I am trying to verify the birth date of Mary Daggett possibly born in Charlotte, Monroe County, New York - daughter of either Mayhew Daggett or Abner Daggett and Esther Atwater and married to Daniel Higgins. Records found online at ancestry.com, familysearch.org and other websites are confusing and contradictory and I need help!

According to these many records, Mary Daggett was born 23 Mar 1786 in either Charlotte, Monroe County or Pittstown, Rensselaer County to either Mayhew Daggett or Abner Daggett...all records show her mother to be Esther Atwater. Most records indicate that her father was Mayhew Daggett but a couple indicate that it was Abner Daggett. These records indicate that Mary Daggett married Daniel Higgins in 1794 in Pittstown, Rensselaer County, New York.

Here is my main problem: IF Mary was born in 1786 and married Daniel Higgins in 1794...she would only have been 8 years old at the time of the marriage - I do NOT think is possible. Can anyone verify the birth date of this Mary Daggett??

It is my belief that Mary's birth date would be closer to 1776 not 1786 based on the following information: Her mother, Esther Atwater's birth date is listed as 31 Jul 1736 in New Haven, CT...I have not yet been able to independently verify this date...her father's year of birth is listed as 1730...IF Mary was born in 1776, her mother would be 40 years old and her father 46...if she was born in 1786 - her mother would be 50 years old and her father 56...while likely, it is more likely that her mother would have been the younger 40 years old at Mary's birth...Secondly, Mary's first child, Sarah Higgins, is listed as being born in 1795...IF Mary married in 1794, this is accurate...BUT it is unlikely that Mary would have born a child at the age of NINE! It is more likely that IF Mary were born around 1776, she would have been around the age of 19 when her first child was born - must more plausible.

SO...since there are conflicting locations for Mary's birth, I am posting here to see if ANYONE can help me determine the true date of Mary Daggett's birth. I am stumped!! It is my belief that the date that is listed in all of these online records are wrong and have been perpetuated based on one original record that was wrong and people have just continued to copy the wrong information.

If anyone can help me determine the correct date, I would be most grateful. Thank you very much for your help!

Have you checked Kay Lundell's work on the Higgins family?
From my source note:

Lundell, Kay, Triumphant Banners - Supplement One: The Ancestry of Nelson Higgins (Ogden, Utah: Kay Lundell, c1990, [88] pages, LDS FHL Microfilm #1597612), Family Group Sheet of Mayhew Daggett and Esther Atwater. Notebook of William Nelson Higgins. Supplement One traces the ancestry of Mary Daggett, the mother of Nelson Higgins (1806-1890). Nelson was the subject of Kay Lundell's earlier work, "Triumphant Banners".
The supplement's primary focus is on Mary's parents, Mayhew Daggett and Esther Atwater and includes their biographies as well as about 60 family group sheets tracing the Daggett and Atwater lines. The parentage of Mayhew Daggett runs counter to the 1894 genealogy of Samuel and George Daggett and hence to many of the genealogies submitted to the LDS and to online databases. See the notes on Mayhew Daggett (born 1730) for additional clarification. Ms. Lundell's sources on the family group sheet for Mayhew, his marriage and children are appended as detail in this database.


From her extensive research on the family I have Mary Daggett, b 1774 marrying Daniel Higgins in 1794, marrying second Abraham Studwell and dying about 1842 problably in Hancock, Illinois. Her father was my ancestor Mayhew Daggett. In any case you should get Kay's research.
Steve

I only recently found Ms. Lundell's work on Nelson Higgins family history and I pulled off many of her family group sheets, but apparently Mary Daggett's was not one of them. I obviously overlooked this key data on Mary Daggett and have now gone back and pulled off Mary's family group sheet. I think I am going to print all of Ms. Lundell's work and put it in a binder for future reference to avoid this mistake in the future. I sincerely appreciate your help in pointing out my huge mistake! I should have referred to Ms. Lundell's work before I posted this query. Thank you very much for the help. I will try to be more careful in the future!

No problem. I haven't looked at it in a long time but I have it in a binder somewhere. If I've got it right, Mary's father, Mayhew Daggett, was my ancestor. There are a lot of mistakes in that line but Kay Lundell seems to put it straight. My grandfather, who died in 1960, was Mayhew Daggett Mott. The name carried on, but alas, not past him.
Good luck, Steve

I have all the notes and references Steve sent me years back if you want them. I will need an e-mail address because it is too large to post here. Where did you come up with 'Daniel' Higgins and their children?

Glad to see that you are still around Steve...

Pete Daggett
padagge@potc.net

I did locate the Kay Lundell records that Stephen Spicer referenced in his reply to my query...if those are the same records you have, then I will not need what you have...HOWEVER, if you have additional records, I would love to see them. My email address is shaslam100@yahoo.com.

The location of the sources for the information about Mary Daggett and Daniel Higgins are many...but mostly they come from ancestry.com records and the LDS Church records, including the pioneer records related to Daniel and Mary's son, Nelson Higgins, who became a Mormon pioneer. The records on him are extensive and, while I have not yet seen all of them, the records indicate that Daniel Higgins was Mary's first husband. I am still entering data...and hope to get to the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City in the next few weeks to see what other records they may have that will confirm the records I have found online. I know they have written family histories on Nelson Higgins and several other family members and I hope to get those as well as any other written records they may have that will tell a little more about this family.

I should mention that I am not a direct descendent to this line...I connect through marriage, but I am in contact with a direct Blackman family member and together we are trying to connect all of her Blackman notes to what is currently known about the Higgins and Daggetts. She is Sarah (Sally) Higgins Blackman's gr-gr-gr Granddaughter. Unfortunately, she has no real knowledge of her family history...and does not know how to do genealogy research. She is tracking down anything she can find on her family history and I am helping her with the genealogy research stuff.

I hope this answers the question you were asking. Please email me at my regular email address if you have any additional questions or if you want to further discuss this family. I am absolutely thrilled to find so many Daggett researchers who are willing to help with figuring out these issues...and I would love to find out anything more about these families.

Thank you very much for all of your help!