Frontier Round 5 — Part G

Headlines

Roger Williams's mother's baptism record has an internal date contradiction that surfaced WITHIN this round. The frontier agent (pemberton-baptism target) cited Alice Pemberton's St Albans baptism as 18 Feb 1563/4 (NS 1564) from the register's full-text-search year-heading. Its own follow-up r2 (Robert Pemberton target) went back to the actual page image and found the printed year-heading is "1564-5," not "1563-4" — meaning the correct conversion is 18 Feb 1565 NS, one year later than first reported in this very round. Flagged as a CONTRADICTION below, not silently resolved — but the page-image read should be weighted over the full-text-search read.
Big new corroboration for the Roger Williams / Pemberton line: Alice (Pemberton) Williams's own 1634 will (proved 26 Jan 1634/5) names "my son Roger Williams now beyond the seas... a wife and a daughter" — an independent primary document, distinct from James Williams's will and Roger Pemberton's will, all converging on the same identification. Still carried at PROBABLE (no document states Alice's maiden name outright; the Pemberton ID rests on cross-referenced will language, not a marriage record).
The RW/Sayles closer did NOT move. The John Sayles probate target found no primary town record and no document beyond two Austin compilations (1887 dictionary + 1889 "Thirty-three Rhode Islanders") naming Catharine as John & Mary (Williams) Sayles's daughter — and the agent itself flagged that both are the same compiler (J.O. Austin), so this is not independent corroboration. Status stays ANCHORED-PER-AUSTIN, unchanged from the sibling-strategy round. Best remaining closer identified: an unverified WikiTree citation to "Providence Book of Probate, p.64" — a separate volume from the 21-vol printed Early Records series, likely holding John Sayles Jr.'s actual 1727 will.
Aquilla Wilson's will does NOT name a son "Richard." The leading candidate for Richard Wilson (b.1767)'s father — flagged as the "best lead" after last round's 4-county negative sweep — turns out to have a complete-looking heir list (wife + 5 sons + 4 daughters + 1 grandson) with no Richard among them. Not a hard exclusion (wills omit heirs sometimes), but this line did not confirm.
GW "Wash" Gibby's death-date contradiction (1909 vs 1915) got new evidence, not resolution. A federal TVA Cemetery Relocation database row for "Gibbey, Wash" gives death year 1915 tied to his actual original grave and relocation destination — stronger sourcing than the uncited 1909 FindAGrave/WikiTree display date. But the same TVA row gives his birth year as 1860, which conflicts with his well-established (4-census) 1844 birth year. Verdict: leans 1915, PROBABLE, not CONFIRMED — logged as an unresolved contradiction with new evidence, not adjudicated.
Two honest dead-end rounds: Eva Brown's SC-side parentage (no new bio facts; every online-index route hit a login wall or was a marketing/lead-gen fake) and Thomas Olney's own baptism (confirmed genuinely absent from the complete, intact St Albans register — a real negative, not a data gap).

