History of Strong-145 and Strong-4743, part of a Somerby fraud

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: Strong Billings

There is no reliable source that says Elizabeth Billings, once shown as the wife of Richard Billings (Billings-2757) – who is most correctly represented by the profile Billings-571; these two profiles have now been merged – was born Elizabeth Strong.

The duplicative profile Strong-4743 has been merged into Strong-145: both were sourced only from online trees or pedigree resource files; both were products of a Horatio Gates Somerby fraud.

These merges are part of the effort to correct older, mistaken references to the mythical Richard Billings of Taunton, Somerset; the origins and life of the actual Richard Billings are supported by parish records from Rainforth, Prescot, Lancashire, England. Please see the excellent work of Rachelle Child and Helen Ullmann in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register #171, Spring 2017^[1].

Note (3 April 2023): a free PDF of the Child & Ullman article, originally linked here, is no longer accessible at the cited URL [1]. Alternative free access is however now available at: pdf download (free) - (archived link)

There are no actual known records supporting the existence of Elizabeth Strong, as earlier represented by either Strong-4743 or Strong-145. The merged profile Strong-145 has thus been merged away into Unknown-585402... the correct profile for the wife of Richard Billings.

The following excerpted biographical notes and sources were included in the pre-merge profiles for Elizabeth Strong:

From Strong-145:

Elizabeth Strong was a daughter of Ebenezer Strong who married Elizabeth's mother on 20 January 1562, at Baltonsborough, Somerset, England

Source:

• Ancestry Family Trees (NB this record showed error " Cannot be Found"): Crocket Family Tree

• Family Search (this record also showed error "Cannot be Found"): _P_CCINFO 1-18437@NI17921_2589GM2@, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Pedigree Resource File,"

• FamilySearch (NB this record also showed error "Cannot be Found"): (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/SRD5-3LV : accessed 2017-03-04), entry for Elizabeth /Strong/.

See also [note that U.S. And International Marriage Records is not considered by WikiTree to be a reliable source]:

• U.S. And International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 Source number: 24005.004; Source type: Pedigree chart; Number of Pages: 4, Yates Publishing. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

From Strong-4743 (which displayed a Somerset sticker):

"Our Family Tree" record (unsourced) states Elizabeth was born in 1564. She married Richard William Billings they had four children:

Richard born 1591 Roger Billings born 1594 /5 Ebenezer born 1597 William born 1601/1604 all born in (Deanes Estate), Taunton Somerset, England

Sources

• Unsourced User Trees