In 1909 George Homer Partridge (GHP) published his second genealogy of the Partridge family in the New England Historical and Genealogical Society Register and titled it William Partridge of Medfield, Mass., and His Descendants. This genealogy was published in the January 1909 edition of NEHGS Register (vol. LXIII) pages 90-95. This same genealogy was subsequently published in 1909 by the Press of David Clapp & Son in Boston, Massachusetts in book format, being an exact reprint of the original article. GHP had previously published his Partridge genealogy. Descendants of John Partridge of Medfield, Mass in 1904. John Partridge was the brother to William Partridge.
In both manuscripts it appears that GHP attempted to identify all named Partridge descendants for 4-6 generations. He did not descend down the female lines and rarely mentioned a female Partridge child’s name, though he would often indicate whether they had known children, provide their spouses information, and their eventual residence locations. Most male Partridge’s with known children from generation 1 through generation 4 would be given individual treatment. If the male Partridge did not have children, or the children were unknown to GHP, he treated them with their parents family. Generations 5-6 were treated in the generation 4 Partridge ancestor family, not separately.
Trust Factor
William Partridge of Medfield, Mass., and His Descendants is a compiled genealogy. You should use it as a starting point for further research. Indeed, on this website I have used it as the basis for the specific Partridge families mentioned in the manuscript, and then added to, corrected, and better sourced those genealogies. In matters of kinship, GHP did well in his research, insuring that he used probate records if available to determine the kinship between parents and children. This helped him accurately define the disputed husband of Rachel Partridge for instance. I do find that when he came up against brick walls, either in last name of wife, or the identity of her parents, he simply left it out of the manuscript. Understand that the ability for research today is much easier then it was in his time. Many of the records for Massachusetts vital records had not yet been published, for example. That required visiting the town at a time when automobiles were in their infancy, or communicating by writing. It appears that outside the confines of the New England Historical Society Library in Boston and other local facilities, he preferred to research by communicating with other researchers of their Partridge ancestry, or a descendant of a particular family. Second hand information is usually unreliable, though the kinship determination, being so close in generation to the descendant, and first hand, is found to often be quite accurate. It’s the details which tend to slip our minds.
Researchers should especially be wary of dates mentioned by GHP. I have found many of them to be incorrect according to the published town records.
The genealogy found within William Partridge of Medfield, Mass., and His Descendants is incomplete. In two cases it appears that GHP either ignored or was not aware that two of the Partridge men had out of wedlock children. As such, those two male children don’t appear in the records, and they subsequently had their own Partridge prodigy. I am speaking about Abel, “supposed” son of Abel Partridge and Hannah Cheney, born 3 Mar 1765 in Medfield, as well as Josiah Partridge, “reputed” son of Josiah Partridge and Keziah Mason, born 29 May, 1731 in Medfield. To add to this injury, Josiah went on to marry and have a family which was left out of the Genealogy. This website will correct this oversite and deal properly with both children. Also, GHP had difficulty when a Partridge moved afield from the area around Boston.
Known Errors
I will list here the known errors for William Partridge of Medfield, Mass., and His Descendants. These records will of course be simultaneously corrected in the individual genealogies.
- Page 94. Simeon, b. Apr. 4, 1741.
Vital Records of Medfield, MA to 1850 (page 78) has the birth record as Simeon, s. Edward and Sarah, Apr. 5, 1741. - Page 96. 2. Seth, b. Mar. 2, 1796.
Vital Records of Medfield, MA to 1850 (page 78) has the birth record as Seth, s. Oliver and Caty, Mar. 21, 1796.
William Partridge of Medfield, Mass., and His Descendants
Clicking on the images below will take you to the media attachment page for that image. It has the full sized image along with the text of the page as it was presented in the Register. Since I am using the media section of this website as the archive for all existing records I will make no corrections in that section, less it ruin the archival value of the images. You should start with William Partridge (c1622-1692) page for a more accurate, sourced, and consistently updated genealogy.
Recent Comments