Mary Harris - book or FamilySearch record?

Question

Elder John Crandall of Rhode Island and his Descendants gives her birth date as 18 Feb 1762 in Providence. The records on FamilySearch give her birth as 16 Oct 1763 in Glocester (in Providence). Which one should be believed? Or are these two different Marys?

Record in question: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4GCT-LL2M .

Answer 1

Two completely different people. The Mary Harris who was born 16 October 1763 was the wife of Esek Sayles and died in Glocester 7 October 1847 - see the gravestone photographed at findagrave.com, as well as the family tree profile to which that birth record is linked.

You are looking for a Mary Harris who married a Timothy Crandall and died (presumably in Dutchess County, NY) 14 November 1846.

That being said, the Vital Records of RI, 1636-1850, vol. 2, Providence section, p. 227, show no births of a Mary Harris in the town of Providence in 1762 (the last birth of a Mary Harris there was in 1750). So where did the book get its information from?

Answer 2

The 1763 record is for christening.