All, We all know that the immigrant John-1 WHITNEY married a first wife whose name is variously recorded as Elinor, Ellin, and Ellen. Their oldest child was baptized in 1619 at Isleworth, co. Middlesex, England, so one guesses that the marriage may have occurred about 1617. John was, of course, baptized in 1592 at St. Margaret's, Westminster, London. The age of Elinor is allegedly given in her death record in the Watertown First Church records as aged 60 in 1659 (see Pierce, pp. 19-20), so her birth would be about 1599. There are 17 entries in the LDS International Genealogical Index, and 19 in the LDS Pedigree Resource File, which say that Elinor's maiden name was BRAY, and that she had been born or baptized at St. Margaret's, Westminster. As part of the Mormon (LDS) International Genealogical Index, there is something called their Extraction Program. They are extracting from microfilms of parish registers all the christenings and marriages. St. Margaret's Westminster is one of those they have done. The christenings 1539-1675 are in batch number P001601, and the marriages 1538-1681 in M001601. Now I trust the LDS extractors quite a lot. Each entry is read by two workers, both carefully trained in reading these old records, the results independently recorded, and then compared. If they agree, the item is entered in the IGI. If they disagree, a committee of experts review the entry and come to a decision, and then their decision is entered in the IGI. Frankly, I can't imagine any way that a more accurate extraction could be made. The only shortcoming is that only the names, dates, and relationships are transcribed, and no extra information which might appear in the original. Notice that burials have not been extracted. There are 21 christenings and one birth: Ann BRAY, chr. 17 Feb 1539 Robert BRAY, chr. 26 Feb 1540 Margaret BRAY, chr. 10 Apr 1542 Elsabeth BRAY, chr. 8 Nov 1544 John BRAY, chr. 4 Aug 1548 Henry BRAY, chr. 15 Feb 1551 Nycholas BRAY, chr. -- Mar 1552 Mary BRAYE, chr. -- Jan 1554 John BRAY, chr. -- Dec 1554 William BRAY, chr. 30 Dec 1554 Helen BRAY, chr. 30 Jun 1555 Helen BRAY, chr. 5 Aug 1555 Margaret BRAY, chr. -- Feb 1557 Lawrens BREY, chr. 11 Oct 1558 Margery BREY, chr. -- Oct 1560 Lydda BREY, chr. -- Aug 1561 Thomas BREY, chr. 29 Nov 1562 Mary BRAYE, dau. of John, chr. -- Dec 1564 Henry BRAYE, son of John, chr. 6 Oct 1566 Henry BRAYE, son of John, chr. -- Feb 1568 Alys BRAYE, dau. of William, chr. 5 Jun 1569 John BRAY, son of Nicholas and Sarah, b. 26 Mar 1654 The early christenings don't give the parents' names. There were 13 marriages: Margaret BRAY, m. William BYCE, 20 Jan 1543 Symon BRAY, m. Elsabeth FARRER, 31 Aug 1546 John BRAY, m. Margaret HASLONDE, 13 Aug 1553 Roger BRAY, m. Jone CURTESSE, 29 May 1554 Thomas BRAIE, m. Jane HENSON, 30 Jun 1572 Robert BRAY, m. Christian HOLT, 30 Nov 1581 Mary BRAY, m. Thomas WHITENEY, 12 May 1583 Thomas BRAY, m. Elizabeth TEGMODOR, 11 Nov 1583 Henry BRAIE, m. Jone CROOCH, 7 Sep 1584 John BRAYE, m. Alice PARKER, 27 May 1588 Elizabeth BRAY, m. Howell GRIFFYN, 24 Apr 1598 Elizabeth BRAY, m. John HIBBOLS, 8 Jul 1643 Robert BRAY, m. Mary COOPER, 13 May 1644 Among these records we find the marriage of John BRAY and Margaret HASLONDE, the christenings of their children, and the marriage of their daughter Mary BRAY to Thomas WHITENEY (i.e., WHITNEY). We do have another reference on this BRAY family. See http://www.whitneygen.org/archives/extracts/kempton.html#551 There we see that the authors have seen and extracted the burials of the wife and other children of John and Margaret (HASLONDE) BRAY. Note that there is no Ellen/Ellin/Elinor/Eleanor BRAY recorded in these records in the appropriate time frame, so it is quite certain that there is no such person christened at St. Margaret's between 1556 and 1675. If one believes that Elinor (-----) WHITNEY, wife of John-1, was baptized at St. Margaret's, under some unknown maiden name, the extracted records can be searched for that. Here is a list of all 85 Elinor/Eleanor/Ellen/Ellin/Helen/etc. girls christened there from 1590 to 1609: