The Daily Hampshire Gazette just published this interesting article about newly accessible Massachusetts church archives, with some illustrative ancestral anecdotes, and I noticed that I have the violent Jacob Root as one of my 9th great-grandfathers in my Gramps database -- but not on Wikitree.
Why not? Seems Benjamin Mann, born 1717 in Hebron Connecticut and later of Bolton CT, has been incorrectly married off to Sybilla Newton of Rutland Massachusetts, and assigned children born in Rutland from 1744-1758, in the profile Benjamin Mann-93,
However, Benjamin of Bolton and his wife Rachel were simultaneously having kids in Bolton, 1746-56. And there's also a church record verifying he's from Hebron (more further down.) So Sybilla's husband is NOT Benjamin Man[n], born 1717 in Hebron, CT.
Did her husband Benjamin Mann exist? Yes: Per the Vital Records of Rutland, Sybilla did indeed marry a Benjamin Man (and the kids are in the Rutland VR too) but it can't have been the Bolton guy, so where was he from?
There is a claim he is from Scituate: Cutter's Encyclopedia of Massachusetts claims "Benjamin Mann, son of Thomas Mann, was born in Scituate, and later went to Rutland, Massachusetts. There he married, September 18, 1739, Sibella Newton..."
But Benjamin Mann-2162, son of Thomas Mann of Scituate, inconveniently left a grave in Hanover, Plymouth County, MA, as did his son Benjamin Mann. So Sybilla's husband is not either them.
And here is yet another idea about who he might be: This genealogy.com posting tries to straighten it all out, and quotes Bolton church records making it clear that Hebron Benjamin and Bolton Benjamin are one and the same (see above mention of "church records"); this further solidifies the case that 1717-Hebron-born Benjamin is NOT Sybilla's husband.
But that posting gives yet another proposed husband for Sybilla. That is Benjamin Man of Deerfield MA, b. 1709. He shows up under Mun and Munn in the Deerfield Vital Records. This is a possible name variation -- but if you scan down the page, you will see him as Benjamin Jr having kids with wife Mary, 1729-1746, again simultaneously with Sybilla and Rutland-Benjamin. So Benjamin of Deerfield stayed in Deerfield, and isn't Sybilla's husband, either.
I'll rework the Man-93 profile for Rutland/Sybilla Benjamin (estimated birth date 1720) and give the Bolton/Hebron Benjamin a new one, with his real family (including my 6th g-grandfather, Abiathar.)
But where did Sybilla's Benjamin come from? Anyone actually know?
