Ia Mary Mainwaring Cotton "Certain" or "Uncertain"?

Question

Hi, Mary is in my line, It's annoying when the Relationship Finder declares her to be Uncertain when her profile is marked that she is certain.  It is PPP, so what can be done?  Thanks,  dusty

Answer 1

The relationship finder is concerned with the parent child relationship being certain or not.  If you look at her profile in edit mode her parents (at the right top) will have 4 radio buttons, Non-Biological, Uncertain, Confident and Confirmed with DNA.  Read the instructions in the help files about what those four things mean and you can then click the appropriate button or leave them unmarked.  Normally people haven't done this and unless all of the links are confident or confirmed with DNA the relationship will be listed as uncertain.  (or unknown).

Answer 2

As noted here

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cotton-14

there's a lack of consistency in the "sources" about the order of Richard Cotton's wives and the names and mothers of his children.

 

Comments

RJ - I just started a review of Robert Abell's trail for the Magna Carta Project.

There's a lack of consistency among sources, but Richardson clearly identifies Mary Mainwaring and mother of Frances. Cavanaugh's book gives Richard and Jane only one daughter (Jane) & no issue by Philippe, leaving only 1st wife Mary to be Frances's mother. And - circumstantial, but still - Frances and George name their daughter Mary. Lewis gives them a daughter Joanne, but no sources. The blog says Frances is daughter by 2nd wife, but names the 2nd wife as Mary Mainwaring.

I think that she (Frances) should not be marked Uncertain. Since she has been so marked, the only way to clear that is to mark her as Certain. During a trail review, the parents are normally marked as Certain if they agree with Richardson - which they do in this case. edit except for text that questions Mary as her mother. (the text is in the profile, not in Richardson)

The links I looked at do not appear substantive to me; in my opinion, they do not justify marking the relationship as Uncertain. Would you support switching it to Certain? Or did I miss something definitive that brings Frances's parentage into question? I think marking the relationship as Certain is a better option than uncertain, and I've included "Disputed" sections in profiles of Frances and Richard (haven't gotten to Mary yet in the review... she may not be in the trail to Quincy).

Thanks!

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All cleaned up.

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Thanks!