Hi Terry.
I can't think of any primary evidence showing who John White's wife actually was.
There was an old "Ancestry of Elizabeth Louise White" family tree on Rootsweb. For it's sources, it said it was "Prepared by Steven C. Perkins. Materials below are from the following: Sarah Elizabeth White Gilreath; Arnold Taylor; Nancy Jonckheere; and, Gloria and Orville Perkins."
I know that the late Nancy Jonckheere was a descendant of John White and probably knew more about that line than anyone. And I know my distant cousin Gloria Perkins to be an extremely diligent researcher. But the aforementioned Elizabeth Louise White tree did not give any primary source for its information about John White's wife. It merely said that, "It is said that he married Mary Shelton and they had five children...."
So the best that we have (unless I'm missing something) is that old rumor that John White was married to Mary Shelton.
We don't even have THAT when it comes to all the other Marys he's been connected with online, so as far as I know, it may simply be a case of some genealogy dabblers out there hearing that John White's wife name was Mary and then grabbing any old person named Mary who was in the general vicinity in the general era and sticking her in there as his wife.
I've seen a lot of this thing on internet genealogy sites. For example, several times a year, someone who can't tolerate the fact that no one knows who my 4th great grandfather John Bryant Sr's parents were will, without any sources, just slap onto him as a father anyone who has a last name starting with B.
What I have sometimes done in such incidents is delete or disconnect the unsupported persons and then post a comment basically saying "If anyone wants to re-add this person, let them first attach the PRIMARY source (e.g. birth certificate, census record, marriage record etc.) showing that this connection is accurate."
But I'll leave that up to you.
So in short, if I had to GUESS who John White was married to, I'd guess Mary Shelton, just because the quality of genealogy research has devolved so much in recent years that I tend to believe very old rumors over new ones. But if I had to prove it, I don't think I could at this point. Knowhutimean?
Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Please let me know if you come across anything.
Best wishes.
Cousin Patrick
