Constance (Unknown) Doane (abt. 1645 - bef. 1682)

Born about 1645 in Plymouth Colony, New England

Wife of Daniel Doane — married about 1665 (to before 1682) in Plymouth Colony, New England

Descendants

Died before Jul 1682 before about age 37 in Eastham, Plymouth Colony, New England

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Chet Snow [send private message], Michael Foos [send private message], and Kenneth McIsaac [send private message]

Biography

Genealogical Controversy

Constance, the 1st wife of Daniel Doane (abt.1636-bef.1712), and mother of several of his children, has been the object of several genealogical controversies. She was long believed to have been the daughter of Nicholas Snow and Constance Hopkins Snow and to have been born shortly after their move from Plymouth to the new Cape Cod settlement of Eastham, Plymouth Colony, in 1644/45. Records were not well kept in this new town, as it was just being formed, but some Snow genealogies say Nicholas & Constance Snow had a daughter who lived, born in 1645/1646, in Barnstable County, Plymouth Colony (later Massachusetts) although no documents confirm her first name.

See Research Notes below for the most-recent (2019) DNA research that indicates she was not the daughter of Constance (Hopkins) Snow. Even this study is not without controversy. ^[1]

Some genealogists say this daughter was named Hannah; others say Constance. No woman named "Hannah Snow" has ever been proven to be a daughter of Nicholas and Constance Hopkins Snow either, although the name "Hannah" was common in the Snow family. In the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, "Mayflower Families Genealogies in Progress: Stephen Hopkins" Volume: pp 4-5, it states: "Josiah Paine, town clerk and historian of Harwich [in the 1800s,] wrote that Constance [Snow] had a daughter named for her mother who was the first wife of [Dr.] Daniel Doane of Eastham." This is the only local source, plus a statement by Governor Wm. Bradford in 1651 that does not name the 12 living Snow children, that leads to the conclusion that Dr. Doane's wife, Constance, was born as Constance Snow.^[2][3]

Equally controversial was Constance's marriage in about 1666 when she was 20 or 21 years old. Josiah Paine, a Snow brother-in-law, and a Harwich town clerk & historian, about 200 years after the facts, kept a private notebook in which he recorded "Constance Doane" as being Constance and Nicholas Snow's daughter who married their neighbor, Dr. Daniel Doane. However, no marriage certificate has been found in Eastham town records. The Barnstable County Courthouse, where other local records from the colonial period were kept, burned in 1827, limiting what remains available.

What is confirmed is that Dr. Daniel Doane and his wife, Constance (Unknown), had a son: Daniel Doane, born in 1666 and then twins, born March 7, 1669, named "Constant" and "Constance," but the Mayflower Descendants Society has never accepted the twins' descendants as Mayflower families due to the lack of official marriage documentation. The same is true for several other Doane children born before Daniel's second marriage (to Hepzibah Cole Crisp, married after 28 July 1682, when her first husband, George Crisp, died).^[4]

It can be presumed that Constance (Unknown) Doane died between the birth of her last child (Nathaniel Doane) in 1680 and Dr. Daniel Doane's 2nd marriage in July 1682. Again, no official death record has been found. Thus, at present, Constance (Unknown) Doane's identity as a child of Constance & Nicholas Snow is confirmed only by Josiah Paine's local private notation nearly 200 years after the facts. This was not enough for the General Society of Mayflower Descendants which rejected Constance Doane's descendants' claims in 1948 and holds to that rejection today.

Note after a Merge: On one profile, from "Kathys_Nelsons.ged," Constance Doane's death was given as December 22, 1690. This may have been a typo for "December 22, 1680," a real possibility as her last child was born in 1680 and many women then died in childbirth or shortly thereafter. As no sources were given for this date, we have preferred using "before July 1682" as the given death date.^[5]

Research Notes

The Mayflower Quarterly, Fall 2019, page 40 has a report by Muriel Curits Cushing (who at that time was the Historian for the Florida Society of Mayflower Descendants). Through the women of the Mayflower Descendants project, multiple matrilineal (all-female line) descendants of Constance (Hopkins) Snow were confirmed. Several were full mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA - female to female) tested. The results indicated that Constance (Hopkins) Snow's DNA is in Haplogroup V.

Subsequently, two matrilineal female descendants of Dr. Daniel Doane (with his 1st wife Constance - supposedly "Snow") were found and their full mtDNA was tested as well. Neither one of these 2 womens' mtDNA was within Haplogroup V. This confirmed that they could not descend from Constance (Hopkins) Snow or her daughter. Even more unusual, the two women's confirmed mtDNA did not match each other either. Thus, either one (or possibly both) lines are incorrect, or Dr. Daniel Doane had children by two different women (neither one being the daughter of Constance (Hopkins) Snow).

