These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Finding
The Providence John and Sarah Gurney household, 1695-1714: real but unconnected
The Providence John and Sarah Gurney household — a stranger warned out of town in 1695-96 who by 1714 had married the widow Sarah Field and outlived her — is a genuine colonial-era same-surname couple with no record connecting either spouse to John Gurney-1's own children or grandchildren. All of Sarah's children carried her first husband's surname, Field, so the Gurney marriage left no recorded offspring of its own.
Date: 1695-1714
Why this conclusion
- Analyzed by Analysis Torrey's John3 entries: a plausible but unconfirmed grandson readingTorrey's compendium entry is weighed for what it adds to and complicates the Providence household finding.
- Required by Analysis The identification is reached by elimination and circumstantial fit, and predicts its own thin recordThe one-Gurney-household claim depends on the Providence John and Sarah Gurney being unconnected and later.
- Supported by Evidence 1695-96 Providence warning-out of John Gurney, a strangerThe 1695-96 warning-out record is direct primary evidence of the Providence John Gurney household.
- Supported by Evidence 1714 Providence will and inventory of Sarah Gurney; husband John Gurney aliveThe 1714 will and inventory is direct primary evidence closing out the Providence household and its lack of Gurney offspring.
Topic file location: Family — colonial collaterals
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000138 - Graph revision:
244 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000138.json
This is one research item from the John Gurney research graph; the fuller narrative treatment is in the linked topic above and the research library.