[Resolved!] Could we please get some project help for poor Benjamin Putnam and his wives? [closed]

Question

Eben Putnam's History of the Putnam Family, p. 58, claims that Benjamin Putnam:

"married, according to Col. Perley Putnam, 25 Aug., 1686, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Putnam, but on the Salem records, the births of his children are recorded and it is there stated that they were 'by wife Hanna.' His first wife died 21 Dec, 1705..."

Unfortunately, several things are wrong here:

• Elizabeth Putnam, the daughter of Thomas, didn't marry her cousin Benjamin; she married Joshua Bailey or Bayley, which Eben Putnam himself states accurately on pp. 7-8.
• The 25 Aug 1686 marriage date given for Benjamin and "Elizabeth" is identical to son Nathaniel's recorded birth date, just a few lines below on the same page.
• Multiple copies of the Salem birth records for the Putnam family don't say "by wife Hanna," they say "Sarah his wife." Her accompanying 1705 death record names her as Sarah.

Torrey (vol. 1, vol. 2) gives Benjamin's marriage:

• "PUTNAM, Benjamin (1664-1715) & 1/wf Sarah/(not Hannah) [TARRANT?] (-1705), had son Tarrant; 25 Aug 1686?, b 1686; Salem

In other words, I believe Torrey (himself? or one of his sources?) is hypothesizing that Sarah's birth name may have been Tarrant because they named a son Tarrant.

Eben Putnam, the Salem records, and the rest of the world seem to agree that Benjamin married second Sarah (__) Holton, widow of Benjamin Holton. Strangely, even though both volumes of Torrey use "1/wf" for Benjamin's first marriage, neither includes his second; Putnam's listing in vol. 2 of Torrey includes the parenthetical "(see Benjamin Holter)," which is surely a typo for:

• HOLTON, Benjamin (-1689) & [Sarah] __, m/2 Benjamin PUTNAM 1706; by 1689; Salem

Back in 2018-19, some intrepid WikiTreers took on the ungodly mess of Benjamin's wives' profiles but were blocked by Massachusetts PPP status on the entirely incorrect Elizabeth Putnam-45. The G2G post at the time is spot-on but didn't tag massachusetts, so I don't know if anyone from the project ever saw it.

Here's what I think would need to happen, some of which can be done by us mortals but some of which will require project assistance:

• The two profiles for Elizabeth Putnam-45 and Hannah Tarrant-76 need to become one profile with the given name Sarah and the LNAB Unknown, the Putnam children (currently on Putnam-45) attached, the Tarrant hypothesis discussed in a meaty Research Note, and Massachusetts PPP. Probably the easiest way to accomplish this is to re-LNAB Putnam-45 to Unknown, detach her parents, merge Tarrant-76 into her, and re-apply PPP if needed, all of which requires project assistance pretty please. Since one errant parent Thomas Putnam-6 is also PGM PPP I think we may need help from both projects?
• The new Sarah Unknown Putnam PPP should then be a Rejected Match with Elizabeth Putman-798 Bailey and perhaps an Easily Confused template or at least a robust Research Note on both. I think this can be done by us regular folk.
• Incidentally, Putman-798, according to her own sources on her profile, could use a re-LNAB to correct the spelling error. This would require PM or project assistance.
• Benjamin Putnam-288 definitely needs PPP to prevent new variations of his erroneous wives being re-attached or re-merged; this requires project assistance.
• The profile for Sarah Holten-10 needs to be re-LNABbed to Unknown; this requires PM or perhaps project assistance. She probably doesn't need PPP.

I would be happy to take care of all necessary bio cleanup, Research Notes, and citing lots of sources, if I can get a hand with the merges and detaches. Some excellent WikiTreers before me started this work - project wizards, can you help us finish it?

Comments

Whew! That’s a lot. Maybe start with a good an accurate bio on Benjamin that covers his wives so there’s a clear picture of how it all should fit together?

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Not doing a deep dive on this, it appears that on the 2018 G2G you had two of WikiTree's better researchers looking at this. It looks like some of that corroborates your outline above and other may still have had questions. If would contact Ellen Smith (very busy) directly to assist with things requiring temporary lifting of the PPP where the conflations and errors have been sorted out.

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M Cole: Benjamin's all-new biography and truckload of sources is up! Feedback most welcome.

