2006 SLIG: A Rumor Becomes Reality

2006: The goal was to determine the mother of Mary Hazen. Most sources identified her mother as Elizabeth Dart [d/o Daniel Dart & Elizabeth Douglas], but I had found at least one source that claimed Mary's mother was Elizabeth Turner [d/o Ezekiel Turner & Susanna Keeney].  [consultants: Claire Brisson-Banks & David Barss]: Early in my research, I had exchanges e-mails with a Hazen descendant who told me that she had heard rumors of a Mayflower connection in the line. The Hazen Genealogy made no such claim. I came across an issue of the Mayflower Descendant that gave Elizabeth Turner as Mary's mother, not Elizabeth Dart as Hazen and most sources claimed.

Digging into various volumes on Mayflower families, records for New London, Connecticut and a gem of a source: The Diary of Joshua Hempstead of New London, Connecticut, the story unfolded. Mary Hazen's father, John, had indeed married Elizabeth Dart. However, it was Elizabeth's 2nd marriage; her first husband had been Thomas Dart, son of Daniel and Elizabeth [Douglas] Dart. Elizabeth was the daughter of Ezekiel and Susanna [Keeney] Turner.

The ancestry of Mary Hazen changed considerably with this revelation. Susanna Keeney was the daughter of  John Keeney and Sarah Douglas, aunt of the afore mentioned Elizabeth. Ezekiel Turner was the son of John "the Elder" Keeney and Mary Brewster. Mary Brewster's father was Jonathan, son of Elder William Brewster, who arrived in Plymouth aboard the Mayflower.

So there it was! The Mayflower connection! Tracy Hazen in compiling his story of the Hazen family had located the Elizabeth Dart - John Hazen marriage, but incorrectly assumed she was born a Dart, not a Dart by marriage.

A secondary goal was to find a record of Mary Hazen's marriage to Seth Hurin or Mahurin. The marriage took place about 1753, probably in Morris Co., NJ. That record failed to materialize.

Note: The conference hotel changed hands again. The Prime became The Radisson. The hotel was undergoing renovations during the institute. My group met in a room off the lobby, possibly the coldest room in the Northern Hemisphere. We were afraid to take off our coats! I learned from consultant Jimmy Parker that his group's room suffered the opposite. They had trouble staying awake due to the heat! The next year we were back in regular, comfortable meeting rooms. Never a dull moment!