Who Are You? Who. Who. Who. Who.

I have been immersed in a genealogy conundrum for the last two days!!

I found Martha, who was married to William John.  Yippee!  Back another generation.

As I pursued my search, there are three accounts of Martha and William John.  One search reveals they had four children.  One search reveals they had only one child--a daughter.  One search reveals HER parents.  YAY.

Which search is correct?  I go digging for Martha, because I already know all I need to know about William.

What's this?  Martha, born in the same town as her husband in Ireland, dies and is buried in Massachusetts?  That's odd.

I find her MA death certificate and even a photo of her tombstone.  Her death certificate has her maiden name and those of her parents.  Correct.  It states her husband's name as John.  Hm-mm.  Maybe William John called himself John, to distinguish between him and his father who was also William John?

So I copy the photo of the D.C. and the tombstone and store them in the appropriate picture file for the genealogy I am working on.  Cool!

Wait a minute!  Here is another search that shows Martha, married to William John, died and is buried in the same cemetery as her husband in IRELAND!!!

I do believe my exact words were, "What the hell?"

So--back to the beginning.  Instead of just looking at each search on my computer screen, I print them out--the better to see my dear.

They both make sense.

The one from MA shows her buried in Pine Grove Cemetery--along with a son, named John.  This is the account that shows she had four children: one being John, but not showing the daughter that I knew thought she had--with William John.

The other account shows her buried in the cemetery in Ireland, with her husband WILLIAM John.

But...how can this be?  The same first name, the same parents listed!  "What the hell?"

Questions:  Okay--why would this woman, leave Ireland at the age of 60 something and go off to MA?  Perhaps to live with her son, John?  Why wouldn't she stay in Ireland with her daughter?

Check out immigrations.  She is not listed.
Check out census reports for MA.  She IS listed, but she is in MA BEFORE her husband died?  I think not!

AHA!  Maybe I have the wrong person!  Maybe she is not the wife of William John?

Start another search on William John.  Three searches tell me she IS the wife of William John from Ireland!  There is proof of her birth and his.  Proof of their marriage.  She has the same maiden name as the women in MA!

Egads and little fish hooks!
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When doing a genealogy, the facts MUST be correct.  I can not interject my thoughts or ideas in a person's life.  I did that once and I was so incorrect it was embarrassing!  I HAVE to take the facts from my searches to add to the person's "life story" or I am assuming things that may not be true.  

These searches on ancestry come from information put in their family trees and uploaded to ancestry.  Human people=mistakes!

Census are correct.  Wedding registrations are correct--although sometimes the person preparing the registration will spell the names of the couple incorrectly!  Death certificates are correct!  These are all government documents and they have to be correct.

What do do?  What to do!
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I cannot put any definitive facts about Martha into the genealogy report until I know for sure.

It doesn't make any sense to me that Martha ended up in MA.  But there is that DC!  It makes all the sense in the world that Martha stayed in the same town in Ireland as her hubs and died there and is buried next to him.  Her daughter, that I know for sure (?) is her daughter, stayed in that town all her life too.

BUT...there is that Death Certificate from MA.

It can't be possible for Martha, with the same maiden name, and parents and married to William John or John, with the same last name, the same marriage date and date of birth and death, to be buried in two different places!

I do believe that I need to do more searching on Martha.  Perhaps she ISN'T the correct wife?  Then why is her husband and her married last name the same?

ARGGH!!!!!!