John Hopkins - No proof of son John for the Hartford, CT couple.

Thanks again, Shirley.

Private User I've disconnected this John Hopkins from not - his - parents, John Hopkins, of the Hartford Colony & Jane Wolterton

Ive also merged him into the Master Profile John Hopkins, of Gloucesteshire

Go easy on the dups, please, its a lot of work.

Also - we have much better genealogy on Geni than anywhere else on the Internet. Please check what Geni has first, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Erica Howton,
Erica Howton et al:

I'm not even sure what this is all about......

I am going to try to explain to you how this Hopkins confusion came about. First of all, my father's sister, my aunt Lytle Flanders, married Ernest Hopkins (so, my uncle by marriage.) He died young and left her a young widow with five children to raise. His house,
their home was directly across the street from the Hopkins burial ground in Foster RI. Growing up here in Rhode Island, I was always aware that uncle "Hoppy" was related to Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower, as were all the Hopkins buried there acrosm the street.
A few weeks ago I decided to trace mu uncle's relationship to him using geni.com. If you could follow me on this path you would realize what happened that created part of this problem.
It was tedious, of course, and I was using ancestry.com as a cross reference to quickly maneuver up the tree to find him but I also used "Hopkins Geneaology and Family History" and other sources besides ancestry.com. Along the way I found a lot of "blanks" and tried to fill them in, but only the ones that l thought led back to Stephen Hopkins. If you can look at what I did, please do. You will see where I went.
Some of the people I included along the way were.......

On August 19 2016:
I did Stephen Hopkins 1707 - 1785, Oziel Hopkins......
The record for the Stephen Hopkins seems to have since disappeared, along with the one for the wife in question
on that day I also I did Thomas Nicholas Arnold 1550 - 1622.

On August 22 2016:
I did Elcy Fish, Peter Fish, Mercy Mary Fish, Howland Fish, Esther Brownell 1732 - 1813, Jeremiah Brownell 1689 - 1756, Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins 1621 - 1685, Thomas Nichols Arnold 1550 - 1662, etc.

On August 23 2016:
I did Thomas Hopkins 1616 - 1684, Lemeul Hopkins 1832 -1890, Susan Rosine Hopkins, Marvel Hopkins, Jeptha Hopkins, Jonah Hopkins, Joseph Hopkins, William Hopkins, etc.

You can tell which ones I did because, (I assume) I then became a "manager" when I did them.
This was a geni.com path that I followed, filling it in as I went along. Eventually it led to a "Stephen Hopkins" with only his dates (1585 - 1644?) and the name of his wife and NO mention of the Mayflower at all. So I added a little bit of information about him from wikipedia. Then I stopped right there. I thought it was strange that there wasn't any more information. That's when I stopped, figuring I had found it.
This is what then happened:
On August 31 2016:
In the Flanders Family Newsletter, I saw that the name "Damaris Cooke" had been added to the tree. That is when I checked into it further and discovered that I was Stephen Hopkins 9th great grand daughter. This came as a total surprise to me. I had known my whole life that my uncle Ernest (by marriage) was his relative but I had no idea whatsoever, before that, that I was also a direct descendant.
So, I just very recently started investigating Stephen and saw that his profile was very full of information and had for his profile picture the Mayflower. Then I remembered that the one I had previously found for him on geni.com had nothing about the Mayflower whatsoever. No picture, no links, nothing. That was the one that had his wrong wife.
So, I am not to blame for this part of this mess. It was already there on geni.com. Somebody else had put it there, not me. All I did was try to find out what the truth was. I added to it, I didn't create it.

Bonita Flanders

Obviously there are others who enter already existing profiles. :):)

Trick: look for the Master Profile to merge into, that's what it's there for.

Another trick: use google to search for geni historic figures.

Example:

Google.com geni benedict Arnold

I have no idea what happened here. Could you please explain to me what I did?

Hi Bonita:
When I first started I had the same problems. There was no eraser big enough to fix what I'd done so I deleted my whole tree and started over.

The Rhode Island Stephen Hopkins (1707-1785) was the one who signed the Dec. of Inpend. He is here:
http://www.gaspee.org/StephenHopkins.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hopkins_(politician)

He is not related to Stephen of the Mayflower (1581-1644).
Easiest place for all the basics on Mayflower
http://tinyurl.com/Johnson-Book
(published 2007 with parts now at FREE GoogleBooks)
http://tinyurl.com/WIKIPEDIA-Stephen-Hopkins

Apparently the trees you found confused them. Don't believe any tree on Geni.com, MyHeritage, Ancestry, FamilySearch or any website for these generations of ancestors. Almost every tree has something wrong with it within 3 generations of almost everyone back then unless there are records attached. Especially if they are famous. You can always write to the owner of the tree and ask if they could help you with the sources they used. If they don't bother to write back you'll have your answer. "They ain't got nuthin'" and they know it. They just copied off the kid in the next seat and we know how that turns out.

A warning about Ancestry databases that often appear with as multiple Green Leaf Hints.
The entire Family Data Collections Series (Individual, Births, Marriages, Deaths);
AGBI,
OneWorldTree;
the Millennium File;
Mayflower Births & Deaths, Vol 1/2;
U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700;
U.S. and International Marriage Records 1560-1900;
Passenger and Immigration Lists Index 1500s - 1900s;
are databases or index lists or transcribed indexes of transcribed index lists, not historical records or documents.

Much of it was "extracted" (grabbed) by programmed computer sweeps through submittals from people who often collected names. We have to actually -click on them and -read the image/source/description/comments to make sure they even make sense or to see where they came from (their source). Sometimes just by looking at the wording we can discount the authenticity. They're right if the information gathered is right, but a lot of "facts" for these families have been invented over the years and generations have been mingled and mangled.

Ancestry doesn't check images, stories, Green Leaf Hints, Find-a-Grave submittals, other trees or comments for accuracy.

I can't remember if I found you on the "Thomas Nicholas Arnold" page except that's not the name of the father Joana Arnold who married the William Hopkins of Somerset (who has no parents or birth date) who is the guy I assume you're going after.

Commoners in England didn't have middle names back then. None of the Pilgrims did. Only 3 of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence did

Joana's father was just plain Nicholas. See the part in here about the false pedigree with Thomas. Probably easiest to search for Thomas so he pops out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Arnold_(settler)

When someone shows up on a tree with a middle name back in that era don't assume that either one of them is correct. LOTS of instances where both turn out to be wrong.

For your Rhode Island guys you want Hopkins people from Somerset. But there are NONE that have proven connection to William. He comes out of nowhere. Don't go looking for Williams to put in your tree. Experts have already tried and you'll just get frustrated. The guys in Gloucestershire and Hampshire aren't related to the Somerset folks or even to each other. There's no proof that the man from Hartford, CT is from Gloucestershire. You can imagine how many John Hopkins and wives named Elizabeth there were back then. If they have a common first name and no documents submitted so far, then there's little to no chance that we can prove them.

Time for ice cream. Brain fried.

You're funny. Yes, and you are so right. I was looking for the RI Stephen Hopkins who signed the Declaration of Of Independence. Yes, thank you. This story was in my head from my childhood cousins' family, (thinking as a child) all I remembered was their relative, Stephen Hopkins, was a very famous person in US history. My adult brain was listening to my childhood memory for a reference. AKA "Stephen Hopkins "Mayflower Passenger!".