Consequently, when these facts were brought to WikiTree's G2G in December 2023, Dr. Daniel Doane's 1st wife's "last name at birth" has been changed from "Snow" to "Unknown". She should still be considered Dr. Doane's 1st wife and mother of first 8 children (to about 1682). See the WikiTree G2G discussion, posted on December 13, 2023. It presents both "pro" and "con" suggestions as to the scientific basis and accuracy of this mtDNA research conducted under the auspices of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1673435/does-anyone-know-if-gsmd-has-budged-re-constance-snow-doane
2. ↑ "Mayflower Families Genealogies in Progress: Stephen Hopkins" Volume: pp 4-5; Josiah Paine's notebook is in the Eastham Public Library. See: Albert Hart, Our Folk - Hart Family Genealogy, Daniel Doane (accessed 21 Aug 2023.)
3. ↑ Pearson, Elizabeth white, "The Godfreys of Chatham, Mass.," NEHGR Vol. 127(1973):101-2, citing Gilbert H. Doane, Editor Emeritus of The Register.
4. ↑ Our Folk, Hart Family - Constance Snow Doane (accessed 21 Aug 2023) cites "The Doane Family," III ed., 1976, Vol. 2.
5. ↑ Note added by Chet Snow, September 23, 2104.

See also:

• John D. Austin, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Vol 6, Stephen Hopkins, Plymouth, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2001 [3rd edition], Pages 7-8.
• Dunn Delong Family Tree at Rootsweb (Essentially unsourced - generic databases) (Link via Wayback Machine at Archive.org, capture date 16 Mar 2023.)

• http://hartgen.renderplus.com/htm/hopkins_2.htm; cites "The Doane Family," III ed 1976, Vol. 2.

• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900. by Yates Publishing - Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004. This unique collection of records was extracted from a variety of sources including family group sheets and electronic databases. Page: Source number: 1182.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: GAK. Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=worldmarr_ga&h=1136193&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Birth date: 1646 - Birth place: MA - Marriage date: 1666...

• "Descendants of William Cromartie and Ruhamah Doane and Related...," by Amanda Cook Gilbert, Volume 1, 2013 edition, pg. 21 says: "xiii. Constance Snow was born in 1638, married Daniel Doane, born about 1636." and on pg. 22 concludes: "William Bradford, writing in 1651, stated that Constance Hopkins [Snow] had 12 children, 'All of them Liviing.' Only 9 can be documented with existing records. Constance, wife of Daniel Doane, is quite probably one of the 'three missing children' but, unfortunately, there is no conclusive proof."

• Doane Family Association of America, "Doane" Vol. II, pg. 2

• General Society of Mayflower Descendants, "MFIP Stephen Hopkins" pp 4-5 states "Josiah Paine, town clerk and historian of Harwich, wrote that Nicholas and Constance had a daughter named for her mother who was first wife of Daniel Doane of Eastham".

• A.E. Stratton, "Plymouth Colony" (Ancestry Pub SLC UT 1986). See quote from "MFIP Stephen Hopkins" above.

• A. A. Doane "Doane " Vol. I pg 26; "Dawes-Gates and Allied Families" 2:305

• MAYFLOWER INCREASINGS by Susan Rosser not listed as a child spouse: Doane, Daniel (~1636 - 1712) - m. Bef 1666

• The Chrisman Pedigree, website created by Lonnie Chrisman.

• The Doane family : I. Deacon John Doane, of Plymouth, II. Doctor John Done, of Maryland, and their descendants : with notes upo. Ancestry.com

• Family Data Collection - Marriages. Edmund West, compiler. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2001.

• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900. Yates Publishing. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004.

• American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI). Godfrey Memorial Library, comp. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.

Acknowledgments

• Thank you to Kathleen Nelson for creating WikiTree profile Snow-1847 through the import of Kathys_Nelsons.ged on Jun 16, 2013.
  

• Thank you to Michael Foos for creating WikiTree profile Snow-2141 through the import of Atha.ged on Dec 17, 2013.
  

• Thank you to Ken McIsaac for creating WikiTree profile Snow-2177 through the import of McIsaac Heritage_2012-03-03_2013-12-14 C_2013-12-18_2013-12-18.ged on Dec 18, 2013.
  

• Thank you to Snow descendant: Chet Snow, for researching and writing this profile's biography after merging Snow-2141 and Snow-2177 on September 4, 2014. And for editing geographical descriptions and Sources for clarity on June 13, 2017 and again on August 21, 2023. And for changing her surname to "Unknown" and editing this profile after new mtDNA evidence was revealed, Dec. 15, 2023.