Can someone from the UK or Sourcerers Project help here?

Question

There are at least two profiles representing this person and at least 4 profiles representing the wife.   The ARBORIST project has attempted to define all the merges, and show that NONE of the profiles have definitive proof of dates and places.   The only commonality is the husband and wife names.   The profile managers have been unwilling to merge these profiles, they feel there is more work to be done.   I would like someone to help with these merges.

Comments

Looked at these once, seems a long time ago now.

I think the dates are probably fiddled to shoehorn Catherine into the Digges family.

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Thanks to all that are trying to work this!

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Hi Robin;

Here is a source for you https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE4522931 Volume 1 of book which covers the first 3 generations.

"The Herndon family of Virginia by John Goodwin Herndon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : Engineers Publishing, c1947-c1952 Physical: 2 v. in 5 Subject Class:929.273 H431 See: "https://familysearch.org/search/catalog /411968?availability=Family%20History%20Library 

You will see in the first generation that in 1677 William Herndon married Catherine (Digges) Herndon daughter of Governor Edward Digges

Edward Herndon married Mary Waller in 1688. She was born May 1674 at Newport Pagnell, county Bucks, England, daughter of Dr. John Waller and Mary Pomfrett. They had 9 children John, Edward, Ann, William, Richard, Martha, David, James plus 1 unknown.

It would appear that Waller-1964 and Waller-81 are not the same person and that Waller-81 is the profile of Edward's wife. Waller-1964 is likely Elizabeth Stubblefield wife of Edward Herndon (Herndon-40)

Edward's second wife was probably a daughter of the Thomas Leftwich, Her first name is not known. They seem to have had only one child, Esther,

So that's a brief I hope it helps.

Melissa

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Trouble is, we think JG Herndon made up the Digges marriage.

Frankly, the writers of these old family books often seem to have been in a competition to see who could write the most outrageous rubbish.

They were writing for very small family audiences.

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That would explain it. I have a Warburton book, and I am very fortunate because the research was done brilliantly. I have checked every so often and all dates, places are right. But if one delves into Bartlett history their is a confluence of stories which all suggest one original author with an extraordinary imaginative way of looking at things. These stories all cross-reference one another giving spurious validity. There is possibly some truth in them, but to sieve it out is scarcely possible.

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Here is a Geni Website entry for Catherine Diggs by Steven Sibley http://www.geni.com/people/Catherine-Digges-Herndon/6000000001507248063?through=6000000002539393565

He has a long write up on Catherine ...... click read more in the "About section" He has 4 sources none of which are JG Herndon.

I keep finding websites supporting the Herndon/Digges marriage, many of which have good sources.

I tend to believe what Steven Sibley wrote as it logically makes sense and is supported by other sources:

"Catherine Digges's parentage has recently been called into question because her brothers and brother-in-law (and first cousin) did not include her in the distribution of her mother's property in 1692. I have left these links intact, because I believe she was one of the thirteen children of Edward and Elizabeth Page Digges, and was left out of the distribution for reasons that did not survive in the records—specifically the possible enmity of her brother William, who was head of family when she married.

My source is a compilation of original Virginia documents by a Huddleston descendant, who cites a 1698 reference to Catherine as William Herndon's wife and Edward Digges's daughter.......

If William Herndon supported Bacon, then William Digges may have disinherited his sister Catherine on her marriage in 1677. Or it simply could have been that Catherine had already received her portion of the estate, perhaps as a delayed marriage portion after her mother's finances recovered from brother William's actions."

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If the authors of your Warburton book where supporters of William Digges (which they are in one of the Warburton books I saw) and William Digges disinherited Catherine because of her marriage, it makes sense that they wouldn't mention Catherine/William.

"History is written by the winners not the losers"

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Very good point Melissa. Can you remember which Warburton book, it would be great to get hold of another?

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Of course a statement isn't confirmed by the number of people who repeat it.  An error in a pedigree often gets repeated by encyclopedias and other tertiary sources, because they don't research independently, they just use what's already in the books.

This is why they all give the same dates even where the dates aren't known.

Answer 1

Hi Robin - This is same group I have been struggling with for about a month now. (Waller, Herndon, Breedlove et all). I have done some pretty intense research and have pretty much narrowed down the wives and who they represent.

http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Space:Waller_Research&public=1

The "base problem" to begin with was several GEDCOM files with basically the same people, varying degrees of information.  Co-mingled information and source-to-source discrepancies.  For some reason the "Match" does not seem to be catching the "newer entries" and needs manual matching.  Most of this is defined under the Waller Research and have attempted many times to get the Mary's grouped by who the spouse was and while I had some luck with the Waller's and Breedloves -- Herndon's are still a problem. (and of course the default approvals and being set as unmerged matches) -- No doubt in researcher's minds that it was "Some Mary" and probably a "Waller" (several in the area) -- just not the Waller's they pick.  The most common are Dau of Dr. Waller (who died age 2) and his son John's daughter Mary married to Lewis (proved by 3 separate wills before and after Herndon's death  -- but I'm still working on it.  Was able to get 3 of the Edward's merged, but Mary is still an issue with some.  To make matters worse - some of the "parents" are not who they are said to be -- i.e., Catherine Diggs for one example. and a few profiles "marked private" which I have not circled back to in about a week or 10 days.

Without getting the "unmatched" merges consolidated by husbands, it is going to continue being a problem; so any convincing you can do is much appreciated.

Hope this info is of some help.  Let me know if I can give you any more info.

