52 Ancestors #6: Surprise

Mary had a little lamb
It's fleece was white as snow,
Everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.

It's a rhyme and a song that almost every child has heard; a story of a little girl who had a pet lamb who followed her to school.  The truth is sometimes a surprise, and in this case, the truth is that the story is not only true, it's about a little girl who is one of my ancestors.  Or not.

The little girl was Mary Sawyer and she was born in 1806 in the small town of Sterling, Massachusetts.

https://archive.org/details/storyofmaryherli00unse

http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/mary-little-lamb-yes-mary-little-lamb/

The funny thing is I was all excited to be able to post this story but the more research I did the more confused I got when I tried to link Mary Sawyer to my tree.

John Beaman, son of Gamaliel, was born in 1649.  He married Priscilla Thornton.  They had a daughter named Sarah.  Sarah married Joseph Sawyer and they had four children: Abner, Jonathan, Asenath and Mary.   Mary was born in 1715.  But if you look on the ancestry site you'll see all the comments have this Mary as being the Mary in the poem, but it cannot be as THAT Mary was born in 1806.  So it has to be another generation, or two later.  This is why you cannot depend on what is on Ancestry.

I'll keep looking cause I'm sure the family story has some truth to it - but I have to be sure.  Besides, I have two little white poodles who look an awful like sheep and I'd like to think I have some kind of genetic link to a little girl with an afinity for animals.