I'm stuck at an Elizabeth Barnard. She married a John or John Tristram Collins in 1693 and had several children including a Tristram Collins, who is the one I descend from. The vast majority of the family trees list her parents as Thomas Barnard and Sarah Peaslee (or Peasley). The problem is that Thomas and Sarah never had a daughter named Elizabeth. They had several other children, but no Elizabeth. I've checked to see if other researchers had any citations for her, but everything is listed as a Family Data Collection or a Millennium File, and I don't trust those. She was born in either Salisbury or Amesbury, and moved to Hampton Falls, New Hampshire after her marriage.

I've been through several of my regular sources. Savage [A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England] has nothing. Stearns [Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire] is no help. George Thomas Little [Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine] has nothing. (I know the title says Maine, but he includes a huge number of families from Massachusetts and New Hampshire). "The History of the Town of Hampton Falls" (where the couple moved to) doesn't include them. "The History of the Town of Hampton" has nothing. One place had her parents listed as John Barnard and wife Frances Hoyt Colby, but the dates don't match and they don't seem to have had a daughter named Elizabeth. The closest I've come to finding her is in "The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury" where there's a note to the effect that John Collins married a Quaker girl named Elizabeth. The Quaker part might go back to the original Thomas Barnard who was one of the original purchasers of Nantucket.

But, basically there's nothing. I can't find information about her or her parents. I've wondered if she might have emigrated from England, but I can't find much information about that. Does anyone else have any other ideas or suggestions that would help?

I cross-posted this to the New Hampshire.Rockingham County board.

Thanks in advance,

Nancy