Who were Rebecca (Gould) Durkee’s parents?

William Durkee & Rebecca Gould - marriage [int]

    Rebecca Gould, who married William Durkee in Ipswich (Essex) MA circa 13 January 1704 [int],¹ is said to be the daughter of Henry Gould and Sarah Ward/Warr.  Henry and Sarah were married in Ipswich in 1675 or 1676, and their son Henry was born there in 1686.  Rebecca’s birth was not recorded in Ipswich.
    Unfortunately, Benjamin Apthorp Gould does not include Rebecca as one of Henry and Sarah’s children in the “Henry Gould of Ipswich” chapter of The Family of Zaccheus Gould of Topsfield .² Also, there are no estate records for Henry or Sarah.
    To make matters worse, at least one person posted online a genealogy that states that the Goulds' daughter Rebecca was born in Danvers, Essex County, on 25 August 1678 and married Ezekiel Marsh there on 1 July 1702.  The source of this information is given as “OneWorldTreeSM,”
    OneWorldTree (OWT) was a service first offered at Ancestry.com in April 2004.  According to an article by Beau Sharbrough in the July-August 2004 issue of Ancestry magazine, OWT was basically a search engine that collected genealogical information, but did not evaluate it for accuracy.  The original source of the Gould information is unknown.

Sources:
    1. Massachusetts, Essex County Town Clerk, Ipswich, births, marriages, deaths, 1663-1739, Publishments, p. 138; online  FamilySearch (accessed 21 October 2014), image 100/352.  Also on FHL microfilm 777,636.
    2.  Benjamin Apthorp Gould, “Henry Gould of Ipswich,” in The Family of Zaccheus Gould of Topsfield (Lynn, Mass.: Thos. P. Nichols, 1895), p. 317.

Certification of Death vs Death Certificate

    Instead of photocopying a death record or certificate, some municipalities issue a Certification of Death. This is usually a form onto which is copied.the data from the original record. Can you believe everything in such a document? 
    Below is the image of a certified document with raised seal (the surname of the signer has been hidden to protect her identity). Notice the year of death—1986.

    John Maybach (or Mayback as he was frequently known), a resident of Buffalo, New York, was struck by a train as he was trying to cross double tracks.  He crossed the nearer track after a train had passed and walked right in front of an oncoming train on the further track.  An account of the grisly tragedy, “Killed by an Engine: Old Man Run Down Last Evening in Tonawanda,” appeared in the Buffalo Courier on 8 January 1896.

    According to the Certification of Death, “the person named on this certificate died on the date and at the place shown.”  Not so in this case.