Thursday, October 27, 2011

Thriller Thursday - Mary Curry's TRUE Husband!

In my last post, Can a Published Genealogy Be Wrong? I presented a compelling case for why the established belief that my 3rd great grandfather, David Fuller, married Mary Curry was incorrect.  

Sadly, no matter how strong my evidence that David Fuller married Mary Cary and NOT Mary Curry, it has been met with disbelief. The fact that he had married Mary Curry was in several published books and genealogy reports.  

Please review my evidence in my last post for the details.

I had to take it one step further. I had to prove that not only did Mary Curry not marry David Fuller, I had to show that she had, in fact, married someone else.

Initially, I had no idea how to do that. But I found a clue.  There are several editions of the Horton Nova Scotia Township Books, which were used to record the births, marriage and deaths of the town residents. I looked at original copies of the township books, not transcriptions, so I could see for myself what was recorded.  In one of the records, it doesn't provide any clues, but in another township book I could find it clearly said "Hatch". This seems to be pretty common practice that they record the married names of women (when it is known) next to their names.  

See below the two versions of the Horton Township records:

But, of course, just having a random name next to Mary Curry's in those records doesn't PROVE anything.  

So I had to dig deeper.

I was able to find a family tree which showed that a Silas Hatch married a Mary Curry. It looked like this could be what I was looking for, but if I couldn't find any 3rd party verification of this union, then it didn't prove anything.

In the absence of a marriage record, I was able to find the next best thing.  A marriage announcement in the Bangor Weekly Register on December 28, 1819.  Not only had Mary Curry not married David Fuller, she had married once prior to marrying Silas Hatch!!

Just in case there are any doubters that wonder if this announcement refers to someone other than Marry Curry, it does clearly state that Mary's father is Richard Curry.  There was only one Richard Curry in Horton, NS and he had only one daughter named Mary.

It appears that Silas and Mary Curry had at least 6 children:  Abigail(1817), Isaac(1819), Silas C.(1821), Charlotte(1825), Richard(1826), Louisa (1827)

The only troubling thing is that it appears that the couple had some of these children in Horton, NS and some in Maine.  Their youngest child was born in 1827, but that is at odds with the belief that Marry Currry died in 1822.  It is possible that either the record that appears to state that she died in 1822 is incorrect or Silas may have remarried.  Hard to say.

Which leads to my final post on this subject:  The "Lost" Cary Family of Horton, Nova Scotia

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