Rebecca Sherman Curtis - disambiguation daughter of Matthew Sherman, or daughter of Stephen Curtis?

http://genforum.genealogy.com/stoddard/messages/1414.html

Many report that the wife of Eliha Stoddard was Rebekah (or Rebecca) Sherman. Almost all agree that her parents were Matthew Sherman (1682/83-1754) (son of Edmund Sherman) and Hannah Seeley, but others say her mother was Hannah Rice. In fact, Matthew and Hannah Sherman, who lived in Stratford, Fairfield, CT, did have a daughter Rebecca Sherman who was born in Stratford or Newtown CT 6 May 1713. Whoever her parents were, her birth year would require her to have married and given birth to a son Solomon Stoddard by the end of 1728, at the age of 16. If her marriage was in 1726, as is reported, she would have been 13 or 14. Her husband Elisha Stoddard would have been about 7 years older than her. This is not an impossible arrangement. Elisha Stoddard was a resident of Woodbury, CT, and Rebecca Sherman was from Stratford. There was a road and considerable travel between these two locations. Families from Stratford, including the ancestors of Elisha Stoddard, had founded Woodbury. If his wife was a different Rebecca Sherman with a different birth year, this would change the situation entirely.

Other sources say, as we noted earlier, that Elisha Stoddard’s wife was Rebekah Curtis, daughter of Stephen Curtis and Sarah Minor. Rebecca Curtis was born 28 Jul 1705, Woodbury, Litchfield, CT. If true, this puts her closer to her husband’s age. They would also have been residents of the same town. This marriage would require that Elisha and Rebekah Stoddard’s daughter Mary Stoddard, who married Thaddeus Curtis, would have been Mary’s double first cousin. This is due to previous marriages between the Curtis and Stoddard families. Again this is not impossible and did occur in the Puritan church.

Both marriage scenarios have their difficulties. Comments on this analysis are welcome.

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Here below are the opposing fathers. It appears to me that the first thing to do is to merge these two Matthews, to make sure that they will both remain part of the Big Tree.

Then the next step would be to locate or create a Geni profile for Matthew's daughter, Rebecca Sherman who was born in Stratford or Newtown CT 6 May 1713

I would presume that Stephen Curtis is the correct father of Mrs. Stoddard, except for the fact that she has the middle name Sherman. So my lingering question is, what was the origin of that middle name?

Matthew Sherman

Unknown Profile

Stephen Curtis