Person talk:Sarah Witt (14)

AFN garbage [24 November 2014]

As this is written, this page says Sarah was b. abt 1655, d. bef 12 Sep 1675, yet married Haverhill 8 Sep 1703 John Goodale.

Clearly Sarah couldn't marry in 1703 if she died bef. 1675. As this death estimate would seem to be related to the death of her father, his probate was checked. His will of 12 Sep 1675 leaves a bequest to his daughter Sarah. So she did not die before this data, she was still living. If forced to guess, one might say that she was probably married since she was in the group of sisters treated differently than her sisters Mary and Martha who were identified as not married, but on the other hand, only one sister, i.e., Ann, not Sarah, was explicitly indicated as married.

The marriage given to John Goodale is not found in the Haverhill records. But Salem VRs do have the marriage on 8 Sep 1703 of John Goodale and Elizabeth Witt. A different couple. It is hard to see how they could be confused, Sarah being in the neighborhood of 55 in 1703, but that appears to be what happened...

The only hint of a source is AFN MWRX-99, showing once again, exactly how unreliable AFNs are. I am removing the marriage and the death date. Source:Essex Genealogist (Massachusetts) (Essex Society of Genealogists), p. 18:165 says: "Sarah, b. abt. 1648; named in father's will in 1675." --Jrich 00:44, 25 November 2014 (UTC)