I am attaching two narratives: (1) proposing leaving David Gates-1969 as and where he is and (2) a "relabeling of Gates-1970" with the "correct" details about, birth, location, etc. I would appreciate any feedback either on content and procedure.
(1)
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Where Does David Gates-1969 Belong!
(1753 – 1798 WikiTree),
authored August 13th 2018
[Postscript (August 26th 2018):
This has been written to clarify the question in the above title. David-1969 should probably stay right where he is as a “probable” son of Rachel (Hayes-874) Gates. My preference would be with a note in the profile about the reason for probable.
One of the WikiTree “Helpers” originally suggested I file this as a post, more or less as a question, especially since I was proposing or questioning “people relationships”. It was a good recommendation as I had previously sent a private message to the “profile manager” but had not yet received a reply. In summary I was suggesting that David Gates-1969 (WikiTree adds these serial numbers as profiles get created) was not the son of Rachel (Hayes-874) Gates. Second I was suggesting that Samuel Gates-1970 was not his father nor was he Rachel's spouse. I still hold by that assertion and will develop the evidence in another entry in this blog.
My reasoning should have included a careful review of my own files as I was in this case too focused on the Barbour Collection where nine children of Samuel and Rachel were listed, and David was not among them. One of the “Helpers” in G2G suggested that the Whitney Genealogy may have been the first source to suggest David as child. The Helper wrote, “That David was "youngest child" (and supposedly unrecorded child) of Samuel and Rachel was proposed as "probable" by Stephen Whitney Phoenix, 1878, The Whitney Family of Connecticut, and Its Affiliations..., Volume 1 page 65.”
Another G2G Helper went to the Torrey record of the Stephen Gates family published in THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL REGISTER, 1966-1967. David Gates is listed by Torrey as a possible child of Samuel and Rachel and married to a Jerusha Whitney (1774). As I re-examined the Torrey document I did notice that, James Gates had also married a Whitney, Polly Whitney. James would be the immediately older brother to “the possible” brother David. Both James and David later had relocated to Vermont.
James was born in August 1752 and David in June 1753 [Whitney1878]. David could perhaps be attributed to other Gates families in proximity in Fairfield County but this has not been pursued. Samuel's brother Jonathan had eight children in his will, none of them David. Perhaps the WikiTree entry for David Gates-1969 can have a note added about the “possible” assignment. One of the G2G Helpers did modify the entry to include the Whitney source.
The children of Samuel Gates-170 and Mary Richards-2135 (m.1709.10) absent Samuel JR (he is not listed in Barbour) were born in Pomfret (1712-1722) Gates family in Pomfret. The WikiTree profile for Samuel Gates-1970 reports he was born in August 14, 1715 but in East Haddam, CT [Barbour]. Torrey [NEHGR1966-67] reports Samuel as perhaps born born in Pomfret, 1710, but misreports his death as 1798. One theory was that the death was misreported as 1798 and should have been 1793, from ae of 84 at death, as reported, in the Barbour Collection. The death date of Gates-1970 (spouse Rachel) was before December 1793 by Connecticut Probate Records, docket #1920, Hartford State Library. From the docket #1920, Jonathan Gates of Ridgefield, Samuel Gates of Norwalk and Thomas St. John all of Fairfield County were the administrators.
Using geographical locations and children births [Barbour] Samuel Gates of Norwalk is likely the spouse of Ruth (Olmstead-5367) Gates and thus the son of Samuel Gates-1970. Jonathan Gates of Ridgefield is probably also a son of Gates-1970. I believe Thomas St. John is an in-law via the Hayes sisters (named in James Hayes Will).
At this point I am breaking off this postscript and starting a separate document. It will discuss the profile for Gates-1970 and Gates-4366 titled . “Which Samuel Gates married Rachel Hayes on April 1, 1734?”. I have made other minor edits in the body below for clarification.
White, L. Cook. (1994). The Barbour collection of Connecticut town vital records. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co.]
(2)
Which Samuel Gates married Rachel Hayes on April 1, 1734?
authored August 23, 2018
This story becomes complicated because we have so many Gates with the first name of “Samuel” in Connecticut in the 1600's and 1700's. The profile for Samuel Gates-1970 needs to be edited with changes to birth place, birth date and death date. Secondarily a new Gates line in East Haddam can be created with deleted details and appropriate ancestors (starting with Gates-1210). Third the profile Gates-4366 which I created can be deleted. There are many details to the descendants of Samuel Gates-170 and Mary (Richards-2135) Fairbanks Truesdell Gates that can then be added.
My approach may be too simplistic for WikiTree but I will need advice on the best approach.
I created Gates-4366 because he did not appear in the “Search for a Person” list. I found Gates-1970 when I went to add Rachel Hayes as his spouse. Conundrum. I looked at the profiles and saw that most sources for Gates-1970 were IGI. I decided to walk it backwards with FamilySearch.org to see what could be discovered. Gates-1969 on the way created a little bit more confusion and it was multiple-pass to get to this point.
I noted that Samuel Gates-1970 was eight years younger than Rachel; an improbable marriage or was the birthdate in error. By going to the Barbour Collection for East Haddam it seemed that Samuel Gates-1970 was real but just in the wrong locality, the wrong age and Rachel had been consistently located in Ridgefield by virtue of her children with Samuel.
Fortunately, another genealogist had been doing some independent work on Samuel Gates-1970 (also known as Captain) and had him married but childless (m. Anne Fuller) and descended from another Samuel Gates (b.1681 d.1737 also known as Sergeant) (m. Esther Hungerford) who was descended from George Gates and Sarah (Olmsted). This all fell out as I followed sources to FindAGrave.com via Familyseach.org
Sergeant Samuel Gates father of Captain Samuel Gates in FindAGrave.com
… Be certain to click the “Read More”.
WikiTree entry Gates-1210 is our probable Sergeant Samuel Gates and has no assigned children. The FindAGrave.com has all the details.
Samuel Gates and Esther (Hungerford) in WikiTree
I assume this is all credible and reasonable sourcing.
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