VIZ-CHANGES

Elizabeth Goodspead (ahn 353): real birth date found — b. 10 Oct 1731, Rochester, MA (PROBABLE; parents Stephen Goodspeed 1706–1776 + Bethiah Wooding, m. 1 Mar 1730/31 Rochester). This replaces the current E2-estimated "~1733" birth-half with a real (though PROBABLE, not fully primary-sourced) date — very close to the estimate, but should render solid-PROBABLE rather than faded-estimated on the birth end. Death end (~1795) has no new evidence; stays estimated (E2, dashed).
New nodes, Goodspeed line: Stephen Goodspeed (1706–1776, Scituate RI, intestate) and Bethiah Wooding/Wooden (dau. of Peter Wooding of Rochester MA) — PROBABLE tier, add as Elizabeth Goodspead's parents (ahn 706/707 if the numbering holds).
New nodes, Pemberton line (extending existing ahn 11276/11277 James Williams + Alice Pemberton):
- Robert Pemberton of St Albans (Alice's father; d./bur. 16 July 1578, now independently CONFIRMED via direct primary-register page image this round, upgraded from "accepted on premise") — PROBABLE as the specific identification linking him to the Visitation of Hertfordshire pedigree (no single document merges register-Robert with Visitation-Robert).
- Katherine/Catherine Pemberton (Alice's mother, widow by 1578) — POSSIBLE tier only. A "maiden name Stokes" claim floating on one secondary genealogy site is explicitly unsourced; do not adopt.
- Siblings baptized same register: John (20 June 1563), Mary (1 Feb 1566/7), Sara (26 Sept 1568) — doc-only, POSSIBLE, no independent significance beyond confirming the family unit.
- Roger Pemberton (brother, d. 1627, testator who calls Roger Williams "cosen and Godsonne") — already known from last round; stays as-is.
- Ralfe/Raffe Pemberton — now clarified as the second son of Roger Pemberton + Elizabeth More, i.e. a genuine grandson of Robert, NOT a scribal variant of "Roger" as last round's open question left it. Resolves that specific ambiguity.
DATE CORRECTION PENDING RESOLUTION — do not publish yet: Alice Pemberton's baptism is cited as both 18 Feb 1564 NS (frontier pass, full-text search) and 18 Feb 1565 NS (r2 follow-up, direct page image) in the same round. Recommend trusting the page-image read (1565 NS) but flagging both in the person-page tooltip until independently re-checked a third time.
No change (negative results, log only): Richard Wilson (b.1767)'s parent link to Aquilla Wilson — do not add, no naming document found. GW Gibby's death date — do not flip the displayed 1909 to 1915; hold as an open contradiction with the TVA evidence noted.

NEW-PEOPLE

Stephen Goodspeed — father of Elizabeth Goodspead (Nathan Olney's wife); b. 17 Sept 1706, d. 1 June 1776, Scituate RI, intestate. Tier: PROBABLE. Evidence: History of the Goodspeed Family (1907), entry #32, married Bethiah Wooding 1 Mar 1730/31 Rochester MA; corroborated independently by matching children's names/birth-years and the Stillwater/Saratoga NY relocation detail in the 1889 Olney genealogy.
Bethiah Wooding (Wooden) — mother of Elizabeth Goodspead. Tier: PROBABLE. Evidence: same 1907 Goodspeed genealogy; daughter of Peter Wooding/Wooden of Rochester MA.
Robert Pemberton of St Albans — father of Alice (Pemberton) Williams. Tier: PROBABLE (identification), CONFIRMED (existence/burial). Evidence: St Albans Abbey burial register p.185, "July 16 Robert Pemerton" 1578, viewed as primary page image this round.
Katherine/Catherine Pemberton — mother of Alice, widow 1578. Tier: POSSIBLE. Evidence: Visitation of Hertfordshire 1634 names her without surname; archdeaconry admon grant (30 Sept 1578) accepted on task premise, not independently re-verified this round (not digitized).
John, Mary, Sara Pemberton — siblings of Alice, baptized St Albans 1563/1566/1568. Tier: POSSIBLE, doc-only, off viz.
Ralfe (Raffe) Pemberton — grandson of Robert (2nd son of Roger Pemberton + Elizabeth More), d. 6 Dec 1627. Tier: POSSIBLE, doc-only. Newly clarified as a distinct person this round.

FOLLOW-UP-VERDICTS

Robert Pemberton (r2 follow-up on the pemberton-baptism frontier find): Largely VERIFIED — burial date independently confirmed via primary page image (upgrade in sourcing quality, same PROBABLE tier held). But the r2 also corrected an error from its own parent round: Alice's baptism year-heading is "1564-5" (→1565 NS) per direct page view, not "1563-4" (→1564 NS) as the frontier pass reported from a full-text search. Net effect: identification of Robert-as-father stays PROBABLE (unchanged), but the associated date needs a fix. Also resolved the open "Ralfe vs Roger" scribal-error question from last round's dead-ends: Ralfe is a real, separate grandson, not a mistranscription.
No other follow-up (r2)-style verdicts among my 8 targets — the remaining 7 were frontier passes, not follow-ups, per the assignment.

