A General Note & for the Archives: The importance of looking at original records wherever & whenever possible can not be too highly stressed. This point was brought home to me when I was reading a recent issue of the NEHGS' GREAT MIGRATION NEWSLETTER (10:2 April-June 2001). This "peak behind the research scenes" by the Great Migration Project's chief writer, Robert Charles Anderson FASG, usually presents highly important background information to determining whether facts are facts. In this issue, Anderson focused on published lists of freemen in RI, in particular the very first one. What he wrote eliminated one of my "possible" fathers for Ralph Pain of Newport, Providence & Freetown MA! Here are excerpts of what Anderson wrote: "The single most extensive compilation of Rhode Island freemen in the seventeenth century is "The Roll of Freemen of the Colony of every Town," dated 1655 [RICR 1:299-302 {edited by Bartlett}]. This list contains the names of 2476 men, of whom 42 were from Providence, 71 from Portsmouth, 96 from Newport and 38 from Warwick." Does "this list contain precisely those men who had been admitted to freemanship in or prior to 1655, and were alive and not disenfranchised in the same year. At first glance...Yes." From the way the list is published, "the simplest explanation would be that the list was carefully compiled in and as of 1655, that a few additional, newly-minted, freemen were added in 1656, and that no further changes were made [to it] thereafter." Not so, Bucky! Some obvious discrepancies led Anderson to "look at the original of the list, rather than the printed version. The first surprise is that names were not entered in alphabetic order, and that Bartlett had rearranged them, crudely, in preparing them for publication. The few names listed under "1656" were at the ends of the Portsmouth and Newport section, but again Bartlett had alphabetized the six Newport names of 1656." The 1655 list is all in one hand and in the same ink - the clerk entered the list at one sitting. The 1656 names, where appended, are in a different ink. More importantly, misreadings by Bartlett were readily seen. "In two cases in the Portsmouth section of the list, the given name of the freeman was published incorrectly: 'Arthur Paine' should be 'Antho: Paine' and 'Fred. Sheffield' should be 'Icob. Sheffield' [i.e. Ichabod].... And in one instance, also in Portsmouth, the surname is wrong: 'Thomas Warde' should be 'Tho[mas] Waite.' " Bartlett also wasn't sure to which towns some names should be ascribed and omitted one name because it had been erased and appeared in another town. When individuals are looked at, in terms of other known records, there are any number of men for whom this 1655 record is the last mention of them. But were they really there in 1655? A good many probably weren't. One we can be sure of is "Anthony Paine (published as 'Arthur Paine'). Like so many others, he arrived in Portsmouth in 1638, where he was recorded infrequently. He made his will in 1649, and was dead within a year [Portsmouth Town Records 384-86]. He had two daughters and no sons [Austin 144], so there was NO Anthony Paine available to be in the 1655 list." Anderson presents other, similar examples. "For Portsmouth...the list contains many names of men who HAD been freemen there at an earlier date, but not in 1655." Whether the town clerk misunderstood the instructions or the colony clerk used outdated lists or whether it was some combination, only additional research can tell. But to look at the 1655 RI freemen list and accept as "fact" that So & So, who is listed, was actually alive and a voter that year is no longer possible. Arthur Paine was really Anthony Paine, and he'd been dead for 6 years! More information about the GM Newsletter is available at the NEHGS web-site. The Society now has name search versions of the first 3 volumes of The Great Migration Begins, and of the entire run of its magazine the Register available for members. Check it out! Regards to all. Bob Gerrity Ralph Pain of Freetown & His Descendants, 3 vols. _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com