I will try to answer some of John's questions concerning the lineage I posted yesterday. First, the source of my material for this particular line comes from a genealogy compiled by Walter Blanchard sometime in the late 1800s of the Blanchards in and around East Stoughton, MA. Walter fits in as follows: Thomas (1), Nathaniel (2), John (3 & 4), Samuel (5 & 6), Jonathan (7), Horatio (8) and Walter (9). The following is his entry for William (1771) Married Abigail Coffin of Boston, Mass. They first settled after marriage in east Stoughton, Mass., accumulating considerable property. They removed to Boston where he became an extensive real estate owner. (A large portion of his property was located in the vicinity of Pleasant Street). He died about the year 1815, his wife dying about the same time. Children were------ William -- who died quite young in consequence of a fall upon the ice. John W. -- Born March 29, 1803. Richard -- Born Sept. 10, 1801 Mary -- who died in infancy, and who was born soon after the death of her father. >From the above statement I would assume that Abigail died during or because of child birth. William (1747) first wife was Rachael Spear, they had one child, William (above) and Rachael died in 1779. On April 1, 1782 William married Betsy Mann of Randolph MA. They had six children, as follows: John -- March 23.1783 Samuel -- May 30, 1784 Betsy -- May 9, 1786 Seth -- July 18, 1789 Elisha -- Oct. 28, 1792 Lemuel -- 1793 There follows a long account of what William and Betsy did during their lives, ending with, "He died Jan. 21, 1814. Betsy, his wife died June 3, 1833, aged 80 years. Interments at "Old Cemetery", east Main Street, Avon, MA.". It would appear from this account that William was only married twice, the third wife I have listed, Sarah, could have been married to another William (there were certainly a lot branches of the family and each branch had kids of the same name) As for Mary Whitmarsh, that is the name that Walter has as marrying Samuel. The Whitman got into my records from some other source (unknown to me at the moment) and probably occurred by misreading the hand written records or someplace in the transcribing of them. Paul Blanchard