Elizabeth (Griffin) Wright - Sorting the Elizabeth Griffins

Spinning off this post from Gary Paul Stutler at https://www.geni.com/discussions/185827?msg=1502253 to its own discussion.

Hi everyone.

I have a person, born Elizabeth Griffin who could really bebnefit from curatorial intervention/review.

She appears multiple times in geni, but the issue isn't just merger of duplicates, but decisions regarding parentage and correct spouses. We are likely dealing with two separate persons married to different men, but it would be great if curators could examine the profiles and weigh in.

Essentially, ancestry.com searches strongly point to her parentage being:

Richard Griffin (1734–1805) and Nancy Ann Clark (or Clarke) (1740–1792)

Located here:

https://www.geni.com/family-tree/index/6000000034056781936

[NOTE: Just yesterday, as luck would have it, there was a GEDCOM download for this couple and their tree, which naturally complicates matters, but I ignore this in the current discussion.]

Here are the variables that are problematic:

Ancestry.com (and various geni profiles!) shows Elizabeth marrying Andrew Pickens (a significant historical figure from South Carolina revolutionary era history). However, it also shows her married to Jarrett Wright, and Ambrose Christopher, I.

Because children's birth years clearly overlap, we cannot be talking about chronologically sequential marriages by different men to the same wife. And yet, ancestry.com (and geni) imply all these women are the same Elizabeth, because DOB's or DOD's are the same, or parents are the same. In one profile in geni, parents are different (Ralph Griffin and Susannah Buckner), but she is married to both Wright AND Christopher (deste children's birth years overlapping from both marriages).

Teasing out which Elizabeth is the daughter of WHICH set of parents, and married to WHICH correct spouse . . . we need to get another pair of eyes on this, because I am a bit uncertain how to correct all this, and don't feel I am authorized to make such a repair.

Here are all the profiles for Elizabeth which I believe are affected by this issue:

• Elizabeth (Griffin) Wright
• Elizabeth (Griffin) Pickens
• Sarah Elizabeth (Griffin) Wright
• Elizabeth (Griffin) Wright

From purely a common sense standpoint --- nothing else --- it would stand to reason that if Elizabeth is in fact two different persons, the birthdates cannot all be identical (as they currently seem to be set to the year 1759). Since in some trees she is married to Andrew Pickens, who is VERY much older than she is, the Elizabeth Griffin who married Andrew Pickens was possibly born well before 1759, and in turn, was likely born to parents who, also were earlier-born.

Accordingly, my theory is this: Ralph Griffin and Susannah Buckner were born a decade or so before the other proposed parents of Elizabeth (Richard Griffin and Ann Clark). Might it be possible that Ralph and Susannah, being older, are the parents of the Elizabeth who married Andrew Pickens (who might herself, perhaps mave been born a decade earlier, too, thus making the age difference between herself and her husband, Andrew, less pronounced). While Richard and Ann are the parents of the theoretically-latter-born Elizabeth, who married Ambrose and/or Jarrett?

This would help separate Elizabeth with Andrew Pickens from Elizabeth and the other two spouses, and help theorize as to parentage.

However, this still leaves the issue that Ambrose and/or Jarrett cannot have been simultaneously married to Elizabeth, because despite the fact their ages are compatible with Elizabeth, the children she with each of them have overlapping birth years.

This leads to the possibility of a THIRD Elizabeth Griffin.