Ignoring Torrey about a New England marriage?

Question

A bunch of sources state that Jeremiah Child married first Martha ____ and second the widow Elizabeth (Thurber) Eastabrooke. Some of these sources, including Torrey and this article from the Register, indicate that this attribution is probably wrong. The Register arcitlce states that it is probably mistaking Jeremiah for his son Jeremiah Jr. I don't know why Torrey says this -- maybe the same reason? Maybe not. 

The well known Genealogy of the Child, Childs, Childe families has Elizabeth (Thurber) Eastabrook marrying the elder Jeremiah:

https://archive.org/details/genealogyofchild00chil/page/692

The above cited Register article says this was a mistake. But moving many pages forward in the Child genealogy, we find why the assignment was made. Jeremiah Jr. seemingly married Mary Hatch at the time that he was presumably married to Elizabeth:

https://archive.org/details/genealogyofchild00chil/page/710

But wait! It seems there is a simple solution to this mess. Elizabeth is only known as "Elizabeth Child" in several land records starting in 1745 (her first husband Thomas Eastabrooke died in 1724). The elder Jeremiah Child had *two* known sons -- Jeremiah Jr. and the much more prominent John Child, b. 1672, m. Margery Hayward/Howard with whom he had a bunch of children. But the will of John Child from 1738 mentions first his beloved wife Elizabeth. Not Margery ... 

So, I want to connect Elizabeth (Thurber) Eastabrooke to John instead of Jeremiah. I hestiate, mainly because this is contradicting Torrey. So I am soliciting input. Is this not as simple as it looks? Why would Torrey have missed this?

Comments

I added links to Torrey and links to the sources that Torrey used. They all are available for free online.

Answer 1

Hi Barry!

is there any source for a wedding between Elizabeth Eastabrooke and this John?  Or any Elizabeth and this John, presumably after the demise of Margery in 1726 and before the demise of John in 1739?

Comments

No. There are sources, however, for Jeremiah Jr. being married and in another town than Elizabeth while she should have been married to him. And Torrey himself says the marriage to Jeremiah Sr. is probably wrong, with several reasons being possible for him to have given. So if there is plenty of evidence against both Jeremiahs, why not go with the simplest explanation. (Here is, yet again, an instance where an uncertain flag for marriages would be very useful. But the Wikitree powers have said it is too hard to implement.)

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I am all for your theory! I think the only thing to do is make sure there is no contradicting evidence such as proof that John's wife Elizabeth is some other Elizabeth (a marriage record, a subsequent marriage after John passes away, more land transfers etc).  If that contradicting evidence is lacking after your own good search for it, i think it would be proper to link them as you suggest, and recount the whole situation in the profile of all individuals involved.  However, i am not an expert on that place and time, so maybe you will get a better answer.

I wouldn't think of it as ignoring Torrey. You are giving due regard to his evidence, and supplementing it with additional info, such as the wife's name in the will.

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I see that John's will mentions a granddaughter Elizabeth Eastabrooks (minor under 18).  Maybe it would help if you could figure out exactly how she fits in.  If she came into the family as a daughter of an Eastabrooks step-son of John's, that would add to the evidence that John's second wife was an Eastabrooks widow, and had the first name Elizabeth, therefore was more and more likely to be Elizabeth Thurber Easterbrooks.

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Elizabeth is John's granddaughter, the daughter of his daughter Patience, who married John Eastabrooke.

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okay, so my idea is a non-starter!

Answer 2

Torrey is not by himself a real source, but rather a compilation of and quasi-index to sources. You need to consult the sources that Torrey cites to properly evaluate the evidence. Some of Torrey's sources are solid and some are problematic (I'd use a stronger word but propriety forbids).

Comments

Note that the ancestry.com version of Torrey does not cite the sources he used, but the americanancestors.org version does.

The entry on americanancestor.org states:

CHILD, Jeremiah & 2/wf Elizabeth (THURBER) [ESTEBROOK], w  homas (probably wrong); aft 1689; Swansea {Child 692; Davol-Willets 51; Snow-Estes 2:134}

Child is: Child, Elias, Genealogy of the Child, Childs and Childe Families of the Past and Present in the U.S. and the Canadas from 1638 to 1881 (Utica, N.Y.: Curtiss & Childs, 1881)

Davol-Willets is: Frost, Josephine C., Ancestors of Frank Herbert Davol and His Wife, Phebe Downing Willits (New York: F. H. Hitchcock, 1925)

Snow-Estes is: Snow, Nora Emma, The Snow-Estes Ancestry, 2 vols. (Hillburn, N.Y.: privately printed, 1939)

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The print version, published by the Genealogical Publishing Company, is also without sources.

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Torrey was a simple gather of information. His sources ranged from the very good to the absolutely awful. They were entered into his database with absolutely no critical evaluation as to the accuracy of the data.  So the statement that Torrey is not a "real source" is absolutely correct.  Torrey can never be trusted as a source in any matter of controversy. Rather he should be used as a guide to help you find the underlying sources for the information.