Cleaning up the Mendenhall Mess

Question

I adopted the abandoned profile of my 7th great grandfather, Benjamin Mendenhall Sr. He was the child of Thomas Mendenhall and Joane Strode.   He has at LEAST 21 siblings listed.  This is wrong.  There are duplicates and triplicates of siblings, some with just minor spelling variations and at least one with surnames spelled completly different.  Which brings up another point: If these Mendenhalls are Mildenhalls, shouldn't they be one profile, maybe with the name variation in the "also known as" box?

Going through the list of siblings and checking each one, here are the duplicates I've found:

Margery Mendenhall

Mendenhall-105 (abandoned)

Mendenhall-148 (Bob Carson)

Mendenhall-206 (Ken Austin)

(First name spelled Marjory and Margery)

 

Thomas Mendenhall

Mendenhall-104 (Ken Austin)

Mendenhall-150 (Bob Carson)

 

Joane Mendenhall

Mildenhall-3 (Ken Austin)

Mendenhall-103 (abandoned)

Mendenhall-154 (Bob Carson)

Mendenhall-207 (Ken Austin) "Jane" same birthdate and parents as other Joanes

 

George Mendenhall

Mendenhall-115 (abandoned)

Mendenhall-153 (Bob Carson)

Mendenhall-210 (Ken Austin)

 

Benjamin Mendenhall

Mendenhall-114 (Mine)

Mendenhall-147 (Bob Carson)

Mendenhall-212 (Ken Austin)

 

Mary Mendenhall

Mendenhall-152 (Bob Carson)

Mendenhall-146 (Bob Carson)

Mendenhall-211 (Ken Austin)

Mendenhall-113 (Liz Shifflett)

 

Stephen Mendenhall

Mendenhall-112 (abandoned)

Mendenhall-151 (Bob Carson)

Mendenhall-213 (Ken Austin)

 

Aaron Mendenhall

Mendenhall-110 (abandoned)

Mendenhall-149 (Bob Carson)

 

Help.  Please.  Thank you.

Comments

Hi! I had worked a bit on Mendenhalls (the brothers Aaron and John married the daughters of a Dixon, and I've been trying to sort out Dixons looking for "my" John Dixon for a while).

Anyway, I just heard from someone I'd contacted back then who asked if y'all were aware of data available from the Mendenhall Organization: see mendenhall.org if you aren't.

I had contacted him to thank him for a transcription of Thomas Pierson's estate
inventory that he'd posted at http://mfadocuments.tripod.com/tpierson.html and to make sure he was ok with how I'd referenced it on Thomas's profile. Since he's the father-in-law of just two Mendenhalls, I don't know that y'all would have seen the links I posted on the Pierson profile.

Cheers, Liz

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Hi!  Yes, I'm aware of the Mendenhall Association.  They were very instrumental in helping my uncle and me break down a brick wall in the 90's.  Without their help I'd have never known that my 3rd great grandfather was Baltis Lemon, married to Mary Mendenhall, and they helped us figure out where all the Abners and Lydias came from in our line.  They were all Mendenhall names.

Thank you so much for thinking of me.  :)

Answer 1

Interesting - Ken Austin is the profile manager for many of my Packer duplicates. In the past I have been able to get him to merge, but haven't managed lately. Don't wait too long to put in an open profile request.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I will start with Joane.

All of the merges are purposed now.  You should have an email for Benjamin's.

Comments

I am not related but I am curious as what the final LNAB will be for Thomas ? Thank you, Paula.

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Maggie, I am sort of new but I merged into the lowest number of the correct last name Mendenhall.  I think - did you notice something different? I didn't do all of the merges - others were helping.  That is the great thing about Wikitree!

What else do we need to do now, Maggie?

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All is good as I could not decide which LNAB to keep for the family . Holler if you need more help through private messaging .

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Anyone know the source for the marriage date of Thomas Mendenhall to Joane Strode as married August 12, 1649 in Ramsbury, Wiltshire, , England ?

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Probably U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900:

Source Citation: Source number: 1016.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: RLR.

Source Information:

Yates Publishing. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

 

Original data: This unique collection of records was extracted from a variety of sources including family group sheets and electronic databases. Originally, the information was derived from an array of materials including pedigree charts, family history articles, querie.

 

An Ancestry.com thing.  It has the date to which you refer. 

 

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I've been using this as a guide for my own research:

 

History, Correspondence and Pedigrees of the Mendenhalls of 
England and the United States.

It's available online on openlibrary.org, and as far as my own Mendenhall family goes, it fits pretty well with what I've been able to find documented in records. But my direct Mendenhall line is through a maternal connection; the daughter of one of Thomas' many, many, MANY descendants.  I'm Thomas to Benjamin to Benjamin to Samuel to Abner to Mary Mendenhall who married Baltis Lemon.  

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Thank you Paula!

Answer 3

Does anyone have access to any of these sources for the proper citation of Thomas Mendenhall ?

We are trying to figure out his parentage.

 1. Futhey and Cope Hist. of Chester County, Penn. pp. 635 

: 2. D.A.R. Magazine Vol 60 p. 220

: 3. Comp. of American Gen. Vol 5.

 

THANKS. 

Comments

Hi Maggie,

Perhaps you have this link by now, but here it is for what its worth - I could not find Thomas Mendenhall in it but page 655 has many Mendenhalls.

History of Chester County Pennsylvania by Futhey and Cope

While lookiing, I ran across this promising book, published 1989 and can be borrowed from the Internet Archive lending library.

Ancestors and descendants of Jacob H. Mendenhall and his wife Hannah W. Newlin from the first emigrants, Benjamin Mendenhall, England, and Nathaniel Newlin, Ireland, to Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1683

UPDATE: the Open Library is down right (unusual) so here is a WorldCat link instead:

''Ancestors and descendants of Jacob H. Mendenhall and his wife Hannah W. Newlin from the first emigrants, Benjamin Mendenhall, England, and Nathaniel Newlin, Ireland, to Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1683''

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April, thanks a bunch for these sources. I will re-visit the Mendenhalls soon and get some proper sources in there .

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You're welcome, Maggie. I don't think I have Mendenhalls in my tree but my niece's husband has many Quakers from Pennsylvania and think some are Mendenhalls. It is a daunting task to bring order to the duplicates here, and I applaud the efforts of all who are working on it!