I believe that Samuel Birdseye b. 1704 is ficitious, or at best, erroneous

Question

This profile has a name, Samuel Birdseye, a birth year, 1704, and an "acknowledgement" of ancestry.com family trees. No other data. There are unsourced/unconnected Connecticut categories.The ''Barbour Collection'' has NO record of a Samuel Birdseye born in Connecticut in 1704, nor in several years on either side of that year.  ‘’A History of the Old Town of Stratford'' (Volume 2, page 1149) shows the possible first Birdseye in Connecticut and several generations thereafter; again, no Samuel Birdseye born in the right time frame appears.

Ancestry has but 11 trees, none with "sources" than other trees. Those all ascribe him parents Abel Birdsey and Comfort Welles.in Stratford. Barbour shows that they were married June 8 1704, and there first child, Mary, was born 31 March 1705. Her conception would have been late June, early July, 1704. It is highly unlikely that they had a son born in 1704 born before their marriage. Not impossible, but highly unlikely.

In summary, the only mention of his existence appears in a few unsourced trees on ancestry and some other sites. Either the birth date is erroneous, or there is no such person.

I propose merging Samuel Birdseye-116 away into, fittingly into an existing Samuel Birdseye --- Birdsey-79, born to Abel and Comfort in 1718.

Comments?

 

Comments

Others with the Birdseye surname:

Elizabeth Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
birth:
9 July 1732
christening:
9 July 1732
Flamstead, Hertford, England
residence:
1732
Flamstead, Hertfordshire, England
Sara Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
birth:
8 June 1735
christening:
15 June 1735
Flamstead, Hertford, England
residence:
1735
Flamstead, Hertford, England
Elizabeth Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
9 July 1732
FLAMSTEAD, HERTFORD, ENGLAND
Sarah Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
4 March 1746
ST BOTOLPH BISHOPSGATE, LONDON, LONDON, ENGLAND
Mary Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
13 June 1733
ST BOTOLPH BISHOPSGATE, LONDON, LONDON, ENGLAND
John Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
21 October 1682
ALLHALLOWS LONDON WALL, LONDON, LONDON, ENGLAND
Sarah Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
9 December 1747
ST SEPULCHRE, LONDON, LONDON, ENGLAND
Mary Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
26 July 1734
ST ETHELBURGA BISHOPS GATE, LONDON, LONDON, ENGLAND
Elizabeth Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
birth:
4 January 1735
ST ETHELBURGA BISHOPS GATE, LONDON, LONDON, ENGLAND
John Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
25 September 1737
ST ETHELBURGA BISHOPS GATE, LONDON, LONDON, ENGLAND
William Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
18 March 1732
MOUNTNESSING, ESSEX, ENGLAND
Elizth. Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
28 May 1738
MOUNTNESSING, ESSEX, ENGLAND
Mary Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
25 June 1745
SAINT MARTIN IN THE FIELDS, WESTMINSTER, LONDON, ENGLAND
Thos Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
14 March 1741
KELVEDON NEAR COLCHESTER, ESSEX, ENGLAND
Thomas Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
8 March 1739
SAINT HELEN BISHOPSGATE, LONDON, LONDON, ENGLAND
Mary Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
3 February 1734
WARFIELD, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND
John Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
3 February 1734
WARFIELD, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND
Davy Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
4 September 1739
WARFIELD, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND
Peter Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
2 March 1662
WAVENDON, BUCKINGHAM, ENGLAND
Thomas Birdseye
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening:
25 February 1693
LEIGHTON BUZZARD, BEDFORD, ENGLAND

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Last name: Birdseye

This intriguing and most interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and has two possible interpretations. Firstly, it may be a variant of Bardsey, an English locational name, from either Bardsea in Lancashire, recorded as "Berretseige" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and "Berdeseia" in the 1155 Lancashire Charters; or Bardsey in Yorkshire, which appears as "Berdesei" in the Domesday Book. These placenames are composed of the Olde English personal name "Beornred", from "beorn", a young warrior, and "raed", counsel, advice, plus "-eg, -ieg", an island; hence, "Beornred's island". However, the surname may also be of topographical origin, given to a dweller by an island frequented by birds, from the Olde English "bridd", a bird, and "-eg", as above. Early examples of the surname include: the marriage of Jenet Bardsaie and Richard Lindoe in August 1552, at Ulverston in Lancashire; the marriage of Henry Berdsay to Dorothie Baker on September 6th 1574, at St. Giles' Cripplegate, London; and the christening of Marie, daughter of Thomas Birdseye, on June 4th 1615, at St. Stephan's, Coleman Street, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Jayne Bardsaye, which was dated April 10th 1544, christened at Wragby in Yorkshire, during the reign of King Henry V111, known as "Good King Hal", 1509 - 1547. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research www.surnamedb.com 1980 - 2017

Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Birdseye#ixzz4sVpaIx6B

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I agree that this was probably an internet error, and he should be merged away into his 1718 self/half-brother

Answer 1

Hi Jim,

That sounds like an idea my short tentative research would come to the basic same conclusion. There is however a 10 year birth date difference. Possibly this should be a unmerged match till we can ascertain the Uncertain existence

 

For those looking for the other match it would be Birdseye-79

Answer 2

Samuel Birdseye

England Deaths and Burials

Name	Samuel Birdseye
Gender	Male
Burial Date	04 Jan 1737
Burial Place	Burnham, Buckingham, England

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England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991

Indexing Project (Batch) Number	I05325-3
System Origin	England-EASy
GS Film number	1999132

Citing this Record

"England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991," database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J8LJ-S3L : 24 December 2014), Samuel Birdseye, burial 04 Jan 1737; citing Burnham, Buckingham, England, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,999,132.

Answer 3

My cemetery work has told me that the various early records from CT are not complete. Not the Church Records, not Barbour, not the various compilations such as Orcutt or Jacobus &c. And they all have the occasional error.

I reviewed all the Birdseye/Birdsey profiles recently in association with that cemetery work. At that time, I added the unconnected & unsourced tags to this profile.

My first question: Was Samuel b. 1718 a necronym? Probably not. Not unless Samuel b. 1704 is the twin of Comfort & Abel's daughter Mary, who was born 9 months, 3 weeks after Comfort & Abel were married.

Perhaps unmerged match is suitable now, just so it doesn't dangle all alone. However, if someone turns him up later, a new profile could be created with little pain or bother. For reasons of database frugality, he could also be designated one of those profiles that can be repurposed, thereby keeping the profile number active rather than redirected.

However it's handled, I think it's a safe conclusion that this particular Samuel is NOT the son of Abel & Comfort.

Comments

I strongly agree with Elizabeth regarding the incompleteness of Connecticut records from this time period. Absence of records does not prove that a person didn't exist (although it does make one question the posted profile!!). And in this case the proposal to merge the profile into Birdseye-79 makes a lot of sense. Chances are good that somebody made an error in entering the birth date, and the error got propagated across the Internet.