Ellinor ADAMS, chr. 14 Jan 1590 Ellenor JONES, chr. -- Jun 1590 Ellen SEAWELL, chr. 13 Sep 1590 Ellen HOLYMAN, chr. -- Oct 1590 Ellin AUSTINE, chr. -- Dec 1590 Eleanor HARRISON, chr. -- May 1592 Ellen EVANS, chr. 25 May 1592 Ellen YORKE, chr. 16 Aug 1592 Ellen EGLESTONE, chr. 29 Dec 1592 Eleanor WYLD, chr. 24 Feb 1593 Eleanor BROWN, chr. 22 Aug 1593 Ellen DAVIES, chr. Oct 1593 Ellen SEWELL, chr. 11 Dec 1593 Eleanor AUSTEN, chr. 14 Apr 1594 Ellen GARRETT, chr. -- Sep 1594 Ellen SWALLOWE, chr. -- Nov 1594 Ellen BOND, chr. -- Dec 1594 Ellen EDMILL, chr. -- Nov 1595 Eleanor BIGGES, chr. 26 Nov 1595 Ellen EDWARDS, chr. -- Dec 1595 Ellen MARBEWRY, chr. 1 Sep 1596 Eleanor CHAMBERS, chr. -- Oct 1596 Ellen DAVIS, chr. -- Dec 1596 Ellen DAVIS, chr. 02 Apr 1597 Ellen WILLIAMS, chr. 9 Jan 1598 Ellen WILLIAMS, chr. 18 Jan 1598 Ellen COLLINS, chr. 17 Feb 1599 Eleanor GREEN, chr. -- Apr 1599 Eleanor OSBORNE, chr. 17 Oct 1599 Ellen EATON, chr. -- Nov 1599 Ellen NEWSON, chr. 3 Dec 1599 Ellen WATERTON, chr. -- Apr 1600 Ellen PAYNTER, chr. -- Apr 1600 Ellen DARLOW, chr. 22 May 1600 Ellen MORRIS, chr. -- Jun 1600 Ellen DANNE, chr. -- Aug 1600 Eleanor FLING, chr. -- Aug 1600 Eleanor GODHURT, chr. -- Oct 1600 Ellen FLOOD, chr. 17 Nov 1600 Eleanor WRIGHT, chr. 20 Jan 1601 Ellen GRAY, chr. -- Jun 1601 Ellen JOHNSON, chr. -- Aug 1601 Eleanor COTTON, chr. 19 Aug 1601 Elline PERWICK, chr. -- Oct 1601 Ellen SEVERY, chr. -- Nov 1601 Ellen SALTER, chr. 8 Jun 1602 Ellen BRYDGES, chr. -- Oct 1602 Eleanor PALMER, chr. 13 Dec 1602 Ellen RATLYFFE, chr. 29 Jan 1603 Eleanor FOSTER, chr. -- Mar 1603 Ellen HARRIS, chr. 17 Apr 1603 Ellen EWER, chr. 17 May 1603 Ellen GLORYE, chr. -- Jun 1603 Ellen SMALL, chr. 24 Aug 1603 Ellen SMYTH, chr. -- Sep 1603 Ellen JUDSON, chr. 26 Dec 1603 Ellen ASHBROOKE, chr. -- Jan 1605 Ellen NELSON, chr. -- Mar 1605 Ellen BETTERTON, chr. -- Mar 1605 Eleanor WALLIN, chr. 26 Apr 1605 Ellen LEE, chr. -- May 1605 Eleanor STRAHAN, chr. 4 Aug 1605 Ellen ROBERTS, chr. 28 Aug 1605 Ellen DOBSON, chr. -- Jun 1606 Ellen FRANCKLYN, chr. 4 Jun 1606 Eleanor ROWE, chr. -- Aug 1606 Eleanor DEANE, chr. 2 Sep 1606 Ellen CUTLER, chr. -- Nov 1606 Ellen GARDNER, chr. 6 Feb 1607 Ellen LAWRENCE, chr. 11 Feb 1607 Ellen CLEMENTE, chr. 21 Mar 1607 Ellen AUDRELL, chr. -- Jun 1607 Ellen MOORE, chr. 5 Aug 1607 Eleanor WHITT, chr. 6 Sep 1607 Ellen WELSBORNE, chr. Oct 1607 Eleanor NICKOLLS, chr. -- Nov 1607 Ellen RIGNELL, chr. 21 Dec 1607 Ellen JONES, chr. -- Jan 1608 Ellen JONES, chr. -- Nov 1608 Ellen COOPER, chr. -- Mar 1609 Ellen GILES, chr. -- May 1609 Ellen MORRIS, chr. -- Jun 1609 Ellen ARNOLLE, chr. -- Sep 1609 Eleanor ORRELL, chr. -- Nov 1609 Ellen BOOEN, chr. 16 Dec 1609 You can see that there are quite a few possibilities! It would be a difficult investigation to try either to eliminate or to establish one of them as John-1 WHITNEY's wife. Nevertheless, this is a possible avenue of research which, I believe, has never been pursued. Of course, it is also possible that Elinor was from Isleworth. That parish register has not been extracted, but the original has been filmed. That film number is #585395. One could do a similar search in that register for girls named Elinor/etc. christened there in the appropriate time frame, and try to eliminate or establish one of them as John-1 WHITNEY's wife. That would be made more difficult by the absence of early Middlesex wills. So far, I have seen no credible evidence giving any maiden name to Elinor, wife of John-1 WHITNEY of Watertown. Regards, Robert Mr. Robert L. Ward [email protected] http://www.whitneygen.org/home.html

Have been reading with interest the discussion regarding the mystery of "what was John Whitney's wife's name". It just occurred to me that possibly her middle name was Elinor/Ellen....or she could have been called that by the family in honor of someone near and dear. BTW, has anyone seen my Anne (or Sarah Anne) Whitney (b. abot 1740) who married Thomas Whitcomb in Littleton, MA in the early 1760s? She was from Stow, MA. Understand they married "by intention." Would really like to know her parents, etc. Carol