detail about estimated birth date of about 1686. I suspect the Hosmer Genealogy simply assumed Prudence was 17 when she married, hence their apparent estimate of 1690, but probably never studied the whole Billings family to see how poorly that fit into the family.

In defense of overriding their estimate, one could say there are many Internet websites that use abt 1685 as her birth date. But this may not be much of a recommendation, as some other Internet websites also give 9 or 12 Dec 1694 her birth date. The 1694 date is not found in Concord records, and appears to be another classic case of mindless name matching by Internet genealogists. The Prudence Billings born on this date was a daughter of William Billings in Connecticut, and if such a date was applied to this Prudence, it would mean that she married 2 months after she turned 12. Thus, even untrained genealogists should be doubting its validity, rather than rushing to publish it on the Internet. --Jrich 14:13, 18 August 2011 (EDT)