This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/wQB.2ACE/877.7 Message Board Post: This post got some varied response during 2003, which I certainly appreciate. However, since some of us were "talking" details behind the scenes in recent months, it's time to update website readers on some corrections and additions: -- Jehu Parsons died in his 90s, not 80s, as author Norman Bailey apparently thought. The 1830 census shows Jehu in his 90s, though his wife was in her 70s. This gives credence to a discovery by Lynn Ference of a Jehu Parsons b. 1736 in Cecil County, MD, with a brother William. (However, no trace of "our" Jehu is yet found between 1741 Cecil and NJ-Downe's 1773 tax rolls).) -- None of us now believes that Joanna, Johanna or Johannah was mother of Jonathan or any other child with Jehu Parsons, but only a 2nd or 3rd wife to a widower. She was a generation younger than Jehu, b. in the 1750s (maiden name and possible former married name unknown) then died in 1836 or 1837, a couple of years after Jehu. The preparer of the chart at Millville h.s. noted her as wife, so for a while we figured Bailey was wrong and Johanna was the mother of all the Downe twp. children. -- Jehu never mentioned a wife in his Will, suggesting he and Johanna were legally separated. Then, Johanna left just $1 to Nathan Parsons, middle son and co-executor for Jehu. She surely would have left more to him or his 6 younger offspring if any were hers. Instead, she left all to Reeves Roberson or Robinson (relationship unknown) as per her Will and Inventory obtained by Carol Saul Gromer. -- Bob Evans, when preparing the MHS chart likely started by his aunt Irene, did note, "may have had an earlier wife, Phebe." This is what Bailey wrote (and, in fact, Bailey seemed unaware of Johanna even though a legal ad in a newspaper proves he was legally married to J. by 1828). Since one of his Baileys md. a Parsons, and the Parsonses used the name Phebe a few times, we therefore believe Phebe was the mother of all 7 children named in Jehu's 1834 Will but had died by 1828. -- Since Jonathan (Jehu's oldest ch. mentioned in the Will) was born in 1776 when Jehu was 40, we further believe Jehu had an earlier marriage, but that no children from that one were living by 1834. There was a Wm. Parsons in Downe's 1793 Militia who may have been his son. -- No one has yet found parents for Jonathan's wife Martha Daniels, even after Sarah Robbins Hoffman paid for a NJ Archives search. -- Tom Hollinger has updated us on this site re the descendants of Rhoda Parsons and her spouse, whom records variably call Legar, Logan, Holegar and Hollinger. -- The Martha above was apparently married to a Stites prior to Jacob Laws, and the Lydia Parsons vs. Hankins "thing" is totally confusing. -- If Burton Alcorn or another follower of Trout and Jarrell/ Jerrell can update us on this branch, this will be welcomed for our update to the Jehu Descendants chart (minus living people's names, if you like). -- A single census stat in Ohio suggested that Sarah Parsons Tribbett, 2nd child of Jehu (or maybe first?) was b. in Delaware, but my several visits to the Del. Archives have not proven that. -- We still can't nail down the Jehu Parsons "link" to the Salisbury MD area, but d____ if they don't ALSO have 2 Jehu Parsons and other similar first and last names! They also have a "Parsonsburg" NE of Salisbury, at the end of a railroad, just like the "Parsonstown" near Port Norris NJ. I sincerely hope that further discussions on all South Jersey Parsons lines will take place on this website, as well as the Parsons sites offered by both Rootsweb and you-know-who. ((smiles)) -- Delaware Dolores