[email protected] wrote in part > Francis (MP) Cooke, bef 1583-1663 (m.Hester Mahieu, abt. 1585-1666) > Daughter, Mary Cooke, 1626?-1713 (m. Francis Tobey, 1602-1635?) > Son, Thomas Tobey, 1625-1714 (m. Martha Knott, b. 1629) > ... > Yes, I have much conflicting information in my files on the dates & > relationships surrounding Francis (MP) Cooke, Hester, and their > daughter, Mary Cooke from several different sources... > Mary's birth appears quite late compared with the one's I have for her > siblings: born about 23 years after marriage and with Hester abt age > 41 and Francis abt age 49 at the time of her birth... > You are correct that my dates for Mary as relates to a marriage to > Francis Tobey & the dates for the children do not make sense as > written. > Where does the persistent idea come from that she married a Francis > Tobey and had two children, Thomas Tobey & Ruth Tobey? You seem to refer to some communications that are not posted on this list, so perhaps your questions were answered already. Since your whole postulated Mayflower line depends on an early Cooke to Tobey connection, perhaps that should be settled first. Do you have any evidence, other than "persistent idea" that Mary Cooke, youngest daughter of Francis Cooke, could have married a Francis Tobey and had a child Thomas by 1625? The MayF 5Gen Silver book for Francis Cooke documents the early family well. Mary was certainly borne after her mother arrived in 1623, and before May 1627 Division of Land when she is first listed. Mary married in Plymouth, 26 Dec 1645 John Tompson [Plym Col Records] That she first married a Francis Tobey [who is not listed in Torrey Marriages at all, or mentioned anywhere in the Tobey genealogy [Tobey, Rufus 1905, Boston] seems absurd. The Thomas Tobey who married Martha Knott in 1650 could hardly be her son. That Mary was born to a mother of about age 41, some 9 months or more after her parents were re-united in 1623 after a separation of several years seems more plausible than postulating an earlier birth of which there is no evidence; or a first husband of whom no record seems to exist. Regards, Bob Bob & Dee Carroll. Westport, NY, on Lake Champlain Relations of Bob & Dee http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=rcarroll