Tuesday's Tip ~ Massachusetts Town and Vital Records at Ancestry.com

I have been researching my Davenport ancestry and have gotten back to 17th century Dorchester, Massachusetts.

Ancestry.com has a very useful database called the Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. From the description of the database:

Massachusetts boasts some of the oldest and most extensive records in the United States, and some documents in this database go back to the colony’s earliest days. They were made more readily accessible through the efforts of Jay and DeLene Holbrook. About 30 years ago, the Holbrooks began filming vital and town records in Massachusetts. To date, the Holbrooks have visited 315 of the state's 351 towns and cities and filmed their records collections.

I am looking for the marriage record for my 7th great-grandparents, Jonathan Davenport and his wife Hannah. I found four versions of their marriage record in this database because it had been copied several times. I am guessing that the first image is the original. The last one was obviously created in the 20th century.

Dorchester Births Marriages, Deaths, 1646-1682

Dorchester Births Marriages Deaths 1646-1683

Births Marriages and Deaths in the Town of Dorchester from 1630 to 1683

Dorchester Marriages 1631-1683

Others have interpreted Hannah's last name as Maynard (or Maner), but it looks like the original is Hannah Warren and that's what others have decided. The marriage also appears in the Little Compton, Rhode Island Vital Records, but I could only find the printed copy, at AmericanAncestors.org.

James N. Arnold, Rhode Island Vital Records, 1636-1850

The tip for today is that when you are looking at a database that may have several versions of a record, be sure to find all of them before you assume the details of the fact are correct.