Hutchinson genealogy

Question

So I've started to look at some Hutchinsons, and I find that a lot of the earlier profiles here consist almost entirely of verbatim copying from this work: The Hutchinsons of Salem. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101030737900&view=image&seq=264

I also observe that Robert Anderson, in his Great Migration series, doesn't seem to use this as a source for the Salem Hutchinsons.

So I wonder: how reliable is this work? Is anyone familiar with it?

Comments

You could contact PM Robert Anderson and ask him his opinion on the primary source you have mentioned.

As for those profiles that rely on this Opus, do they have sources to verify the information they provide for the one they profile? That might be another indication of how reliable the profiles might be. Some DNA done would also help.

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Clarification: the source was an article published in NEHGR in the 1800s (before they developed stricter guidelines about citing sources). As such, it's not a primary source, but a compiled genealogy.  See this definition of primary source from the LDS:

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Primary_sources

This is also a nice article that uses (instead of Primary/Secondary) Original and Derivative and describes how to use them best:

https://www.findmypast.com/blog/help/original-derivative-sources-how-to-use-them

And then, of course, there's the Queen of Evidence Analysis, Elizabeth Shown Mills, who outlines it all here:

https://www.evidenceexplained.com/content/quicklesson-17-evidence-analysis-process-map

She's also compiled a glossary of terms here:

https://www.evidenceexplained.com/quicktips/basic-vocabulary-historical-research

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But does anyone have any information about this particular genealogy's reliability?

I find it disturbing that so many profiles here are essentially just cut-and-paste from it.

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Lois,

I judge the reliability of any authored work or compiled genealogy by the extent to which it cites its sources.  This one does not, although the author periodically and generally references a record.

Cut-and-pastes-- whether from reliable or unreliable sources-- is another matter entirely, and highly discouraged.  As has been posted on the profile, Bobbie is going to take on rewriting at least the PGM profile linked to from this g2g thread so it is originally written and properly cited, where she can find sources.  

We hope that family members, profile managers and/or the England project (for upstream profiles) will take on cleaning up the other profiles.

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In addition to his contributions in the NEHGR, Sidney Perley was also the editor of The Essex Antiquarian, the author of histories of Boxford and Salem, Massachusetts, genealogies on the Plumer and Goodridge families, as well as a few other books on law, as he was a lawyer.

As Jillaine points out, the earlier publications didn't necessarily provide their sources as they do now. I'd have to say, based on the quality of his other work, he should be considered generally reliable. But his work is all secondary source material, and the specifics need to be found in primary records. 

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Thanks, Bobbie, that's the sort of thing I want to know.

I know that time was also when all kinds of spurious genealogies were being published, not to be trusted at all.  So apparently this one isn't known fraud.

One thing it says, repeatedly, is that the primary sources were missing in many cases.

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I'm nearly done with his re-write, and I'm finding that the link to his parents is rather tentative. It seems to be based on an assumption that the Richard of Salem, Mass. is the same man as married Alice Bosworth in Nottinghamshire, and then assumes a connection to the parents of Arnold and Newark in Nottinghamshire. What is really needed is some sort of document to prove the parents, a mention in a will/probate file, a letter, something. I'm finding nothing so far. Even a probate file for Alice's parents that mentions her being in New England.

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Now that's interesting. Because the most notable thing about this Richard (to me, at least) is that he's a sole specimen of a Nottinghamshire Hutchinson in a sea of LIncolnshire Hutchinsons.  Unless ... he's not.

That's what first drew my attention to his profile.

So if a biographer was motivated to prove a connection between the descendants of this Richard and the Owthorpe/Newark Hutchinsons, this is where the link would have to be.

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According to this: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FNOTTINGHAMSHIRE%2FMAR%2F000019741%2F2  Alice Bosworth married a THOMAS Hutchinson on the date given for the marriage with Richard.

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I've expanded his first marriage information to include the reading of the groom as possibly being Thomas, with a link to the FamilySearch index record as a free source. If you'd like to add the FindMyPast source, please do, as I don't have a subscription to that site. Including any transcription data available from their record would also be help helpful.

Answer 1

Actually, I need to clarify something which I've confused. 

Perley Derby wrote: The Hutchinson Family in the NEHGR.

Sidney Perley wrote the previously mentioned Essex Antiquarian, etc. 

So - mea culpa!

Comments

But the work cited here in the profiles is the one by Alcander Hutchinson and J L Chester, referred to in the Essex Institute piece.

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I'm using all available sources on the profile. I had confused multiple articles.