Who are the parents of Matthias Farnworth/Farnsworth who migrated to Groton, Massachusetts?

Question

Currently there are two profiles for Matthias Farnworth/Farnsworth, the child of Elizabeth Marshe and Richard Farnsworth born is Eccles, Lancashire in 1615. One has him migrating to Massachusetts and living at Groton. The other only has a baptism source, and no record of what happened to him after his baptism. Currently there is some dispute about whether the Matthias who was the son of Richard and Elizabeth is the one who migrated to Massachusetts. Does anyone have any sources that can help in determining if the two profiles should be merged or if Farnsworth-126 should be detached from the current parents? Thanks so much!

Comments

Gillian, you might get better attention to your question is you edit it and move the question from the WikiTree Help forum to the to Genealogy Help forum.

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I would also suggest adding the "pgm" tag since the migration occurred during the Puritan Great Migration era. That will grab the attention of a great group of researchers very familiar with this era and location.

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Ah, I see there's a "merge war" going on over there. Lack of agreement about whether or not there are sufficient sources to demonstrate that the baptism record applies to the immigrant.

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Although the Matthias Farnsworth profile places him in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1630, he is not documented in any of the Great Migration books (including the Great Migration Directory). It appears that he arrived some time after 1640.

His WikiTree profile relies heavily on unreliable sources (Ancestral File, Millennium File, etc.). Before attempting to find ancestors in England, I would want to nail down some reliable information about his life in Massachusetts.

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I agree, Ellen. I found nothing showing he arrived in New England by 1640. The earliest record I found was the birth of his son Joseph in 1657 in Lynn.

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Thanks everyone! Really helpful input.

Answer 1

Having searched high and low, I can find only one reference that says that the immigrant Matthias was the son of Richard Farnsworth, however it provides no citations connecting the immigrant to the father: Farnsworth Memoral II, 2nd edition, revised 1974 by R. Glen Nye, original author Moses Franklin Farnsworth, published 1897. I was not able to find any further record for a Matthias Farnsworth in England after his baptism, but perhaps the records are not indexed.

Certainly there is a baptism in Eccles in 1615 of Matthias Farnsworth, son of Richard. Certainly there are sources that show that a Matthias Farnsworth was an early resident of Lynn and Groton. Other than the reference mentioned above, after diliigent searching I have found nothing to connect the two - other than the name and timeframe.

I think Farnsworth-126 should be disconnected from the parents shown. I would recommend a Research Note section be added showing his unproven parents and their "source". That way, if later research finds solid documentation on their relationship, it can be added. I also recommend PPP'ing the profile of Matthias (the immigrant) to ensure that parents are not added back without reliable sources.

For that matter, I see no reliable sources for the name of Matthias' first wife, Mary Abigail (Unknown) Farnsworth and recommend she be renamed Unknown Unknown unless there are reliable sources for her first name.

Comments

I added the Massachusetts project as a profile manager, which will allow the profile to be PPP. I didn't remove the parents or add PPP yet because I'm not entirely sure what is intended regarding family connections, and I didn't want to prevent an interested member from making changes to connections. Another Project Leader can add PPP when the parent and spouse situations are sufficiently resolved.