Sunday, February 23, 2014

52 ancestors - Who was Dorothy Colt's mother?

I happened to stumble across a goldmine of information related to my maternal grandmother's side of the family and very happily added at least 50 new names to my tree.  I previously wrote about Dorothy's son John and this post is highlighting Dorothy Colt herself, my 8th great grandmother. I believe that Dorothy was born in the mid 1600s, but I do not have an exact date. I know her father's name was John Colt, and I believe he might have been a Captain, but this has not yet been confirmed.  I hit a snag when it comes to her mother, however.  In some records I show that Ann Skinner is her mother, in other records I found it appears that John Colt married Mary Skinner at one point (I believe he had 3 wives total) but no mention of Ann, unless Mary went by a different name.  Yet other records show that Dorothy's mother was Hester Edwards, who was John's second wife.  Perhaps, Ann was Dorothy's biological mother and Hester was her stepmother?

The other mystery surrounding Dorothy is that she married my 8th great grandfather, John Sparks.  He died in 1710 and in May of 1712 she married John Parsons.  Dorothy died in October of 1712.  Was she only married to the second John for a few months?  The children she and my 8th great grandfather had together were wards under the second John when the first John died.  If they were only married a few months, then the children became wards rather quickly.  That could have normal back then, I'm unsure.

I have a lot more research on the questions I have above, perhaps someone out there can help me figure out the mystery.  I also believe that this family lines leads me to early settlers, but more investigation is certainly needed.

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