Essential Tremor and researching Wilcox Family History
Granny Lentz
There was a program on that had someone evaluating the authenticity of
a document signed by John Hancock. It was from his later years and
showed that he had a tremor in his hand. This peaked my interest
because I knew he was related and my ET is hereditary (probably on the
Wilcox side). I looked up the connection and found that he was a
fourth cousin once removed to David Leonard Savage through his mother
Phoebe Stevens. (David Leonard Savage was my grandmother Martha Elnora
Wilcox Hacking's grandfather.) This brought my attention to the fact
that I didn't have too much on the KEH Family Tree on Ancestry.com to
document Phoebe Stevens so I started to do some research in
Ancestry.com, Ancestral File and the Barbour Collection and I found
something quite interesting.
It would appear that Phoebe was baptized ( 16 May 1773) several years
before she was born (23/28 Oct 1775) along with five of her siblings
and her mother Mary, which happened a decade after her father Thomas
had died (10 Feb 1763). We certainly have amazing ancestors that can
accomplish such impossible tasks. :-D
Here is the folly of relying on someone else's research, or lack of
it, whichever the case may be. The easiest problem to debunk is the
death date of Thomas Stevens, which is actually his marriage date,
according to Ancestral File, but I am still trying to find
documentation on that. I did find the following on Jane Devlin's web
site:
http://dunhamwilcox.net/barbour/durham_barbour_r-w.htm
**************************************** (Please note I removed all
non-relevant names.)
STEPHENS (see under STEVENS)
STEVENS
Aaron, son Thomas & Mary, bap. July 11, 1773
Abigail, dau Thomas & Mary, bap. May 16, 1773
Daniel, son Thomas & Mary, bap. May 16, 1773 (see note on Huldah's
entry)
Diana, dau Thomas & Mary, bap. May 16, 1773 (see note on Huldah's
entry)
Diana, of Durham, dau of Thomas, m Charles SEARS of Haddam, Aug 19,
1779, by Rev Elizur Goodrich
Elnathan, son Thomas & Mary, bap. May 16, 1773 (see note on Huldah's
entry)
Huldah, dau Thomas & Mary, bap. May 16, 1773 (Thomas & Mary had five
[I count six] of their children bap, that day (see children above).
Hard to say when the b dates were; apparently they gathered up their
children, whatever their ages, and did it all in one fell swoop. The
mother, Mary, also bap. that day)
Mary, wife of Thomas, bap. May 16, 1773
Phebe, dau Thomas & Mary, bap. May 16, 1773 (see note above on
Huldah's entry)
*************************
However, when I looked at the actual image of the page from the
Barbour Collection (Durham Vital Records 1708-1852 > S > Image 14;
page 93), I noticed that the year had brackets around it [1773] and
all the baptisms were from the same source page 323, whereas the
marriage of Diana was not, and had the source page of 334. I also
noted that Ancestral File has Phoebe's birth information as 23/28 Oct
1776 in Durham, Middlesex, CT, whereas Aunt LaVerne filled out a
pedigree chart for the 1975 John Dingman Wilcox Family Bulletin that
lists Phoebe as being born 28 Oct 1776 or 1770 in Vermont.
The only way to find the right answers to all of these questions is to
go to the original records if I can. If any of you can shed more light
on this, or where to locate the best sources, please do.
Thanks,
Eileen