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• FamilySearch Id: K2FQ-G6T
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Notes:

Memoir of Rev. Samuel Whiting, D.D., and of His Wife, Elizabeth St. John ...
By William Whiting
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Step # 1:
We start off with a focused goal. In this case study, the question, or focused goal, was to identify the parents of Maxfield Whiting who married Lettice Johnson in 1753.

Step # 2:
Conduct a broad search of time, location, and associates. In this case study, Maxfield and Martha Whiting were witnesses of a will of an associate. According to Tom, two witnesses with the same last name are almost always related; however I’m not sure I agree with that 110%. In this case, it turned out to be a correct assumption.

Step # 3:
Understand the documents and the motivation behind why they were created; follow their creation process through to the finish, especially when dealing with probate, court, and land records; In this case study, we examined 7 distinct documents and wrote our analysis and findings down in our research journals:
1779 court document of Mr Fitzhugh, Maxfield Whiting’s landlord which included a deposition of Maxfield Whiting himself in which he said he was 50 years of age, putting his date of birth around late 1720s, early 1730s
Church record stating marriage of Maxfield Whiting to Lettice Johnson, Feb 3, 1753 – Tom Jones said that most males in VA at this time married in their early 20s, making Maxfield’s date of birth about 1730
An associate’s will written 1757 which Maxfield Whiting and Martha Whiting both witnessed – Tom Jones says they are probably related
1731 Petition of Martha Whiting to use property given her by her father, Maxfield Brown; says she has small children and her husband William Whiting left her – Maxfield Whiting could fit in easily as one of these small children
The will of Maxfield Brown listing daughter by the name of Martha Whiting
Marriage record of Martha Whiting to Daniel Fendleston, 1755
Letter from Maxfield Whiting naming his daughter Martha Whiting – indicates similar naming pattern after his mother, Martha Whiting

Step 4:
After all the documents are understood and analyzed, they must then be correlated. The will of Maxfield Brown above correlates the 1731 petition of Martha Whiting to the court in which she said her father was Maxfield Brown.

In the same token, conflicting documents must also be resolved. Can you see what is conflicting in the documents above?

The 1757 will lists Martha Whiting as the witness along with her son Maxfield Whiting. However Martha Whiting had already remarried to Daniel Fendleston in 1755. How do we resolve this?

Tom Jones suggests that the clerk made an error in the will because he knew both Martha and Maxfield Whiting and probably knew of their relationship and simply wrote both their names as Whiting. Neither of them could probably read or write their own names, so they just placed their marks. It is possible the clerk was not even aware Martha had remarried. I am not sure how I feel about this conclusion, but the rest of the evidence seems to correlate. That leaves us to the next step.
http://genealogybyginger.blogspot.com/2011/06/inferential-genealogy-course-in-second.html
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Maxfield married Johnson, Letitia on 3 Feb 1753 in St. Paul's Parish, Stafford, Virginia, United States. Letitia (daughter of Johnson, John and Powel, Frances) was born on 6 Apr 1732 in Spotsylvania, Spotsylvania, Virginia, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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John married Lewis, Mary Ann. Mary was born about 1660 in Stafford, Stafford, Virginia, United States; died in 1702 in Stafford, Stafford, Virginia, United States; was buried in Feb 1716 in King and Queen, Virginia, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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• FamilySearch Id: LWHT-HQN