I want to update the biography for Jael Pierce Chase based on information from the Swansea, MA, historical society.

Question

I have information to contribute to the profile of Jael (Pierce) Chase. This is what I can add:

• Jael Pierce Chase died in childbirth in 1730.  On her profile, you'll notice that her last child's birthdate is that year.

These are the sources I am using:

• Information provided by the Swansea, MA, historical society on their Facebook Page

Should I contact one of the pre-1700 projects or know about any style guidelines before proceeding? Thank you!

Answer 1

(I presume you mean that she died in childbirth in 1730)?

Currently the biography of Jael Pierce Chase states that she was the executrix of her husband's estate in 1738 and mentioned in her father's will from the same year. Neither of these statements cite any sources and would need to be checked but they would be evidence that she didn't die in 1730.  What sources are the Swansea, MA, Historical Society citing?

Comments

If you check the profile for Hezekiah Chase (Chase-2709) You'll find a link to the source for his information is the book Little Compton Families, page 157.  There is a link to that book but since this format doesn't seem to let me paste the address, I'll have to ask if you'll please go to that profile and check the source.  It clearly states that Hezekiah remarried in 1732.  If his wife didn't die in childbirth in 1730, would he re-marry while she was still alive?  You're asking for the Swansea Historical Society source and that information came from their files.  The information was provided by the Historical Society on Facebook.

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The book Little Compton Families, doesn't cite any primary sources, at least not on p. 157 where it mentions Hezekiah Chase and his two marriages.  I couldn't see all of the book, so I'm not sure if it actually has a list of sources, but at least for the information about Hezekiah it appears to be an unreliable source.

I did find Hezekiah Chase's will on Ancestry dated 1 April 1738 where he definitely mentions his wife named as Jalo Chase.  Presumably this is just a different spelling of Jael or Jeal and this would confirm that she is still alive on that date, and and he could not have remarried in 1732.

See Hezekiah Chase profile for link to the will.
 

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After my examination of the second Chase/Chace family Facebook post from the Swansea Historical Society I can see that the information they had for Hezekiah's second marriage was probably inaccurate.

The second post, about another Chase/Chace family tree showed Pricilla Perry as the wife of William Chase, married in 1732!  It didn't seem to me that there could be 2 women with the same name married in the same year...although the gene pools were small in those days.

I'd like to make a suggestion, though, that someone go back to Hezekiah's profile and remove the Little Compton Families source along with the image of the page attached to that profile as I now believe it to be misleading.

Also, there's a sentence in the biography which is spatially fragmented for some reason...

Thanks for your attention to my questions, John!