Monday, July 4, 2011

Find Adam's wife, Elizabeth Biggen or Corzine

Happy 4th of July everyone.

We've been able to show, conclusively, with primarily land records, that Richard Perkins' wife was indeed a Mary but was certainly not Mary Utie. See http://desertsaintsmagazine.com/2008/08/01/mary-utie-perkins-does-not-exist-internet-pedigrees-are-erroneous/.

We've been able to show that William Sherrill's wife is totally unknown and that her forename of Margaret was actually the first name of her daughter-in-law, and that there was no son named Rudil, and that no one by the surname Rudil or Rudisil or Reutsel etc was in colonial America early enough to have married William Sherrill, the Indian Trader. Deeds - which never once named this William Sherrill's wife [at least that we've found so far and we've really searched], and immigration records have been the basis for this. See the earlier blog called the truth about William Sherwill.

But I have, so far, not been able to find anything on Elizabeth Corzine or Biggen, wife of Adam Sherrill. A review of the literature shows this about Adam's wife:
1. Deeds show her name as Elizabeth
2. Deeds show she married Adam Sherrill probably in Conestoga Twp, Lancaster, PA or in Cecil Co, MD about1722. Deeds and rent rolls show Adam as single about 1720 and the Bible records show his first child born 1723 when he still lived in the Cecil Co MD/Lancaster Co PA area.
3. The really old Sherrill records show her name as Elizabeth Corzine, unlike Richard Perkins' wife Mary [Utie]and William Sherwill's unknown wife formerly known as Margaret Rudisil, both of which have been added fairly recently, the Utie within the last 10-20 years, the Margaret Rudisil maybe within the last 50 years.

So Adam's wife's name is unquestionably Elizabeth. Could it be Biggen [Binham, Bingam, etc] or Corzine [Cosine, Corsine, and many other variations]?

3. There was a Corzine family nearby in the PA/MD corner of the world where the Sherrills lived in 1720, though an Elizabeth is never named. See http://corzine.net/genealogy/Corzine%20Ancestry.htm.
4. The person who entered her grave on findagrave.com put her name as Elizabeth Corzine Sherrill. The stone marker, however, has only initials. It cannot be stated strongly enough that her maiden name is NOT on the marker. I've emailed the great lady who put this picture on the interent, to see if she has any documents regarding Corzine. By the way, several Sherrills are buried in the Sherrill's Ford cemetery, and it is great to be able to visit them virtually. Thank you Findagrave.com.
5. The only other source given anyplace, notably on Ancestry.com FamilyTrees for Elizabeth Corzine is the old marriage index. This is not really a source, it's just a compilation of old unsourced records.

So far, I've not found enough on Biggen/Bigger etc to make any judgements at all.

Time seems to be running out for me, so I've got to get to the Frees. We have so much great stuff about our Free family we want to share with all of you, we've got to move on. However, if any of you are so inclined, we would appreciate you taking on the challenge of Elizabeth Corzine.

Please note two things:
In all my research on this woman so far, I have not even found a single document where the surnames Sherrill and Corzine are together. This is very telling. No document found so far, and we've found many, has a Sherrill and a Corzine even witnessing the same event.

Another, unknown researcher, said this: "Elizabeth's name by tradition is supposed to be Corzine. A corzine family did live near the PA MD border and followed the same emigration pattern as the Sherrill's to NC, however a visit to the Maryland archives produced no meaningful information that would confirm her name."

Consequently, unless additional information is found, Adam's wife will go into the book as Elizabeth.

Anybody looking for a great challenge? If you want to take this on, let me know, and I'll send data. Thanks

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