Trust Nobody

A decades-long error is floating around Ancestry. (And I fell for it.)

Hi- I’m Sadie of Tales & Trees Family History Services, and I have a confession. I had a line in my tree wrong for ~years~ because I fell victim to a classic Ancestry user error. I even told people I was distantly related to a Salem Witch Trial victim and president because of it. (Now I know I’m not. eek.) I need to right my wrongs and share tidbits on how you can avoid this mistake (and its ensuing embarrassment). Let’s learn (and cringe) together!

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Genealogists can relate to this: You’re scrolling Ancestry, looking through little leafy “hints” that tempt you with their promises of information on your ancestors. One of the “hints” brings you to a jam-packed tree, compiled by another user. They have a line going back almost two centuries for one of your ancestors. Could it be? Is it true? What a time saver, if it is! You scan their sources to make sure everything looks accurate. You are a genealogist, after all, and you preach accuracy. No blindly clicking ‘add to tree’ for you, at least without some consideration.

Everything looks good, but you see a tiny problem: The parent of one of your known ancestors doesn’t have a real source. How does this person know Josiah Abbott’s father was Abraham Abbot, born in 1740? Their only source is another tree compiled by a different Ancestry user. On and on it goes: Each tree claiming Abraham was Josiah’s dad cites only another user-compiled tree.

It must be true, right? This information can’t just be made up if so many people agree with it. Baby-genealogist-Sadie (circa 2014) agreed with this, and she clicked “add to tree.” Today, the words of Whoopi Goldberg in the 1990 classic film Ghost, come to mind: “[Sadie], You in Danger, Girl.”

If I only had Oda Mae Brown to lead me on the right path back then.

Led Astray

In my case, the ancestor in question was Henry Davis, born in 1758 in Dutchess County, New York. Henry was born into the Society of Friends (Quaker) and eventually joined the Moravian Church as an adult. Henry’s dad can be traced as Henry Davis of Rhode Island (b. 1729). And every ding-dang Ancestry tree had (has) a woman named Sarah Bowdy as Henry’s mother (so, the wife of Henry Davis, b. 1729).

So that’s it, right? Henry Davis (b. 1729) married Sarah Bowdy (b. 1731) and had a bunch of kids, including my guy Henry Davis (b. 1758). Baby-researcher Sadie agreed and added Sarah Bowdy to her tree. Through Sarah Bowdy’s documented parents, I became an instant distant relative of Salem Witch Trial victim Susannah Martin (Sep 30, 1621 – Jul 19, 1692) and, through her, a very distant relative of President Chester A. Arthur. Cool!

Can you see the resemblance? Via wikipedia

Back to Reality

It wasn’t until relatively recently that I decided to revisit the Henry Davis line in my tree. I’d taken several courses for genealogy research by this time, honed my skills, and completed both ProGen and GenProof study groups. It was time to prune my tree. I decided to focus on Sarah Bowdy- where did she come from? Why does everyone in the Ancestry universe think she was my dude Henry’s mother and have nothing to show for it?

After months of digging (featuring late nights viewing Quaker registries and meeting minutes, visiting repositories with records not available online, and plenty of coffee…) I found the answer: Some guy took a guess in a book he wrote.

Much fist-shaking ensued after I figured this out. Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Yep- a researcher/author literally guessed that my ancestor Henry Davis (b. 1729) married a woman named Sarah Bowdy and had Henry Davis together in 1758. When I found this out, I was so mad at myself for taking something with zero sources as gospel truth. Let’s unpack this realization while trying not to throw Frank J. Doherty under the bus too much.

Settlers of the Beekman Patent

Don’t get me wrong, Frank J. Doherty’s massive work Settlers of the Beekman Patent (1999) is a well-researched and useful anthology for genealogists today. Comprised of multiple volumes, it focuses on all the families who lived in the Beekman Patent or Pawling, New York by 1790. Doherty dug into contemporary original and secondary records from the area and compiled genealogies of many families, including the Bowdys and Davis’. His passage on my family in particular reads as follows:

“[Henry Davis, b. 1729] married Sarah, probably dau. of Moses Bowdy. There is some question on this marriage because the Oblong Meeting records give her birth as 22nd of 2nd month 1731 and the Moravian records at G[n]adenhutten, Northhampton Co., PA (after her marriage) give the date as 3 May 1732.” (Doherty, p. 30).

Yes, further Moravian church records confirm Henry married a woman named Sarah. But as Doherty notes, Sarah’s birthdate provided in her Moravian church baptism record (which I have since found an original of) differs from Sarah Bowdy’s birthdate. The early Quaker calendar was wonky, yes, but this is a difference more significant than would be expected from converting Quaker dates to typical dates. I believe Doherty looked for a Sarah who was born around 1732 and who lived near Henry Davis. His theory does make sense since people tended to marry neighbors and locals in the 18th century. It’s just that, though: a theory.

It’s not all Doherty’s fault- he confirms in his writing that it was his assumption that Henry’s wife was Sarah Bowdy (he uses the qualifier “probably”). Unfortunately, all it takes is one online tree user to turn an educated guess into a years-long error.

Because now, after a good amount of education and hours spent digging into this, I can say with (bated) confidence, that Sarah Bowdy was NOT my guy Henry Davis’ wife (and my other guy Henry Davis’ mother). I found the real Sarah’s surname… and it’s not Bowdy.

The record that changed it all (Sarah’s real maiden name is cropped out… you’ll see it next time!)

(Cliffhanger! Tune in to my next post to learn about the real Sarah.)

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