Regards, Sandy

Comments

Sandy,

It looks like you have done enough research to guide us all in unraveling this tangle mess of branches!   Would you be willing to take the lead on this?   If you need help with access to profiles or anything along that line, just contact me directly.

Thanks again for taking this on!

 

Robin Lee

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Sure -- What is most expedient for Posting.  I am finding that (probably because I don't have the tag added) that I am not always seeing the New Posts.

Should I create a "Email" with all the PM's with reasons/resolutions, then request the merge? or just initiate the merge with info in the request, or is there a better way?

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[[Waller-1964|Mary Waller]] is not the wife of Edward Herndon as she was born a year after her supposed marriage to him - see my note on that profile.

She is the grand daughter not daughter of Dr John Waller.:

Dr. John Waller IV and Mary Pomfrett had a son Colonel John Waller V and with his 3rd wife Dorothy King they had a daughter Mary Waller who married Zachary Lewis II and had 11 children.

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Yes, Melissa you are correct but there are pending corrections to be made which will straighten things out.

1.  The lowest profile ID for the Daughter of Dr. John Waller (Mary Pomfrett) is currently Waller-1979.  This has correct Bio info, correct parents  & Project info but is currently set to private (pending open) where dates need to be inserted.

Birth is May 23, 1674 Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, England, The register of Newport Pagnell

Death is 2yrs (1676) Buckinghamshire, England,(England Register)

2.  The Mary who married Edward Herndon -- Lowest Profile ID is Waller-81 -- The Bio is correct (the upper level dates are wrong) the attachments of children, husband & parents are correct.  The Mary/Herndon did not have Herndon & Lewis as Spouses.The correct Info on this one is

Parents Unknown; Birth Estimate; Marriage Estimate; Death Estimate

(Herndon marriages and children need to be merged to 81 and conformed to Bio info on Waller-81 &.Edward Herndon-39

3.  The Mary who married Zachary Lewis Lowest ID Waller-188 (Dau. of Col. John) only should have "Lowest Lewis" as spouse;  This Mary was the Granddaughter.  The Lewis' need to be Merged to Lewis, the Herndon's to Herndons and the Mary's depending on individual information either to wife of Herndon or wife of Lewis, or in some cases they were clearly intended as the wife of one or the other but Bio's on these are either co-mingled or need to be split out accordingly. and upper conformed to lower.

4.  I think at this point there is 1 remaining Edward to be merged (maybe 2 at most)

5.  The Mary's need to be merged to correct Mary based on individual info profile per profile; but there are a number of "unmerged matches" and "rejected matches" that need to be re-looked at and re-initiated as applicable

The final outcome should be

Mary - dau of Dr. John (died age 2) Final ID Waller-1979

Mary - dau of Col. John m. Zachary Lewis Final ID Waller-188

Mary - dau of Unknown m. Edward Herndon Waller-81

Hope this helps explain where this is headed. I am pretty confident that once all the merges are completed it will all fall into line.  Any changes or corrections to Bio info should be moved or made at the Lowest Numbers vs. items being untangled to be Merged.

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Great thanks Sandy that explains a lot.

Keep up the good work.

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William Herndon (1706-1783), third son of Edward Herndon and Mary Wailer, married Ann Drysdale, daughter of Col. Hugh Drysdale, who was Lieut. Gov. of Virginia from 1722-1726. They were the parents of eight children. The fifth son was Joseph.

* The ‘Herndon Cemetery Inscriptions" compiled by J. Vernie Hicks and published in the summer issue of the W. R. V. H. S.

* http://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/wrv/v4/n10/w72b.htm

Answer 2

Hi Robin

I have had a quick look on the merge.  There is a confusing array of proposed and rejected merges.  Eddie Pike (Pike-2301) seems to be the most knowledgeable on the topic and provides, against Waller-1964 (Mary Waller), " Mary is unlikely married to Herndon-39 because he has 11 children with a stated Mary Waller and Mary Waller-1964 has 6 with Zachery Lewis."  He provides considerable discussion on her Profile (Waller-1964).  The Profile for Waller-81 is a confused merging of a number of prior Profiles by the look.  Can I suggest that a small group, of interested genealogists, be collected to rewrite and clean Waller-91 and then we look at the merge for Waller-1964.  I am happy to coordinate this.

Doug

Answer 3

Robin,

Have spent the best part of four hours trying to confirm through findmypast .com etc. Sorry, it is a complete mess, enhanced by wishful thinking.

I HAVE found a Dudley Digges who married Margaret Hunt on the 10th April 1656, and have read the original document from the Canterbury Cathedral Archives. THAT is a fact!

Comments

William Herndon, born 1648 and died in 1722, came from England and settled in New Kent County, Virginia in 1673. In 1677 he married Catherine Digges (1654-1727). She was the daughter of Edward Digges (1621-1675) and Edward Digges was the third son of Sir Dudley Digges of Chilham Castle, Co. Kent. This Sir Dudley Digges was a member of the London Company which colonized Jamestown, the first American Colony. He was also a friend of Henry Hudson and in 1610 helped him finance that explorer’s last voyage. Edward Digges, son of Sir Dudley and father of our Catherine Digges Herndon, was the Governor of the Virginia Colony 1656-1658.
* The ‘Herndon Cemetery Inscriptions" compiled by J. Vernie Hicks and published in the summer issue of the W. R. V. H. S.

* http://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/wrv/v4/n10/w72b.htm