To answer my own question, I believe the answer is no.
A Trimmed Down Hartley Tree
From going through many records, my best guest as to who my ancestors were is on my web page:
With all the Hartleys around it was difficult to establish which was which in the records. The compound matters, my ancestor Robert was a weaver. This makes him somewhat mobile. If he was a farmer, he would have been likely tied to a family farm.
My theory was, that if I took away James Hartley and Betty Baldwin, ThruLines might suggest the correct Hartley ancestor.
My ThruLines Gone Wrong?
Unfortunately, when I used this approach, ThruLines suggested a Wilkinson ancestor.
This would be a good set of ThruLines, but for the fact that it shows my ancestor Robert Hartley to be the son of Moses Wilkinson. I can at least try to give an explanation as to why this happened.
The Pilling/Wilkinson Connection
I do know that Robert Hartley married Mary Pilling who was a single mother. Robert dies young and the widow Mary marries Robert Wilkinson who is a widower. This is perhaps the connection that ThruLines is making, but it is unclear how the widow of Robert Hartley marrying a Wilkinson would connect a dead Robert Hartley to the Wilkinson family. Here is the marriage record for Robert Hartley and Mary Pilling:
The witnesses were John Schofield and John Aldersley. Interestingly, this is likely John Aldersley in the 1841 Census in Holling Hallrow, Trawden:
John was a neighbor to my ancestor Greeonwood hartley at the time. The previous page of the Census shows that Mary Pilling had remarried Robert Wilkinson by this time:
I assume that the young Aldersley was the one who was listed at both of Robert Hartleys weddings. This is probably John’s birth record in 1803:
He was born in Wanless. Here is Wanless on an 1818 map:
Here is the marriage record for Mary Pilling and Robert Wilkinson from 1839:
Notice that between 1830 and 1839, a lot more information was included on the marriage record.
Robert Hartley’s First Marriage
When Robert Hartley married Mary Pilling, he was listed as a widower. So, who did he marry first?
I can’t prove it, but there was a Robert Hartley, weaver who married a Barbary or Barbara Heaton. Notice that John Aldersley was a witness to the marriage. There was a Barbara Heaton born in Wycoller in 1802:
Tragically, there was a Barbary Hartley [note the spelling, same as the wedding record] who died in 1829.
Note that in 1829, Barbary and presumably Robert Hartley lived at Wellhead. Barbary is listed as dying at age 27 which also fits very well with the other facts.
Where is Wellhead?
Assuming I have thre right couple, it would be interesting to know where they were living in 1829. A Google search results in this map and arrow:
However, I do not see the words Well head. The location would make sense as it is not far from Hollin Hall where Robert died, not far from Wanless where John Aldersley lived and not far from Wycoller where Barbara was born. A closer view reveals that there is a Wellhead Road which suggests that there was a Wellhead in the area near Winewall:
Who Were Moses Wilkinson and Jane Shaw?
I have them in my tree as the parents of Robert Wilkinson who was Mary Pilling’s second husband. I am confused as to why Ancestry would somehow combine Robert Hartley and Robert Wilkinson just because they both married Mary Pilling. Here is what I have for Robert Wilkinson:
Could the confusion be due to the fact that I have no first wife for Robert Wilkinson? This should be easy to find (I think). This record suggests that the first was was Sarah Cowgill:
Here is a possible marriage:
However, if this is right, Robert would have been only 19 years old at his marriage. I searched for children of Robert Wilkinson and Sarah and found one entry:
Possibly this John died and another child was named John? Or this could be the same John. I would be willing to add Sarah Cowgill as the first wife of Robert to see if this improves my ThruLines.
Summary and Conclusions
- I took out my best guess for the parents of Robert Hartley to see if ThruLines could come up with a good candidate
- Instead ThruLines gave the parents of Mary Pilling’s second huband Robert Wilkinson to my ancestor Robert Hartley
- I added a first wife to Robert Wilkinson to see if this fixes ThruLines
- The next step is to add in at least a Hartley father (likely a James) to Robert Hartley to correct ThruLines.