Mary Branch (Addie) - Born after Mother's Death

There's a baptism16th August 1593.

WikiTree cites

Brayton, John Anderson. "Notes on the Ancestry of Mary (Addy) Branch, Wife of Christopher Branch," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 2002):299-305

on the NEHGR site if anybody has a sub (I don't)

Thank you Brian Johnson . Actually I forget about my subscription to American Ancestors a lot. LOL. I will look that up.

According to Mary's Find-a-Grave page, she was born 1602 and died 1630, but no sources are cited for those dates:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/115974776/mary-branch

The same link above lists he mother Margaret (Lee) Branch's date of birth as Bef 5 Sep 1579 , with no death date for her and, again, no documentation.

Are the new birth and death dates for Mary documented?

I did find this document on Ancestry: Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Vol. IV
Virginia Biography

that states:

"Christopher Branch, the founder, son of Lionel Branch, was born in England, in 1602, married September 2, 1619, at the age of seventeen years, Mary, daughter of Francis Addie, of Darton, in Yorkshire"

But I can't tell if it's saying that in 1619 Christopher was 17 when he married Mary or if it was Mary who was 17 in 1619. If Mary was 17 in 1619, then she would have been born in 1602...which is probably where that date on Find-a-Grave came from. I did a screenshot of that info and put it under the Media tab.

What I've been seeing so far that is documented is Mary's father was definitely Francis Addie but his wife's name isn't listed in the genealogy book references I'm seeing. Find-a-Grave has an undocumented, non-specific date of birth for Margaret Lee as his wife and the mother of daughter Mary, but no death date is given for her.

So my best guess at this point is that the inconsistency between the dates for Margaret and those for Mary is that dates for either of them are unproven / undocumented and what has been entered on Geni that is causing the inconsistency isn't based on actually valid dates.

This document refutes the 1602 dob for Chritopher, which would then indicate that dob is that of his wife Mary. It makes a case for Christopher's dob to have been 1597-1598:

Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly
Volume 28
Number 3

I'm attaching a screenshot of that info under the Media tab on Christopher's profilel

Christopher's profile shows him born 1598, in line with the argument for his date of birth mentioned in the above article, although another section of the Virginia .Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly
Volume 28
Number 3
makes a case for his date of birth as 1596. In any case, all of these sources indicate Christopher was over 17 when he married in 1619.

This would mean that the only one who could have been age 17 when they married in 1619 would have been his wife Mary Addie, making her born in 1602 as indicated on her Find-a-Grave page and making the age for her currently showing on Geni incorrect.

If there is better documentation for her date of birth, in support of the change made, please share that and put a copy in her media section.

As I've stated, I found nothing so far proving Mary's mother was named Margaret Lee, much less documenting Margaret's birth and death dates. The Virginia Genealogy sources referenced only give the name of Mary's father, Francis Addie. Same for The Compendium of American Genealogy, Vol. V, only lists her father.

In fact, I just reread the About section for Margaret (Lee) Addie and it plainly states that Mary's father had only three weeks earlier married Margaret, which means she would not have been Mary's mother, but at least a second wife for Francis Addie:

From the "Mary Addy - Christopher Branch Family, m. 1619 Eng" article in the October 2002 issue of The Virginia Genealogist (source below):

As a young man, Christopher Branch, Gentleman, married Mary Addy in England on 2 September 1619. She was baptized 16 August 1593, the daughter of Francis Addy of Darton, County York, England. Three weeks earlier at Darton, Yorkshire, her father had taken Margaret Lee as his bride. Margaret, the daughter of Raphe Lee, was baptized 5 September 1579. Raphe Lee was a son of Richard Lee and his wife, Alice. Richard was born by 1515 and was buried in Darton 15 July 1545.

And that same last paragraph above states that Mary was baptized 16 August 1593, which would make even the 1602 date of birth incorrect for her, but that one paragraph seems to clear up any reason for concern about inconsistency with Margaret Lee's date of birth since Margaret Lee who married Mary's father three weeks before Mary's own mother would have been her step-mother, which explains why all the other sources don't list a name for her mother.

At least that's the way it all seems to be after rereading some of the sourced materials.

?

Hmmm...it seems like the placement of the statement could be taken to mean it either way, that Francis married Margaret three weeks before Christopher married Mary or that, as you say, Mary was born three weeks after her parents were married. You'd think they'd make things a bit more clear.

I'd think if they married before Mary was born, she'd be listed along with Francis as a parent of Mary instead Mary just being listed as the daughter of Francis Addie with no mother listed.

Thanks Erica. I'm in no hurry at all. Just took a look at the inconsistency notices on the profiles and trying to find a remedy for those.

That said, the pdf link you sent me gives me an error message, but also the other sources from the VIrginia Genealogy materials aren't baptismal records. They're marriage and family records and don't mention a mother for Mary.

Awesome! Thanks for your clarifying things, Erica.

Yeah, Find-a-Grave is only as accurate as the info entered by the person creating the page, and we all find errors on there all the time, incomplete marriage and children info, etc. And rarely are any sources provided. Still, there are some really well-done profiles on there as well. I just like to check the info on there against other sites / sources, as I do with info from any other site. .