Tabitha (Stone) Rice cannot have two spouses simultaneously

Question

Tabitha (Stone) Rice is shown with two spouses: John Rice-41 and Abraham Wheeler-541. The marriages are 8 years apart (1674 and 1682, respectfully), both taking place in Massachusetts.  The children listed for both marriages also overlap in time. Tabitha Stone's birth record is available showing her parents of John and Anne Stone.

Abraham Wheeler's marriage is always listed as being with Tabitha _____.  No record of their marriage was found in Lancaster VR's, altough Torrey says their marriage occurred there in "1683(4)? ca 1682". References for Tabitha's unknown LNAB include the following:

1. Torrey's New England Marriages prior to 1700
2. The Wheeler Family of Rutland Mass and some of their Ancestors, by Daniel M. Wheeler, published 1924, page 1
3. The Genealogical and Encyclopedic History of the Wheeler Family in America, by Albert Gallatin Wheeler, published 1914, page 498

The information in Tabitha Stone-48's profile is almost completely about Tabitha (Stone) that married John Rice. I propose that Tabitha Stone-48 be disconnected from Abraham Wheeler as a spouse, and also remove all Wheeler children with whom she is shown. 

Are there any other sources of information to prove that the Tabitha that married Abraham Wheeler had the LNAB of Stone?

Are there any concerns with removing Abraham Wheeler as her spouse?

Answer 1

As Donald Gradeless indicates, it appears that two different Tabitha Stones got merged by mistake. It may be necessary to create a new profile for one of these women,

Look at the left-hand side of this page to see the former contents of profile Stone-519, which represented the Tabitha Stone who married Abraham Wheeler. That content should help you reconstruction that profile. Note, however, that strong sources are the best defense against an imappropriate merge proposal.

Comments

Thank you Ellen. It appears that in the Changes page there is information about the birth of Tabitha Stone as being in 1660/61 in Sudbury, Massachusetts vs. 1655 for the other Tabitha Stone.  However, the rest of the information in that tab applies to the Tabitha Stone that married John Rice.

I am a little concerned about saying the Tabitha who married Abraham has a LNAB of Stone, without any source data.  I have searched on Familysearch.org, as well as on AmericanAncestors, and have come up with nothing. She is shown with the name Stone in IGI, the Pedigree Research File, as well as the Ancestral file. Based on this, there is likely some evidence somewhere.  However, since the best sources we have at this point indicate an Unknown last name, it seems to me that we should list her possible last name in the bio, and have her LNAB be Unknown.

In cases like this, it is hard to tell what to do - should we have a profile for her with LNAB as Stone (although there is no good source data to support it that I have found), or do we list her as Tabitha Unknown, with a Disputed Origins section containing the name Stone?

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SW,

youre on the right track. Based on what you've found, The wife of Abraham Wheeler should be:

First name: Tabitha

Last name at birth: Unknown

Current last name: Wheeler

Other last name: Stone (unproven)

Profile narrative should open with == Disputed Origins == section briefly describing the problems and including the list of sources for her unknown last name. There should also be a sentence that distinguishes her from the Tabitha Stone (linked) who m John Rice.

Thanks for your work on this.

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Thanks, Jillaine.  Will do.

Answer 2

There are multiple Tabitha Stone.

 

Try and to combine them but leave them separate as they used to be.

It needs to be left as it was originally entered.

Comments

Donald, do you know of any sources for last name Stone for the wife of Abraham Wheeler (other than IGI, the Pedigree Research File, or Ancestral file)?

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Actually we should look closer at the IGI. It might be an extraction from original records.

Answer 3

The sources below should help you sort out Tabitha Stone and John Rice and the correct eleven children to this couple.

Vital Records of Sudbury Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849:

Sudbury Marriages: Rice, John and Tabitha Ston, Nov. 2, 1674. [Stone. MR](p. 359)

Sudbury Deaths: Rice, John, Sept. 6, 1719. (p. 322)

See:  p. 17: A Genealogical History of the Rice Family: Descendants of Deacon Edmund Rice, who Came from Berkhamstead, England, and Settled at Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1638 Or 9,  By Andrew Henshaw Ward, C.B. Richardson, 1858

John Rice, husband of Tabitha Stone died  in 1719, left widow Tabitha.  Had eleven children between 1675-1700, all listed here.  Sudbury VR confirm all these births through Aron b. in 1700.

Comments

Thank you Chris. This information adds to the certainty that this same Tabitha (Stone) couldn't have been married to Abraham Wheeler.

Answer 4

I'm so glad this thread was started! I stirred the pot when I proposed a merge between Tabitha Stone-871 and Tabitha Stone-48 which would have just confused things further.  Once we have a separation of Mrs. Rice and Mrs. Wheeler undoing the previous merge, we can merge Stone-871 into Mrs. Rice (unless it makes more sense to just declare Stone-871 to be the final Mrs. Rice and give that profile the Rice sources and family links, and convert Stone-48 back into Mrs. Wheeler and change her Last Name at Birth to Unknown).

I was actually searching for Tabitha Stone, my sixth-great-grandmother born about 1740, when I saw these two Tabitha Stones born in 1655 and proposed the merge of Stone-871 and Stone-48. Donald provided a well-deserved talking-to about proposing merges without reviewing the facts more carefully! Clearly just because the birthdates and one spouse name match, that doesn't mean a merge is always the best path forward. 

Comments

Collaboration produces results :)