I am trying to trace the ancestry of one Susan Clark (b abt 1839 in Pawtucket [the part that became North Providence]), and so far to no avail.

The only clue I have to her ancestry (we have yet to find a birth certificate) comes from Susan's obituary. She married Ephraim Hunt Tappan in 1856, and settled in Attleboro (they had three children who survived to adulthood - Charles, William, and Ella) where she died in 1912. Her obituary indicates that her father was Lyman Clark (of Pawtucket [although I'm not sure he was born there]), and a librarian at the Attleboro Public Library tells me that her mother was apparently an Amy Gardner of Kingstown, RI. The obituary for Susan also indicates she had a sister Lydia (who was married to Albert F Briggs of Attleboro [Briggs was we believe the business partner of the Tappans; Ephraim and Susan's sons sold their jewellry company to DF Briggs in the early part of the 20th century]); Lydia was apparently born about 1835.

I have contacted the Rhode Island State Archives and have been told that there is no indication of a Lyman Clarke family in Rhode Island census records between 1800 and 1850. Furthermore, there is no apparent marriage record in Washington County (where the Attleboro librarian tells me Amy Gardner was born) for a marriage between an Amy Gardner and Lyman Clarke, and no apparent death records for Lyman and Amy between 1800 and 1990 in Rhode Island.

It is possible that records of Lyman's birth and marriage to Amy Gardner may have been recorded in Massachusetts, as Pawtucket was apparently a part of Seekonk until 1828, and an independent city in Massachusetts until 1862. However, the Seekonk town clerk says there was no record of a Lyman Clark birth in the years 1785-1818 in Seekonk.

Help!