Bethia Kelsey (Hopkins) - can we break the parent link?

Started by Erica Howton on Friday, December 3, 2010
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re: Hester Kelsey

I repeating a point from the "public" discussions here:

http://www.geni.com/discussions/80793?msg=650791

made by Hatte Rubenstein Blejer

"Erica Isabel Howton very nicely made her a master profile and included all the discussion about her lineage. It appears that this Bethia Hopkins should be unlinked from John and Jane Hopkins and have parents unknown (leaving in the discussion and the links)."

*****

What say you all?

Best
Erica

She is my 8th great grandmother through my Stowe family and while I would like to know her lineage, it irks me each time I am related erroneously to someone through either Stephen Hopkins or John Hopkins since I know it is most likely false.

I figured the best way to do it was to email all the managers of Bethia and of John and Jane Hopkins and make the point and get their buy in. Of course I don't know that the information on the Kelsey family site is correct, but it feels like it is correct since it's based on public records from that time.

www.stagge.net/Site/pdf/Stocking.pdf

My own selfish interest is to capture the Stocking - Hopkins - Stowe lineage.

Samuel Stocking m. Bethia Hopkins. She was apparently the daughter of John and Jane Hopkins according to the historical records cited by the above source.

Their daughter, Bethia Stocking, married Thomas Stowe.

This is confusing I know.

The Bethia Hopkins who marred Samuel Stocking is the daughter of John and Jane Hopkins. She is my ancestor because her daughter, Bethia Stocking, married Thomas Stowe. My great grandmother was a Stowe. My sister is named for the Stowes in fact (Jayne Stowe Rubenstein), just as I am named for Hattie Stowe.

The Bethia Hopkins who married William Kelsey is not the daughter of John and Jane Hopkins.

I recieved an email in this line and I had Constance Dudley and Stephen Hopkins (the other parents) linked to Bethia. Since there is no viable documentation other than internet family trees with no real sources, I'm ok with it being gone, BUT, why is Bethia's father only a couple years older than she and then one of her husbands young enough to be her son? LOL

I had disconnected, and then it was only AFTER I saw the curator notes, so I reconnected back to the parents you guys had her with John and Jane. Sorry if you saw any strange activity. I was confused by the dates...please correct the dates. It looks weird.
Mimi
Geni Curator

Just to confuse you further, Mimi, there were TWO NOT THE DAUGHTER of Stephen Hopkins / Bethia's running around CT at the time. Aunt & niece, possibly.

I know I tried to source "overview" as I went along but Hatte, if you can do the honors on Bethia Stocking, I'll try and track down the other one.

Let's all be clear in unison though:

Stephen Hopkins NEVER had a daughter named Bethia Hopkins. It's an internet myth.

Correct, Stephen Hopkins did not have a daughter named Bethia.

There were two Bethia Hopkins.

MY Bethia Hopkins is the daughter of John Hopkins and Jane, whoever they were. She married Samuel Stocking and her daughter Bethia Stocking married Thomas Stowe.

The other Bethia Hopkins married William Kelsey. It's unknown who her parents were. She may be the sister of John Hopkins (I think that's right, correct Erica), but it's unproven.

I just looked at the MP which is of Bethia Kelsey. She was married to Kelsey, not Stocking And she is NOT the daughter of John and Jane Hopkins.

I will find the other Bethia profile and list it here.

Bethia Steele

This Bethia Hopkins is the daughter of John and Jane Hopkins.

I unhooked Bethia Kelsey from the Hopkin parents and from Samuel Stocking.

LOL You guys can have this section...too confusing! I trust you...they aren't my ancestors.

This is where I wish Geni had a method to identify questionable or (requires more research) relationships. Usually someone's initial research and best guess leads me to find the proper documentation and something more concrete. Something to indicate that this needs work.

As I remember this was not such a case but I would have to review the evidence.

After reading much of the discussion, it seems this riddle will never be solved to everyone's satisfaction. That said, if Bethia is a sister of Stephen Hopkins, Sr. , then they were either twins, Irish twins, or she was born in 1630 in England. What is absolutely certain is that Bethia was NOT born in Hartford before 1636, yet this profile shows her birth in Hartford.

Reminds birthplace for Bethia Steele

Actually it’s the date that is wrong.

In the absence of records there is conclusive proof that Bethiah was born after the family removed to Hartford. Governor Wintrhop attended her child in 1669, and the entry in his Journal reads: "Bethia Stockin about 28 years, wife of Stockin of Middletown, child of about one month old" (p 926). In March 1697-98, "Bethiah Steele, 57 years of age or thereabouts" made a deposition in the Hartford court concerning the will of her first husband. (Probate court Record, pp. 44-45, Mawaring, 1:587) Twenty-nine years intervened between these statements, but both are in agreement that she was born in 1641.

Triple checking

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hopkins-379

Robert Charles Anderson argues[5] that the supposed date Bethia Steele made her deposition, age '57', was actually the date of acknowledgement, and that it was written no later than 5 February 1691/2.

In the same paper, he shows that when Bethia Steele was 57, Capt. Nathaniel White was said to be '60 years or therabouts', and died 1711 "aged about 82", which agrees with the birth of his eldest children in 1652. With this in mind, Nathaniel White would have been 60 years old in about 1689, putting Bethia's birth year about 1632, and that she married Samuel Stocking when she was around 21. Winthrop may have written '28' instead of '38' in his medical record, which would put her birth year about 1631.

And the brother

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hopkins-354

"Stephen Hopkins was born say 1633 in England, son of John Hopkins and Jane _______.[2]

Find A grave believes he was born Sept 1634[3] Others claim he was born September 25, 1631 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but his father did not emigrate until 1634 by which time Stephen must have been born, indicating he must have been born in England.

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