Referenced in the family

Abigail Whitley

b. 1808

Life

c. 1808Born

Records & Research

Abigail Whitley (b. circa 1808 per the family report) is recorded as a daughter of John Whitley (1761-1838) and Margaret Hagerman (1771-1845) of the Elizabethtown Township / Leeds County, Ontario settler family. The parents' names and birth/death years are well anchored across the RootsWeb Shunk tree, a Geni profile, and the family report, but the RootsWeb family page for this couple lists only ONE child (Jane Whitley, b. 1794, m. George Sheppard) and does NOT list Abigail — so Abigail's child-of relationship currently rests only on unverified Geni tree data plus the family report. Online trees give her married names as Jarvis and Hatch (implying marriages to Joseph Jarvis and a man surnamed Hatch, possibly in 1843), but the cited Geni page could not be read and these claims are uncorroborated. Her 1808 birth year, birthplace, marriages, death, and burial remain undocumented in any citable record consulted.

Not yet confirmed — probable matches and family lore, shown for research. Treat with caution.

John Whitley (1761-1838) and Margaret Hagerman (1771-1845) are documented as a married couple in the Elizabethtown Township / Leeds County, Ontario region; their names and birth/death years agree with the family report. Abigail Whitley is recorded as their daughter on the family report and on Geni, but the RootsWeb (Shunk) family page for this couple lists only one child, Jane Whitley (b. 20 Feb 1794, m. George Sheppard), and does not list Abigail. likely

· Elizabethtown Township, Leeds County, Ontario, Canada · Downgraded from 'confirmed.' The RootsWeb Shunk page (fam07384) confirms the PARENTS' identities (John Whitley b. 17 Nov 1761, d. Sep 1838; Margaret Hagerman b. 28 May 1771 New Bedford, MA, d. 1845 Leeds & Grenville Co., ON) but does NOT corroborate that Abigail is their child — the only child listed on that page is Jane Whitley. Abigail's child-of relationship is therefore single-source (Geni, plus the family report), not confirmed by two independent record sources as the original dossier claimed. The Geni page is a JavaScript app whose text the researcher could not extract, so its listing of Abigail is unverified. Note also that the RootsWeb tree's claim that John Whitley was 'born in Elizabethtown Twp.' in 1761 is internally implausible (the township was settled by Loyalists only after ~1784) and should not be reported as established fact. tree ↗tree ↗
Online tree data (Geni) reportedly records Abigail under the name 'Abigail Jarvis-Hatch (born Whitley),' which would imply marriages to a man surnamed Jarvis (Joseph Jarvis) and later a man surnamed Hatch, with a possible 1843 marriage. unconfirmed

1843 · Ontario, Canada · Downgraded from 'likely' to 'unconfirmed.' The cited Geni page is a JavaScript app whose text the researcher could not extract, so the married-name listing and the 1843 date appear to derive from search-result snippets rather than a readable record. No marriage record (e.g., Ontario Marriages 1826-1943 or Marriage Notices of Ontario 1813-1854) was actually consulted. Spouse identities (Joseph Jarvis; a Hatch husband) and the 1843 date are unverified and should not be added to the profile until a citable marriage record is located. tree ↗

unconfirmed birth.date: report “1808” vs. found “Not corroborated; no citable record consulted confirmed a 1808 birth year for Abigail.”. The 1808 birth year appears only in the family report. The RootsWeb Shunk page for John Whitley / Margaret Hagerman does not list Abigail at all (only Jane Whitley, b. 1794), and the Geni page could not be read. Not a contradiction, but the 1808 year is entirely unverified by any record consulted.

unconfirmed name: report “Abigail Whitley (no married name)” vs. found “Possibly 'Abigail Jarvis-Hatch (born Whitley)' per tree snippets — married surnames Jarvis (Joseph Jarvis) and Hatch”. Downgraded from 'likely.' The report lists no spouses or otherNames. The married-surname lead comes only from uncited/unreadable Geni tree data; it adds to rather than contradicts the report, but is not yet supported by any citable record.

Open questions (7)

CRITICAL: The RootsWeb Shunk family page (fam07384) for John Whitley / Margaret Hagerman lists only ONE child — Jane Whitley (b. 20 Feb 1794, m. George Sheppard) — and does NOT list Abigail. Confirm from an independent, readable record that Abigail Whitley is in fact a daughter of this couple; at present her child-of relationship is single-source (Geni, which could not be read) plus the family report.
Confirm Abigail Whitley's birth year (report says 1808) and birthplace from a primary or citable record (e.g., baptism or census). The family's documented residence is Elizabethtown Township, Leeds County, Ontario.
Open Abigail's individual Geni profile directly (the John Whitley Geni page is a JavaScript app that did not yield extractable text) to verify whether it actually lists her, with what parents, dates, married names (Jarvis/Hatch), and any children.
Verify the purported marriages: spouse names appear as Joseph Jarvis (with a possible 1843 marriage) and a later husband surnamed Hatch. Locate an Ontario marriage record (Ontario Marriages 1826-1943 / Marriage Notices of Ontario 1813-1854) to confirm or reject spouse identities and dates — none was actually searched.
Find Abigail's death and burial dates/places (no record located). Search FindAGrave/BillionGraves for Leeds & Grenville County, Ontario under surnames Whitley, Jarvis, and Hatch.
Determine whether she had children under the Jarvis or Hatch surnames.
Note: the RootsWeb tree states John Whitley was born in Elizabethtown Twp. in 1761, which predates Loyalist settlement of that township (~1784) — treat that birthplace as a likely tree error, not fact.

Sources consulted (7)

Ancestry

Four generations back. Tap any name to recenter the chart, or open the full family tree.

Abigail Whitley b. 1808

father John Whitley 1761–1838

father John Whitley b. 1740

mother Mary Tucker

mother Margaret Hagerman 1771–1845

father John Sr. Hagerman 1725–1813

mother Phoebe Ferguson b. 1730