Looking for documentation that supports this Mary Deming's parentage and marriage to Joseph Curtis.

Question

I am trying to substantiate Mary Deming being a child of Thomas Deming and Mary Scheafe. Also looking for evidence of a marriage between Joseph Curtis and Mary Deming.
Torry calls Mercy Deming "Marcy" in his Torry, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004. Marcy and Joseph were married in 1674 Wethersfield.
Mercy Deming is listed with a 1651 birthdate in Godfrey Memorial Library. American Genealogical-Biographical Index. Middletown, CT, USA: Godfrey Memorial Library.

I can find nothing for Mary Deming marrying Joseph Curtis. (Mercy Deming's sister Mary Deming married John Hurlbut in 1670--that is well documented by Torry and others.) But the Mary Deming that married Joseph Curtis? Help please!
Thank you!


 

Comments

The Barbour Collection of Connecticut  Town Vital Records, Volume 52 p. 344

lists the marriage of Joseph Curtis to Mercy unknown Feb. 8, 1674 by Capt. Samuell Weels Vol. 1 P. 28. in the section of No Surname.  (Their daughter Mary Curtis married John Deming)

Answer 1

Argh!!! I just lost my answer and have to start again......

Wethersfield Vital Records (Barbour Collection Version) states:

Joseph Curtis m. Mercy [          ] Feb 8, 1674

The next year Joseph, son of Joseph & Marcy was born Jan 10 1674/5.

From: Genealogy of the Descendants of John Deming of Wethersfield, Connecticut, With Historical Notes by Judson Keith Deming publ 1904.  Lists the following two children among others

Mary, b. about 1648, m. about 1670, John Hurlburt of Wethersfield.

Mercy, b. about 1651, m. Thos. (or Jos.) Wright of Wethersfield, and d. 17 Dec. 1714, s. p. (The footnote says this is not proven but well used by other sources)

Stiles' Families of Ancient Wethersfield: Lists Mary m. to John Hurlburt, but has a dtr Hannah married to Thos. Wright and lists no dtr. Mercy.

Also according to Stiles Thomas and Mary Schaefe went to Long Island.

 

Another citation: Goodwin, James Various ancestral lines of James Goodwin and Lucy (Morgan) Goodwin of Hartford, Connecticut vol II p 243

Mercy dtr of John Deming (the immegrant) m. 1st Joseph Curtis of Wethersfield on Feb 8, 1674. She m. 2nd March 10, 1685 Joseph Wright of Wethersfield.

I realize this is mostly negative evidence, but I think that your Mary Deming Curtis is probably a "Mercy".

 

 

 

 

Comments

Hoping to add to the fun!

(1) Torrey's working papers (which became published as the original Torrey's New England Marriages) were inclusive. By this I mean you will find that he included references to the marriage, even when the references reported were in conflict about the wife's maiden name. 

In the AmericanAncestors.org database for the marriage of this Joseph Curits, the bride's name is given as "Mercy [Deming]." This references 6 or 7 workes consulted as "Wethersfield 2:263; Goodwin-Morgan 2:243; Sv. 1:486; Curtis (1903) xxviii; Hartford Prob. 1:297; Warner-Harrington 161, 169, 633." 

The short titles of these sources can be cross referenced to "Torrey's Source List." See also David Dearborn's helpful guide to Torrey  and the Torrey Project, "Introduction to New England Marriages Prior to 1700," 2001.  

(2) Plot thickens! 

Source that follows reports about Dorothy Edwards, saying she "m ... her step 1st cousin and apparent 2nd cousin, Joseph^3 Curtis, b. 10 March 1674/5 .... son of Joseph^2 Curtis (Thomas^1) and his wife Mercy (Deming)...." 

Citing (only) "Wethersfield VR" in Gale Ion Harris, Phd, F.A.S.G., "Sarah (Salmon) (Edwards) Curtis of L.I. and Conn.," TAG 71 (1996):241 (in particular part); digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2014).

Harris is listed as co-editor of The Genealogist. If you are not able to learn more otherwise, consider a thoughtful query to the author about the association published in TAG (1996).  

(3) List of recent work

 

Martin E. Hollick's New Englanders in the 1600s: a guide to genealogical resources published between 1980 and 2005 includes an entry for the man who may have been Joseph's father.  For this entry, Hollick notes several works published. These include 

• Connecticut Nutmegger 25:192-198*
• TAG 71:220-224 (for Samuel^2)
• Rose Mary Goodwin, A family named Curtis: Descendants of Thomas Curtis of Wethersfield, Conn., 1598-1982 (Sunland, CA, the author, 1983. [Notes that a review of this work was published in Connecticut Nutmegger 16:695-696.]

*This article is, Mary Curtis Perry, "The Puzzling Famlly Origins of Thomas Curtis of Wethersfield."