CONTRADICTIONS

Alice Pemberton baptism date — internal to this round: 18 Feb 1564 NS (frontier target, cites year-heading "1563-4") vs 18 Feb 1565 NS (follow-up target, cites year-heading "1564-5," viewed as page image). Logged, not adjudicated — recommend a third independent page-image check before publishing a final date.
Olney–Sayles marriage date — vs the standing tree-doc correction: Austin's 1889 "Ancestry of Thirty-three Rhode Islanders" (p.83) gives 28 Dec 1692; the tree doc's current corrected date (from Arnold's RI Vital Record, cross-indexed, round 4) is 20 Dec 1692. An 8-day discrepancy between a secondary compiler (Austin) and the primary vital record (Arnold). Per existing project methodology Arnold should win, but logging per instructions rather than silently favoring one — do not flip the tree doc's existing Arnold-sourced date without a deliberate check.
GW "Wash" Gibby death year, 1909 vs 1915 — unresolved, new evidence added, not adjudicated. TVA Cemetery Relocation federal database: "Gibbey, Wash," b.1860, d.1915, Fontana Reservoir relocation from Judson Public Cemetery to Lauada — matches GW Gibby's relocation destination and nickname, but the birth year (1860) contradicts his 4-census-attested 1844 birth. A FindAGrave contributor already pasted this same TVA row into GW Gibby's memorial without reconciling the conflict. Also noted: the adjacent TVA row for "Gibbey Sallie" (1865–1925) conflicts with FindAGrave's 1866–1917 for his wife Sarah "Sallie" Lequire Gibby — same pattern, suggesting either a real family-wide ~8-year TVA recording offset or an unrelated couple. Flagging per discipline; not adjudicating either date.
Richard Wilson (b.1767) parentage — Aquilla Wilson's will is silent on a son named Richard, weakening (not killing) what was flagged last round as the "best lead." A same-name trap was also surfaced and avoided: online trees conflate this Aquilla with a brother "Richard Wilson b.1742 Cecil Co MD" — different person/generation, not connected to our Richard (b.1767) or to Rockingham Co.

FOUNDER-HANDS

FamilySearch authenticated session (free personal account, not an agent proxy) would unblock the two biggest online-index dead ends this round: GA Death Index 1933-1998 / GA Death Certificates 1928-1943 (Eva Brown's 1938 cert — parents typically named) and NC Deaths 1906-1930 (GW Gibby's actual 1915-or-1909 death cert, the single document that would settle that contradiction outright). Low effort if you're willing to make a free account; otherwise these stay blocked.
Georgia Archives / GA Dept of Public Health Vital Records mail request for "Eva Gibby, died 1938, Towns or Union County" — a free public-records route around the online login wall. Address on file in the sub-agent's return: 47 Trinity Ave SW Room 217-H, Atlanta.
NC State Archives (Raleigh): order/verify Aquilla Wilson's will image (Rockingham Co., ref. OW/172) directly, or check the published "Rockingham County, North Carolina Will Abstracts 1785-1865" book (Southern Historical Press) for its own citation — would settle whether the found abstract is complete or elides an heir.
RI State Archives / Providence probate microfilm: "Providence Book of Probate, p.64" (per an unverified WikiTree citation) likely holds John Sayles Jr.'s actual 1727 will — the single best remaining document to name "sister Catharine" or "brother-in-law William Olney" directly and finally move the RW/Sayles line off "anchored-per-Austin." Outside the 21-vol printed Early Records series; needs an archive visit or a FamilySearch catalog pull.
TNA PROB 11 (UK): Roger Pemberton's full 1627 will (register "Skynner," f.117) — would resolve the Ralfe/Roger Visitation ambiguity definitively and might independently state Alice's relationship.
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS): the original 1578 St Albans Archdeaconry Court act/admon book — not digitized anywhere found this round; would independently verify Katherine Pemberton's widow-administration grant, currently accepted on the task's own premise rather than a re-check.
Dorothy Higson White, "Descendants of Roger Williams, Book III: Sayles line through Mary Williams" (Roger Williams Family Association, East Greenwich RI, 2002) — not digitized; a call/letter to RWFA or a check of NEHGS/RIHS library holdings could surface whatever primary source underlies the standard published Sayles-Olney-RW chart.