Talk:James Ralph

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I am working on fleshing out James Ralph's entry on WikiTree at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ralph-207.

I'm finding some conflict on who his American wife was. The best sources that I'm finding are identifying her as Rebecca Ogden, but Wikipedia states "the first solid fact about Ralph is his marriage to Mary Ogden in 1724 in Elizabethtown" with no source given.

I'm going to proceed with documenting what I learn on WikiTree, but unless a source can be provided for this information, I think this can't be reported as a solid fact on Wikipedia.

There is also significant evidence that he was not born in the Colonies at all and actually arrived from England as an apprentice when he was about 13 or 14.

Please see the above Wikitree link for my research-in-progress.

Trinsics (talk) 22:34, 28 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As I continue to work on this, here's where I now stand:

I would really like to integrate the research documented in ^[1] to Wikipedia. However, my gut tells me that his wife was not Rebecca as referenced there and elsewhere, but indeed was Mary (Hannah) Ogden, born on 22 Aug 1702 in Middleton Pennsylvania. The problem is that I can't find any documentation to back up my gut. Wikipedia currently has this sourceless claim that backs up my gut.

I don't feel that I can add the Shipley reference to wikipedia without either having documentation to counter the Rebecca claim or changing the "solid fact" that is currently here.

If we had a source for the marriage to Mary Ogden, this would not be a problem.

Thankfully, Wikipedia is already using the 1705 birth year at least.

Trinsics (talk) 15:48, 31 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

^ Shipley, John B. “James Ralph's Place and Date of Birth.” American Literature, vol. 36, no. 3, 1964, pp. 343–346. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2923549. Accessed 27 Dec. 2020.

[1] Shipley, John B. “James Ralph's Place and Date of Birth.” American Literature, vol. 36, no. 3, 1964, pp. 343–346. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2923549. Accessed 27 Dec. 2020.

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