david stoddard and elizabeth prouty

I decided to print out an ancestor chart from ancestry.com to see where I had some holes in my family tree. The obvious gaps in my research are mostly on my Italian side, as I do not have access to most of these records. On the other hand, my maternal grandmother's line is one of the lines I have been able to take back at least to the 1700's.  After looking at this chart; however, I did notice I do not have any birth and death dates for one pair of 4th great grandparents, David and Elizabeth Stoddard.  In the past, I have looked in the censuses for more information on this couple, but have been unable to find them.  So I figured I would start again with what I know.

Marriage

I know that David Stoddard and Elizabeth Prouty are my 4th great grandparents from my 3rd great grandfather, David Stoddard's, death record.  The record lists his parents as David Stoddard and Elizabeth, including her maiden name as Prouty, both born in Scituate.

With this information it was easy enough to find David and Elizabeth's marriage record on the ancestry database Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988.  There are multiple entries, showing their marriage intention on January 23, 1819, and their marriage on June 7, 1819.  The multiple records show two different locations for their marriage, one in Scituate and one in Hanover.

One of the records is also in the book on google books, A Copy of the Records of Births, Marriages, and Deaths and of Intentions of Marriage of the Town of Hanover, Mass. 1727-1857:


I always assumed David and Elizabeth were married in Scituate because their children's births are all recorded in Scituate, and their first marriage record I came across was from Scituate.  However; as the record is written above, it looks like they were actually married in Hanover, MA, a neighboring town of Scituate.  Their marriage was probably recorded in Scituate also as that is where they were from.

David and Elizabeth's first child, David Turner Stoddard, my 3rd great grandfather, was born in Scituate on August 13, 1820.  Since he was born in Scituate, I had searched the 1820 census for David and Elizabeth Stoddard in Scituate, looking for this family listed with one son under 5 years old.  I have never been able to find them in Scituate, and did not look too closely at other towns at the time.  After looking at their son's birth date though, I see it is later in the year of 1820, and David and Elizabeth could be living in Hanover before his birth.  I did another search for David Stoddard in the 1820 census in Hanover, MA; and there he was (I think)!  The household consists of :

Males 16-25:1 (david); Females 16-25:2 (elizabeth,?)

There is one person unaccounted for, a female aged 16-25.  This could be a sibling of either David or Elizabeth.  Their son David is also not included in this census, which as I stated above makes sense as he was born in August; probably after the census was taken.  I do think this is the correct David Stoddard, as they have to be living somewhere close and they do not seem to be anywhere else. (see note 1)  Also, the household matches up fairly well.

I usually go on to try and locate all the census records I can when researching a family as these records provide clues to birth dates and other family dynamics.  So my next step was to search the 1830 census. According to Scituate Vital Records, Elizabeth and David Stoddard had two more children, Elizabeth Jane Stoddard born in 1822, and Hannah Lapham Stoddard born in 1824.  Since their children were born in Scituate, David and Elizabeth still might be near Scituate in the 1830s.  I searched for them in the 1830 census in Scituate, but also included other towns nearby just in case.  I did not have any luck finding them this time.

Birth

I at least have one census record; though, so I can estimate David and Elizabeth's birth dates.  They were both between the ages of 16 and 25 years old in 1820, so that makes both of them born between 1795 and 1804.  I also know from their son David's death record, they were both born in Scituate.  Looking at the Vital records of Scituate, Massachusetts: to the year 1850, Volume 1, here are their possible birth dates and parents.

Elizabeth Prouty (p 301):


The only entry that matches with a birth year between 1795 and 1804 is the last one, Elizabeth Prouty, born August 10, 1800 to William and Hannah Prouty.  This does not prove this is her birth date or parents, for many reasons.  I could have the wrong census entry for them and therefore the wrong birth range.  There could also have been other Elizabeth's that were not recorded in Scituate, or Elizabeth may not have been born in Scituate.  Their are also many reasons supporting this birth date though.  The first is the that the date makes sense for Elizabeth, married at age 19 and had children between the ages of 20-24.  I also could not find any other census entries in 1820, and her birth date of 1800 does fall between the age range in that census.  To obtain further evidence of her parents I would look at William and Hannah's probate, deeds, and Elizabeth's death record if I could find it.  If her death was after 1840, it would probably include her parent's names.

David Stoddard (p 339):


The only David that would match our birth range of 1795-1804 from the 1820 census would be the first entry, David Stoddard born Sept 27, 1795 to Hezekiah Jr. and Jane.  (The last entry is David and Elizabeth's son David, my 3rd great grandfather.)  Again for the same reasons as Elizabeth's possible birth date, this does not prove that I have the correct David's birth.  I will also have to look into Hezekiah and Jane's probate and deeds, if any, and David's death record if I can find it.  For all the information I have at this point, this David makes the most sense.

Finding more evidence to support David's birth dates and parents:

• probate - David's possible father, Hezekiah Stoddard (Plymouth probate 19550, year 1817) - appoints a guardian to Hezekiah for excessive drinking and wasteful spending.  No mention of David, or any other children.  David would have been 22 years old.
• deeds:

• there are many deeds for Hezekiah Stoddard but only one mentions a David Stoddard, cordwainer of Scituate, and applies to the probate above of selling off Hezekiah's land by his guardian. (Plymouth deed 133,61).  In this deed David buys 9 acres of Hezekiah's homestead in Scituate.  The deed also mentions Hezekiah's wife Jane; but it does not state David is their son.  David does not keep this land, but sells the same land to Thomas Simmons (Plymouth deed 133,62). Both deeds are dated 1817.

