I looked at my Connection Finder connection to Maureen O'Hara, poked at one of the key links in the connection chain, and fell down a rabbithole when I looked at his wife.
Now I'm trying to sort out the biographies and profile for at least two, and probably more, women named Hannah Foster who were born in Massachusetts in 1694 or thereabouts. Relevant profiles are Foster-607, Foster-3471, and Foster-4080.
Some facts I "know" from sources are:
- Hannah, daughter of John and Hannah Foster, was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on 25 July 1694 (Plymouth Vital Records).
- Hannah, daughter of David Foster and Hannah (Buxton) Foster was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on 4 December 1694 (Salem Vital Records). The father is almost certainly the man represented by http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Foster-3479 -- his birth in 1665 is recorded in Salem Vital Records (but I think think the 1748 death on that profile and in Torrey's New England Marriages is wrong; based on the names in the will filed in 1748, I think the man who died in 1748 was a different, younger man who married Elizabeth in 1712 -- there were several David Fosters in Salem). His wife Hannah doesn't have a WikiTree profile; http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Buxton-205 is too young.
- A Hannah Foster married Henry Chandler. Henry was originally from Andover, Mass., and Abbott's Descendants of George Rowley says they were married in Andover, Mass., and later resided in Enfield, Connecticut. The marriage intentions appear in Chelmsford (Mass.) Vital Records on 14 September 1723; the record indicates that Henry was "of Enfield" (implying Enfield, Massachusetts, not Connecticut -- but that's OK, as the town then called Enfield, Mass. later became Enfield, Conn.), and the listing in Chelmsford Vital Records suggests that Hannah was a Chelmsford girl. There are lots of Fosters in the Chelmsford records, but no births for a Hannah (nor an Anna) of the right approximate age.
- The Partridge Genealogy states that Hannah Foster, daughter of Deacon John Foster of Plymouth, married William Bradford as her first husband and later George Partridge, and died in 1778, ae. 84. I don't know where the author got his information, but his statements indicate her to be the Hannah Foster who was born in Plymouth on 25 July 1694.
Some observations about WikiTree profiles:
The wife of George Partridge is the woman represented by Foster-607, but the WikiTree profile has her as the daughter of a Thomas Foster (unsourced profile) who died in 1682. That father connection is incorrect. It appears to me that Foster-607 should be connected to parents named John and Hannah. WikiTree has a John Foster and Hannah (Stetson) Foster marrying in Plymouth in 1692; they are the presumptive parents of the Hannah who married William Bradford and George Partridge, but I think that some details of John Foster's profile might be off.
Profile Foster-3471 represents that daughter of John Foster and Hannah (Stetson) Foster, but it also has her as the woman who married Henry Chandler. I can't find any basis for attaching this Hannah Foster to Henry Chandler, particularly since there's some indication that she married two other men.
Currently, no WikiTree profile appears to represent the Hannah Foster born in Salem in 1694. Foster-4080, which represents the woman who married Henry Chandler, is not connected to any parents or birth records. I can't find any rationale for assigning any particular birth record or parents to the Hannah Foster who married Henry Chandler, and I can't find any rationale for connecting the woman born in Salem in 1694 to that woman or to any other records of Hannah Foster as an adult.
[To be continued]
