Hi, everybody: I looked up "Massachusetts John Dutton" on the LDS site yesterday. It's at www.familysearch.org The results were interesting. As I have reported earlier, the ancestry of Thomas Dutton of Reading, Massachusetts (born about 1619) is a bit of a mess in the LDS records, even though Thomas is a direct ancestor of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church. However, even though Thomas is still claimed as the son of "Massachusetts John" (which is the traditional link, but unproved), at least MA John is no longer his own grandfather, which was the case about two years ago when I first looked at Thomas' ancestry in the Personal Ancestral File. In what follows, "AFN" refers to the LDS "Ancestral File Number". My comments are in brackets. I would *love* for anyone to be able to shed some light on this family, or even on any one or more of its members. --------------- Husband: John Dutton, AFN: 9J83-MW Christened 1596 Apr 19 Frodsham, Cheshire Born 1598 Oct 5 Sherborne, Gloucestershire [Baptized before being conceived.] Married ca1620 Dutton, Cheshire Died 1693 May 4 Reading, Massachusetts Buried 1676? Frodsham, Cheshire [At least they put a question mark by the date. But I really don't think they shipped bodies back....] Wife: Mary Nuld, AFN: FVQQ-RH [This is a newer incarnation of Mary "Neeld", whom we know was actually the re-married name of Mary (Darlington) Dutton, widow of "Pennsylvania John".] Born 1599 Sherborne, Gloucestershire Children: Elizabeth, AFN: HQNG-9K Born 1620 May 17 Sherborne, Gloucestershire Thomas, AFN: 1KRW-Z9 ["Our" Thomas] Born 1621/2 of Reading, Massachusetts ["Of" Reading is OK, but Reading was set off from Lynn in 1644. Lynn was renamed from Saugus in 1637. Saugus was first mentioned in 1631.] Josiah, AFN: K7H3-5V Born 1623 Sherborne, Gloucestershire Joseph, AFN: MT5X-38 Born 1623 Billerica, Massachusetts [Billerica was first mentioned in 1655, and was almost certainly devoid of English inhabitants before that date.] [Mother was BUSY in the year 1623!] Robert, AFN: K7H3-77 Born 1625 Billerica, Massachusetts [Still no English in Billerica.] Samuel, AFN: K7H3-62 Born 1627 Billerica, Massachusetts [No, not yet! STILL no English there.] --------------- According to these files, Thomas had two wives: Susannah, AFN: 8VDR-GV Born ca1626 of Reading, Massachusetts [See discussion of "of Reading" under Thomas, above.] Died 1684 Aug 27 Billerica, Massachusetts Susannah Palmer, AFN: 23QR-KP0 (last character is zero) Born 1626 Reading, Massachusetts Died Billerica, Massachusetts [OOPS. But there is a reason this "second wife" exists, in my opinion. The record of AFN: 8VDR-GV was locked by the LDS staff against further tries at changing her maiden name from "unknown" to "Palmer". At least, that was the case two years ago. Some creative submitter appears to have circumvented the limitation by adding the same person as a *second* spouse.... There is no real evidence that I am aware of that identifies Thomas' wife Susannah as being a Palmer.] --------------- Again, I am very interested in any NEW information that could help us all straighten out this family, and make some credible connections back to England. Darrell Darrell A. Martin formerly of the Dutton District, Springfield, Vermont currently in exile in Addison, Illinois darrellm@sprynet.com