GENEALOGY THAT MAKES YOU GO `HUH?'

I was reminded the other night while researching my Coburn/Colburn line of the first time
I read something in my genealogy that made me scratch my head and say "Huh?"

I found my 7x great grandfather Joseph Coburn's first wife had died and he then married
a Deborah Wright. I then discovered that Joseph's son Moses Colburn had likewise married a
Deborah Wright.

Yep, that was the "Huh?" moment. Something was wrong here, it seemed.

My first thought was that Moses had married his stepmother after his father's death. But
Joseph Coburn died 13Nov 1733; Moses had married his Deborah Wright three years
before on 7Jul 1730, so that wasn't the answer.

It didn't take too long to find the solution. The first Deborah Wright was the widow of
a Joseph Wright and she'd been born Deborah Stevens, daughter of John Stevens and
Elizabeth Hildreth. The second Deborah Wright was her daughter. Moses Coburn
had married his stepsister!


I've had more difficult problems to figure out since in my family research but this was
my first one. Luckily it turned out ok.

In this case, two Wrights didn't make it wrong.