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Looks great.  I went through the Torrey sources (and found no claim for Tarrant, so I guess its Torrey's speculation).  I stole some of the content and added it to 1st wife's profile to start a bio (and changed name from Hannah to Sarah, so now Sarah Tarrant).

I thought this looked familiar and I see that I had discussed removing Elizabeth from the parents, and Ellen requested a bio...I think to have a complete picture, a bio for Elizabeth (Putnam) Bailey would be a good idea as well.  From there it should be fairly easy to request the changes.

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Done: modest sourced bio for Elizabeth (Putnam) Bailey. She already had a fine Research Note.

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I've posted comments requesting the change.  There was another duplicate of the first wife, so I adopted that and changed the name to Unknown, so we have a target profile for the merges.

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OK, I believe the two "Sarah" profiles are supposed to be merged (Tarrant-76 into Unknown-679845), but they were set as an unmerged match. Is there a reason why they were not set as a proposed merge?

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The unmerged match is from a few years ago. We may need project protection on the Unknown profile before proposing the merge.

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Ah! I was misled by the April 20th date displayed on the unmerged match. I guess that the date changed when the LNAB was changed to Unknown. 

Now that the profiles tell a reasonably clear story, I (as Project Leader) would be happy to merge those two profiles and the Elizabeth Putnam profile (transferring the project box and PPP status), if you will be on the scene to sort out the merged contents. (Completing the merges as Leader would be no more work than prepping them for merge by "any member.")

Is there also concurrence that the Sarah Holten profile should be renamed to Unknown, and then PPPd?

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Thanks, Ellen. I think PP for both wives makes sense. There will be two Sarah Unknowns that I’m sure will be tempting to merge no matter how well documented.

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I've merged the three profiles for the first wife of Benjamin Putnam; I've changed the LNAB for the second wife to "Unknown"; and the profiles for both Sarahs are now PPP.

Benjamin Putnam's profile may also merit PPP, given the history of confusion about his marital history. Should that be added?

Additionally, I note that some of the numerous profile comments that are now on the merged profile https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-679845 probably should be archived so that they will not confuse people or interfere with readability.

For future reference, please know that when the Massachusetts Project applies PPP to profiles like these, it's because of the history of confusion and disputes, and the purpose of PPP is to avoid chaos by ensuring that relationship changes and merges are appropriately considered and documented before they are made.  The project does not have a passionate interest in most of these people, and is not interested in controlling all profile changes. Rather, we want to be sure that major changes (especially merges and relationship changes) are justified before changes are made. If you have researched a family and have reliable research information to add, please don't wait for "the project" to add it to the text of PPP profiles. Once it is in the profiles, it will be much easier to support major changes to the profile data.

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Thanks, Ellen.  It's great to have this resolved after many years!  It wouldn't hurt to PP Benjamin as well.  That's probably the profile people are most likely to land on.

I've archived most of the comments on Unknown-679845 that were related to the ins and outs of reconciling the profiles, and left some of Christophers comments that addressed source/factual issues. I think that's the right approach ?

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Benjamin is PPP now.

Thanks for all your work on this!

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Amazing. Thanks so much Ellen and M, as well as the folks who worked on this back in 2018-19. I believe all the requested work is DONE, except for the minor Putman/Putnam re-LNAB (S has posted a comment requesting it of the PM).

Great job everyone!

Answer 1

According to "Colonial Families of the United States of America", George Norbury Mackenzie, Vol. III, page 427, Benjamin was only married once to "...probably Hannah Tarrant" and there was one child born in 1696, Rev. Daniel Putnam who died in 1759. No date or location of the marriage is given. Daniel who married his first cousin Rebecca, had 8 children, not Benjamin who only had 1 child.

Hope this helps and doesn't add more confusion.

Comments

Not sure where Mackenzie got his information, but Salem records clearly list eight children for Benjamin & Sarah (not Hannah); eight children are named in Benjamin's will; and it's clear that Benjamin married at least twice since the death of his first wife and his second marriage are both recorded.

Daniel (1696-1759) seems to be one of this Benjamin's children, so Mackenzie apparently has the right Benjamin, but is just wrong about all the other details. I haven't found Colonial Families to be completely reliable in the past. Eben Putnam's book, even with its occasional problems, is a better source for this family, and primary sources are always necessary to back up what's claimed in books. Hope this is helpful!