Moses Betts: One source gives him 2 different sets of parents

Question

There's a young woman, Mrs. Hannah Betts, buried at Stratford, CT. She died in 1782, aged 22. Wife of Moses Betts. I've been trying to find where to place Hannah in the greater WikiTree. She was born abt. 1760, so her husband should be born in the window of 1740-1765, most likely in the 1750s.

Most recently, I've been reviewing Betts, Frederic H., 1888. ''Thomas Betts, of Guilford and Norwalk, and his Descendants.'' (based on the work of Caroli Wyllys Betts, deceased.) And I've found a problem:

Page 53: Moses Betts; b. April 5, 1751; baptized 14 Apr 1751; married Ann Sturgis Mar 7 1776; died June 3, 1821. He is the son of Elias Betts (1717-1782) and Abigail Burchard (1722-1806), they married 7 Mar 1745.

Page 56: Moses Betts, born April 5th, 1751; married Ann Sturges of Fairfield. He is the son of Joseph Betts (1717-1760) and Sarah (Platt) St. John aka Betts.

So, there's an error of some kind in the Betts publication. I'm guessing that both families had sons named Moses about the same time. One of them married Ann Sturges, and the other married Hannah Unknown, buried in Stratford. The Betts family mostly seems to be found farther along the coast: Fairfield, Norwalk, Wilton, Greenwich. Stratford's an outlier for them, so Hannah's family might have been from there?

Either that or there's yet another Moses Betts around.

I've been tangling with poor Hannah for awhile now. Time to see if someone else can discover something I've missed..

Answer 1

 All Results

Moses Betts

 in the Connecticut, Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920

VIEW

Name:	Moses Betts
Birth Date:	4 Apr 1751
Birth Place:	Wilton, Connecticut, USA
Father's name:	Elias Betts
Mother's name:	Abigail Betts
Volume Title:	Volume 128 Wilton

Source Information

Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: 2013.

Original data: Connecticut. Church Records Index. Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Connecticut.

 

Comments

Good find, Eddie (just to put a fly in the ointment, question - is that copyright?)

I added some info and sources to the profile, but haven't come close to solving the puzzle.

My guess is that there may have been two Moses Betts living at Westport.  Two of the children were recorded at Westport as children of Moses Betts "of Wilton" (as if to distinguish him from another ?).

The entry in FOOF seems to be confounding two different Moses Betts.  Two different marriages attributed to him ( FOOF). He married Ann Sturgis, and she lived until 1835, but his estate was distributed to a wife named Mary in 1818.

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There was another Moses Betts-1703, born around the same time (1755), who married  Mary Gregory. That would be the one died in 1818. I've gone far afield on this one, reviewing ALL the Betts genealogy and records I can find for that area, mostly Fairfield County. So I need to review the logic behind the placements thus far. Fair to say, it's not resolved yet, so anything could change.

This is a tough problem. For now, I'm getting stubborn about it. Won't go down to defeat! Yesterday I made a spreadsheet of all the Betts records in a variety of sources - Barbour (above) and findagrave. Plus a couple others. There's a variety of compilations that cover the right time & place, too. Helps me know where there are Betts records to look at. Perhaps the Hale Collection of Connecticut burials will turn up another Moses? (I'm less hopeful for that one.)

As to the conflation, yes indeed. I guess more wills  need to be found to sort out the offspring clusters. Might help with Moses, even if not with young Hannah. If only I could find a Moses who (re)married around 1784; that would be good circumstantial evidence. I guess maybe I need to look at a Norwalk compilation next. Not sure what to do about the Betts compilation; almost everything has some mistakes, so perhaps I'll stick with it for awhile. Even if I doubt I'll sort out Moses, there's still surrounding context.

Before I give up, I"ll probably do one last Hail Mary effort: Review Stratford and  surrounding towns for any record of Hannah being born in 1760,  see if I can find one that fits.

All the records have holes in them. Lots is missing. But I don't want to give up on this one. Not yet!