Re: Sources?: 1737 Martha Dreamer birth, 1739 William birth
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In reply to:
Re: Sources?: 1737 Martha Dreamer birth, 1739 William birth
Kenneth Drennen 2/18/12
Ken, THANK you very much for your answers.
I did not have that Sarah Barnes reference before.I would be interested in knowing more about the Barnes sourcing, too, just so my "tested-rejected" pile avoids making the same error in another form, but I think your theory makes complete sense and is the best explanation I've heard so far for any reference to 1739 at all.
Based on that view, I now will stop using the 1739 birth date as a given or identifier, and instead will settle for the vaguer "about/before 1750" reference, for the William Drennen who did NOT go to KY but died in Plum Twp. PA after having been married to A Hastings.
(Not sure, either, that we can rely on a first name for his wife yet.The most compelling source I've heard on the name of his wife at all is a will that seems to match the family make-up and locations but unhelpfully omits her first name.Or, other sources imply competing names as the fill-in, especially Margaret and Hannah, which tend not to be nicknames for each other, so likely can't all be true at the same time.So I'm still schooling in those sources and how to weight one versus another.So feel free to keep educating me on which primary sources support which degrees of agreement.I necessarily bounce between surnames more than focusing on one, so feel more like "jack of all trades, master of none.")
As you said, this frustrating incompleteness may be as good as it gets, until the miracle of newly unearthed silver-bullet documents that eliminate all doubt and all work (no doubt carried to us by a unicorn).
But the consolations are learning and discerning more, and a record or consensus gradually less muddy.And support system made wider.
So, many thanks on all counts, and for forums such as these.(Thanks, too, for the other clarification on the related Findley immigration date).