Mcanfora@aol.com wrote: > > While entering information to my Marston file from two different sources - The > Marston Genealogy and The History of Nottingham, Deerfield, and Northfield - > two questions came to mind. Before I make any assumptions, I'd like everyone > on this list to comment on whether you agree or disagree with my comments. > > In the History of Nottingham, etc., p. 425, there begins a 7-page coverage of > Daniel Marston's background. It states, "Three brothers came from England, > and settled at Hampton, N.H. The family of Marstons in Deerfield sprang from > Daniel, the son of one of these brothers." The article goes on to say that > Daniel "Deceased in ye year 1757 in the month of November a Friday at ye > eleventh about eight of the clock in the evening at Harvord in the Province of > the Mearcsityes Eraged, at the house of John Taylor, Innholder. Aged 50 > years." > > Comment: The calculated birth date here for Daniel would be 1707, far too > late to be the son of the Marstons who came from England to New England in > 1634. I checked with the Marston Genealogy and found a Daniel who was born 13 > Sep 1708, s/o Simon (1683-Bef 1735/6) and Hannah Marston. Simon was the s/o > Ephraim and Abial (Sanborn) Marston; Ephraim was the s/o Thomas Marston, b. > 1617 in England, and Mary Estow. Thomas was the s/o William Marston, Sr., b. > in England about 1592 and came to Salem, MA in 1634. I believe that the > Daniel above, b. 1708, is the same as the one referred to in the Deerfield > section, who was an officer in the French and Indian war. Comments? > > If anyone would like the rest of the story on Daniel or his descendants, > please let me know. > > The other question arose as I crosschecked the VR information in the Marston > Genealogy with the Hampton, NH Vital Records. So many of the dates did not > match that I stopped entering. What I think happened is that the author of > the Marston Genealogy did not convert the dates from the old dating to the new > dating, i.e., the Marston Genealogy had Samuel Marston, b. 8 July, 1661. The > Hampton, NH Vital Records had 8th of 7th Mo. 1661. Since in the old dating > system March was the first month, the 7th month would have been September. > This kind of error is throughout the Marston Genealogy. I just wanted to > alert you to that and seek your concurrence with what I suppose happened. > Comments? > > Maryellen > Mcanfora@aol.com You're absolutely right. I'm sure, much to Sanborns' combined disgust and chagrin, I've not yet consulted their excellent compilation of Hampton's VRs in uploading The Marston Genealogy (TMG) to Marston Manor. One, I haven't yet obtained my copy of Volume 1, and two, before I made the corrections, I needed to enter the data to be corrected. I felt justified in this approach for a couple reasons. First, TMG suffers from the same problems as a family genealogy as many others of the same era do. That may make them less reliable, but it doesn't nullify their value completely. Second, the calendar problem affects only 3 months of the year for the colonial years up until 1752 or 1753. Above and beyond that, however, you will find several errors of assumption, speculation, omission and comission. In dealing with ANY of the genealogies of this or any era, consider them as evidence submitted as proof of a fact. Give the evidence as much weight as you believe it deserves in view of conflicting evidence and/or support offered by way of source(s). You'll find both TMG and Dow's History of Hampton wanting in these departments. Sanborn & Sanborn's Hampton VRs should resolve most, if not all such conflicts - at LEAST to the extent that records exist (which, as you know, is frequently not the case). Btw, I plan on making those corrections starting in the near future. As Bill Teschek has noted on his Hampton Lane Library pages, errors published on the internet can be corrected much more quickly and with far less expense than those errors printed in the hard copy of a published book. -- Dick Marston, Marston Manor: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/1638/; Rockingham County, NH, County GenWeb Pages: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/1706/; Rockingham County, NH, Mail List (NHROCKIN) Owner.