Is Jabez Thomas a Mayflower Descendant?

Question

In doing some research on my Thomas family, I came across my ancestor, William Thomas and his children, including my ancestor, Jabez Thomas in the Mayflower Births and Deaths, Vol. 1 and 2 for Howland (this information is in Vol. 2 on page 165). William's brother was Jeremiah Thomas, husband of Howland descendant Lydia Howland, who are also my ancestors through their son, Jedediah Thomas who married another Howland descendant, Lois Nelson. But I don't see a Howland connection for Jabez or William (yet they are in the descendant book). Can someone on the Mayflower project help sort this out? Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

According to what has been posted on WikiTree, he has lots of Mayflower relationships, but no descents. See https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special%3AMyConnections&c=Mayflower_Passengers&w=Thomas-12751

Comments

Yes, and I have not seen anything yet that says he is. But the Mayflower Births and Deaths, Vol. 1 and 2 lists William Thomas and his children (including Jabez) and that is why I am confused. Why would they be listed if they were not Howland descendants.

Answer 2

Jabez Thomas b. 1710 was the son of William and his second wife Sarah (Barden). William and Sarah Barden were married in 1704. William's first wife Sarah (Pratt) is a Mayflower descendant. They had several children who are descendants. William is not a descendant and William's children by Sarah Barden are not descendants.

Comments

Thank you, Anne. I was 100% sure that my ancestor, Jabez, was not a Mayflower descendant. It still confuses me and makes me wonder why Jabez and some of Sarah Barden's children are also listed in the Howland Mayflower book of descendants.

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And now I'm wondering why they are in the Howland Mayflower book at all. Sarah Pratt was a descendant of Degory Priest, so I would think they would be in the Priest Mayflower book and not the Howland Mayflower book.

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I suspect that at one time all the children of William Thomas (sr) may have been thought to be the children of Sarah Pratt, since the second wife was also Sarah (mentioned in his will). In addition the children's births don't list a mother and it would have been Sarah in both cases.

Why William is mentioned in the Howland section? I have no clue. His son William is listed in the Doty section.

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Sounds like a mess of record keeping to me. Lol. And I did notice that William's wife's name was missing on the record and the confusion of the two Sarah's was likely. Thank you for replying.

Answer 3

I checked with Susan Roser, the composer of the MF Births & Deaths books. She confirmed for me that the books should not be referred to as "Mayflower Descendants" as not everyone in them is a Mayflower descendant.  Only a person who has a line of descent or generation number with his name is a MF descendant.  Bowman (the original researcher) sometimes included persons whom he wasn't sure were descendants, but were included for further research. Also, quite often records of other family members shed light on the sibling who is the MF descendant, so that was also included.  I hope this helps to lessen the confusion about the names in these wonderful books that Susan compiled for our use.

Comments

Thank you for responding. William does have a number by him (9) but other than his first wife, Sarah Pratt, being a Priest descendant and his brother, Jeremiah's children being Howland descendants, I don't believe William is a descendant. I descend from both William and Jeremiah as their grandchildren, Phebe Thomas and Isaac Thomas married and had my 6th great grandmother, Lois Thomas.