We have some shaky footing on this ladder
Last week, we considered the evidence that ties Thomas Wells and Cyrena Whitford to Harlow C. Wells. I decided to accept that Harlow was probably their son, based on the few facts we have been able to find in the available records. I also spent some time looking through the local histories published about Franklin County and searched for other Wells families who might have been in the area, but those sources did not offer any other alternatives to explore.
This week, we are considering the next rung on the ladder, and looking for Cyrena Whitford’s origins. Once again, we don’t have a lot of information to work with. Other than this record of their marriage, there don’t seem to be any official documents that name Cyrena:
The only other source that names Cyrena gets her name wrong. The death record for their daughter, Melissa (Wells) Whitman, who died in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1886, gives her parents names and their place of birth. It names Thomas Wells and “Irene”, born in “Bridgeport, VT” and “Crown P….”, respectively:
Once again, we have a very limited amount of information to work with if we want to figure out who Cyrena Whitford’s parents were. The two records that name her disagree on her name; there is no record of her date of birth; and the scan of the page that names her birthplace cuts off the placename. That said, I’m inclined to think that Cyrena/Irene was born in Crown Point, Essex County, New York, which is located directly across Lake Champlain from Bridport, Vermont.
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But… once again, we have some leads thanks to the online trees shared on Ancestry, FamilySearch, and WikiTree. According to those researchers, Cyrena Whitford is believed to be the daughter of Greene Whitford (1759–1816) and Anna Clothier Pierce (1760–1808). As we did with Harlow, we need to look at the available records for that couple to see if we can support this theory.
As always, I’d love to hear from any fellow descendants of these folks, especially if you have scans of the “family records” cited in their online trees.
And if you are interested in seeing how far up this ladder we can get, be sure you are subscribed!
Say hello, cousin!