Catherine (Payne) Connolly (abt. 1750)

Descendants

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Biography

The birth date of Catherine Payne and the names of her parents are unknown. The only records found for her existence is in the birth record of her son, Cyrus Payne Connolly,^[1] and also on Cyrus' gravestone.^[2] The birth date field for this profile uses the year of 1750 as an estimated date, only because a date is required by WikiTree.^[3]

Catherine married James Connolly, who also has unknown parents.^[1]

Research Notes

There are two headstones for James and Catherine's son Cyrus. One is very old and difficult to decipher, mostly illegible from the photo posted online. The other is newer, and says "son of James & Catherine (Payne)". The source for parents' names is unknown. This so far is the only place his mother's maiden name has been found.^[2]

FindAGrave has a memorial for Catherine Payne Connolly which gives birth in 1750, Northumberland County, Virginia; death in July 1856 (aged 105-106), Wright County, Missouri; and links to husband and son. However, it shows no headstone photo and gives the burial location as unknown for her and her husband, and mentions no sources for any of the data. So it has zero reliability as a source and can't be used.^[4]

A general search on both FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com found no sources with information that could be linked to her. There are a ton of user-generated family trees with a lot of unsourced, erroneous, and conflicting information, none of which can be trusted to use.

It will undoubtedly take a lot more work to discover records relevant to her life.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Beverley Fleet, Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Volume III, Northumberland Co. Record of Births, 1661-1810, Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, MD, 1961. Note: This book is an abstract of the original record book which is held at the Department of Archives, Virginia State Library, Richmond, VA. Church Record of Births (with a few deaths) Northumberland County. See preface to the book for information about St. Stephen's Parish history and its inhabitants.

   page 31, Cyrus Payne Connolly son to James & Catherine his wife ws bn Novm 17 1778

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 26 March 2018); memorial page for Cyrus Payne Connolly, Find A Grave: Memorial #51731637, created by Howard Boone on 28 Apr 2010, headstone photo included. Note: There are two headstones for Cyrus. One appears to be the original and is mostly illegible; the other is much newer and gives his parents' names as "James and Catherine (Payne)"
3. ↑ Birth year was estimated based on assuming she was at least 21 years old when son Cyrus was born in 1778, then rounded back to the decade.
4. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 26 March 2018), memorial page for Catherine Payne Connolly, Find A Grave: Memorial #158493058, created by Christopher Gentry 22 Feb 2016.