Ages of Ally Wyatt Barnett

I hate to ever tell anyone they’re wrong.  In all honesty, we get more e-mail around here when we make a mistake than saying anything positive about the hordes of research we publish.  Not that I ever mind corrections, but I was raised to be polite about everything, and the stunning rudeness of the cloak of the internet is often shocking.  It’s given me a bit of a complex about having to write anyone, and I often start off with profuse apologies and waves of oozing politeness to the point where I’m sure people wonder about what exactly is wrong with me.

On that note, the information available and posted across Ancestry and the wild internet about Alley and James Barnett is simply wrong.  I’m sorry, but it’s true.  So, this is why.

In 1991 a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints published the Barnett Family Genealogy.  Subsequently Ally Wyatt and her husband and James Barnett were baptized posthumously on 13 Oct 2000.  I’ll be the first to praise the efforts of the Mormon Church as far as their genealogy research and preservation, and this post and the rumoured family trees that resulted are in no way reflected upon their efforts.  This is simply human error, in the manner of copy and repeat.

In translating the original genealogy, there were errors.  Mostly in the face of the birth dates of Ally Wyatt and James Barnett, as well as their daughters Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Barnett Wainscott and Sarah ‘Sallie’ Barnett Thompson.  Somehow, Betsy and Sarah’s birth dates were recorded as their marriage dates, and poor Ally and James just suffered repeated recordings as a result.  We’re still not 100% clear where the marriage date of ‘6 Dec 1806’ came from, beyond that it was originally written on Ancestry.com in the OneWorld Tree, bless their little hearts!  That project was brilliant in it’s insanity.
Ally’s more likely born in 1779, as per the original LDS International Genealogical Index.  That would make her about 13 years of age upon the birth of her first daughter, and slightly younger upon marrying her husband James Barnett.  Their final son, born in 1820 suggests she birthed him at the age of 41 years old.

So, at this point we have the following children and their birth dates for Alice Ally Wyatt and James Barnett:

Various Family Trees suggest we could be missing two additional children that would have been infant or early deaths, as dear Ally noted the descendants of her son William despite his passing in her Will.  Possible names were Elvira and Daniel.
Elvira was the name of one of Elisha’s children, it’s unclear if he named his daughter for a deceased sibling or if someone along the line put Elisha’s daughter in the wrong generation.
Several trees note that Daniel Barnett married a woman named America McMarny, although Daniel was listed as having been born in 1813 as well, so he was possibly twins with David and perished without issue.
We will continue to search for documentation and burial records that support or validate any of these siblings.

We believe that Ally was the daughter of Mary Elizabeth Thompson (The same surname was Allen Thompson, husband of Sarah ‘Sallie’ Thompson suggesting a familial link) and William Wyatt – http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=66723197  1730-1814.  In our collective minds, the consensus of children between the two is likely affected by the same sort of errors that exist in Ally and James’ line.  Either the notes on Find A Grave are correct – In that William had two wives, one named Mary ______  and a second named Elizabeth Thompson, or his sole wife bore him children for a total of 37 years.  As well, the 9 year gap between George and Charles poses more questions, and Ally was possibly twins with a sibling named John or they were Irish Twins both born in the same year.  Their current children are not in our family tree as of tonight, but are listed as the following:

With our most sincere thanks to cousin Vince, who provided these pictures, we’re also going to post the results of improving the photograph of Alice ‘Ally’ Wyatt Barnett using Corel Paint Shop Pro X6 and a Lens Distortion.  It’s so incredible these images have survived since the 1800s for us to be looking at tonight.

Jenn

Always one for making things pretty, Jenn is our resident artist. Métis, British Home Child Descendant, family historian and genealogist, she is always looking into some new branch of research and encourages historical preservation and education.