Damaris Shattuck (unknown) - Common problems with Damaris

Shirley, that was a great write-up on Ancestry board. I also have a lot of information about her at http://family.beacondeacon.com/bm.htm. A great resource for the Shattuck ancestry is Phillip Shaddock at http://www.shaddock.ca/. I will run the Ancestry board link by him as well. I would like to get my information as correct as possible. Hopefully this thread will help it out.

-James "Jamie" Johnson (beakndeakn@aol.com)

Erica Isabel Howton, a curator on Geni, is also a great resource.

Philip Shaddock shared the following: "Also vital records are not the sole source you should look at. History provides the context and often the recorded instances that help correct or expand the information gleaned from vital records. And of course DNA is the ultimate arbiter since people can simply be wrong about family provenance or the true father of a child."

Further, he adds, "Again, you have to range away from studying local records, which are often treated as ultimate tests of a theory. The Banks list does not show the Shattucks originated from Somerset, but a study of the vital records in the 16th and 17th centuries in England provides compelling evidence that Shattucks originated from a small area of west Somerset. This is a good example of enlarging your research. So far the DNA evidence supports this theory and will ultimately provide the proof that will settle the issue."

Hi Jamie:

Thanks for your note. Yes, Phillip is great. He's the one I mentioned in my post who sent me the actual image of SamueLL ShattOck's will. He's the basis for section #5 at my post.

From your page:
>>I lean towards his name being Samuel because Philip Shaddock shares "Samuel the elder, the original immigrant to Massachusetts, refers to himself in his will as Samuel Shattocke Son" (source: http://www.shaddock.ca/devon-shaddocks/shattucks-in-america/samuel-...;

Upon careful reading of what was thought was "son" it turned out to be "Snr". (Senior). Phillip has removed the "Son" comment from his updated webpage at
http://www.shaddock.ca/family-tree/somerset-shattockes/shattucks-in...

Yes, Erica "the Disconnectrix" Howton is great.

Shirley SSBOSCO@AOL.COM

Thanks for the updates! I have made some changes.

MY CORRECTION. Sorry. Sameull Shattock's will didn't say "Snr". It was "Sen."

In Damaris's timeline it says her son Samuel was born in Assington, Somerset, England. I'm wondering if that's supposed to be Ashington or if we really know what town or parish he was born in? Maybe Ashington was picked because another Shattuck was born there?

I'm not sure about the town. And both appear to be real places.

Check the online parish clerk (OPC) pages for these towns in Dorset, there are some baptismal records available. Maybe we'll get lucky.

Somerset, Dorset and Devon have been scoured but mainly are Church of England. If these guys were Quakers probably not recorded there. Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers don't have anyone with matching names or dates. Or Civil.

Yes,
AsSington, Suffolk and

AsHington, Somerset,
AsHington, Dorset, and
AsHington, Northumberland

are real places, but there's no documentation for either town name in any solid Shattuck record that is known to match this family.

Assington, Suffolk is one of the items in some of the submittals ("contributions") to the IGI, AF, and PRF on LDS -- one has Damaris "Sibley" born 1596 to Richard who was born 36 years LATER and Hannah who was born 40 years LATER. That's the kind of stuff out there.

In that submittal Mr Shattuck (seen as Samuel of course) shows born 1592 and dying 6 June 1698. Cool -- 106 years old and dying exactly 10 years to the day after the son of Damaris. Great transposition of digits in the date. Except we know she was a widow by 1641.

Except Suffolk didn't have m/any Shattucks back then in records. Suffolk is nowhere near Somerset, Dorset or Devon which is where some people are "sure" that the Shattucks were from because that's where the names are. Might be a case of a stray Shattuck floating around from the North of England who happened to move south?

We'll keep looking of course. Crossing fingers for your lucky.