• There are also no deeds for a David Stoddard in Hanover, showing where he got his land. (see note 2)

• There are many deeds for a David Stoddard/Stodder in Hingham, but this seems to be a different David - a bricklayer.  

• death records - could not find for David
• census: the 1820 census includes nearby families of Henry Stoddard and David Prouty - but not sure who they are yet in relation to David and Elizabeth.  Hezekiah Stoddard does sell some land in Hanover to a David Prouty.  (Plymouth deeds 138,194; and 128,229)  Other neighbors include families of Barrell, Damon, Nash and Curtis.

Finding more evidence to support Elizabeth's birth dates and parents:

• probate - no probate for William or Hannah Prouty.  
• deeds - many deeds for William Prouty - none to Elizabeth or David Stoddard.  William does give most of his land to his sons before he dies through deeds, but do not see any for Elizabeth or David, or William's other daughter Hannah.
• death record - did not find death record for Elizabeth Stoddard 
• census : same analysis as David's above.

So I found some connections between Hezekiah Stoddard and David Stoddard, especially in the Hanover area as recorded in some of Hezekiah deeds.  I still have not found any additional evidence to support William and Hannah as Elizabeth's parents.  I really need to find their death records, hoping it will list their parents.

Death

Now that I have possible parent's names for both Elizabeth and David, and I could not find them in the 1830 and on censuses, I did a quick check for their possible parents' households in 1830 to see if they could have been living with them.  They do not look to be living with either parents though.  I looked at Elizabeth's possible siblings also, but again none match up. (see note 3)

So at this point I have only found David and Elizabeth's marriage record in Hanover in 1819, their census record with them living in Hanover in 1820, and their children's births in Scituate, ending in 1824.  I was beginning to think that either David or Elizabeth (or both) had died between 1824 and 1830, since the last record I have of them is their daughter's birth in 1824 and I could not find them in the 1830 and beyond censuses.  Below I list the process I have taken to find their death dates.

• I did not find a death record for David Stoddard in the surrounding towns during the 1820s-1830s.  I also did not find death records for him after 1840.  I think it would be more likely that if he died later in life, the records would  be more accurate and I would be able to find it.  This leads me to believe that David died between 1824-1830, and it was not recorded.  
• I also did not find a death record for Elizabeth.  This could mean that she died young also, and the death was not recorded.  It could also mean; however, that if David died, she remarried.  Maybe I have not been able to find her death record because she has a different last name.
• If both David and Elizabeth died young, they would have left three young children behind.  If this is the case there would probably be probate documents identifying their guardians, which there are none in Plymouth Probate index. 
• I did not find a probate docket for a David Stoddard at this time, but there is a probate docket for an Elizabeth Stodder in 1827 in Scituate.  This could be Elizabeth or the Elizabeth that marries Hezekiah Stoddard, David's grandfather.  Since there is no identifying information in the probate, I am not sure who this Elizabeth is.  There is no mention of any children.  
• If David died before 1830, Elizabeth probably would have been enumerated in 1830.  There is an Elizabeth Stodder living in Hingham, but the household does not match.  She does not seem to be living with family members at this time according to their census households. (see note 3)

The research above leads me to believe that David probably died after his last child was born and Elizabeth remarried.  I have looked for a second marriage record for her in the past, but was unable to find one in Scituate.  Since I know now Elizabeth has a connection to Hanover, I checked their vital records also.  I did find an Elizabeth Stoddard who marries a Perez Drake in 1837 in Hanover.  The entry below is from A Copy of the Records of Births, Marriages, and Deaths and of Intentions of Marriage of the Town of Hanover, Mass. 1727-1857:

This could possibly be our Elizabeth, but it does not give us any information if this is Elizabeth's second marriage.  I searched on the ancestry database, Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, to see if I could find any more information on this event and found one interesting entry.

The marriage intention states Mrs. Elizabeth Stoddard, which means she was married before and Stoddard is her married name.  This looks to be the correct Elizabeth to me, which means David's death was most likely between 1820-1830, or at least before this marriage in 1837.  This still does not explain why I cannot find Elizabeth Stoddard in the 1830 census as a widow.  She and her children must be living with some other family.

Now I have another name to search for Elizabeth, Elizabeth Drake.  I will explore what happened to Elizabeth (Prouty) Drake in my next post.

notes:

1. after I found out who their parents were, I looked at father Hezekiah Stoddard and her father William Prouty and they are not included with these families in the 1820 census.
2. Hezekiah Stoddard does seem to have land in Hanover as he sells some of it, as recorded in the Plymouth deeds.  In at least two of these deeds, David and his possible brother Michael, are witnesses (Plymouth deed 126,190 and Plymouth deed 128,229).   Since Hezekiah owns land in Hanover, maybe David is just living on his father's land and did not purchase it.
3. In 1830 they are also not with possible brothers Elijah Prouty, William Prouty or Lincoln Prouty.  I cannot find Elizabeth's sister Hannah Prouty either, they both do not seem to be with possible father William.  Their brother Isaac Prouty still seems to be in father William's household.  I did not look into David Stoddard's possible siblings household in 1830 because if Hezekiah and Jane are his parents, he would have too many siblings and half siblings to check.