Amy Ayers married who?

Repost from 7/3/2018 When I Was 69 blog

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Well, Amy (Annie) Cowell had a sister, Mary Cowell, according to my Ancestry Tree.  But there's a bit of a problem.

They both have the birthday of 22 January 1657.  So maybe they were twins.  But they aren't both listed as born the same time from same parents where their birthdays are listed.  They just have the Ancestry trees in a confusion.
But they both have the same death day,  31 March 1736.

So I started looking around.
Especially since they both married a man named Sherburne, one to Joseph, one to John.

Annie (Amy) married a Joseph Sherburne (1656-1679) on 19 Oct 1678.  It's understandable that she married again, (since Joseph apparently died the next year)...to Jethro Ferber (1648-1682) on 19 Oct 1678.  Same marriage date to two different men?

And before I'm completely bald from pulling my hair out, her sister Mary married a man named John Sherburn.  BUT...

he was listed as married to another Mary, with surname of Jackson.  And the John Sherburne on my tree with all the other Sherburnes had been born in 1647, while the one on this new family tree (hear Twilight Zone music here) was supposedly born in 1650.  Same town of Portsmouth NH, but of course different parents so listed as 2 different men.

So this post is going out now, and I have no resolution on the conundrum, and it just keeps getting worse.  My poor little computer screen is just a mixed up as me.

The bottom line is that someone who made those lists of marriages (and births) got the Sherburnes mixed up.  There were so many it's possible that 2 Captain John Sherburnes were walking around town, both married to a different woman named Mary Sherburne.  And then there were all the children of John and Mary Jackson Sherburne...the first of which was born when she was 3 years old!!!  That does seem a bit of a problem.

Yep, never say genealogy is a dull subject.  But oh, it doth try one's patience!

Anyway, I do know the Ferber marriage of Amy (Annie) Cowell Sherburne Ferber produced just one son, who was included in some documents so there's record of that marriage beyond that list.  And I've already posted about how her next husband (my ancestor) Nathaniel Ayers, helped with the Ferber estate.  HERE.

The further back I go with these families of New England, the more I distrust the records that are listed.  If I can see a photocopy of the originals, I'll take that as fact.

In the meantime, I pull my hair out bit by bit, because I can be showing this mixed up mess of data to other Tree searchers, as if it is fact.  So to solve that problem (and whatever reputation I might have) I'm going to delete the relationships which are most "iffy".  Nah, I just wish I could.  There's obviously a sister, who may have been confused as to dates of birth, death, and marriage.  Not to mention who her husband might have been...or the children. 

So Mary will not have the same birth and death date.  And Amy (Annie) will not marry 2 different men on the same day.  Whoever wrote those records must have had a headache...because I refuse to get one on this business.