Person:Hannah Smalley (2)

Advisory on Parentage of Hannah Smalley

The parentage of Hannah Smalley has not been established to date. According to many sources, including "The Descendants of Elisha Cole", compiled by Joseph O. Curtis, pub. 1909, she may have been a cousin of Elisha's first wife, Priscilla, daughter of Joseph Smalley and Mercy Young, or perhaps a Smalley widow.

This Hannah Smalley was NOT the sister of Priscilla! Elisha's first wife, Priscilla Smalley's parents were Joseph Smalley and Mercy Young, and they had two daughters named Hannah. One was born in 1728 and died as an infant, and the other Hannah Smalley was born in 1730 and married Ezekial Hatch on March 29, 1750, according to several sources.

Other researchers, with family trees posted on the internet have listed her as the daugher of Joseph Smalley and Mercy Young, or as another Hannah Smalley, the daughter of James Smalley and Hannah Bickford, but both of those Hannah Smalley's were born in 1730/1731, and would have been too young to have been the Hannah Smalley that married Elisha Cole abt. 1742. Elisha Cole's wife, Hannah Smalley was probably born between 1719 and 1724, unless she was married previously.

More research is necessary to establish the parentage of this Hannah Smalley. It is suspected by some researchers that Hannah MAY be the sister of James Smalley (b. bet 1719-1733, d. 1823 in Putnam County, NY), who also migrated to Dutchess/Putnam County, New York around the same time as Hannah, sometime around 1745 from Massachusetts, according to family tradition.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Curtis, Joseph O. The descendants of Elisha Cole who came from Cape Cod to what is now Putnam County, New York, about 1745. (New York: T. A. Wright, 1909)
   pp. 24-6.

   Records of Putnam County give Elisha's wife's name as Hannah Smalley, as do the records of a researcher who interviewed the grandchildren. She d. 1811.

2. ↑ Find A Grave suggests a location in Place:Mahopac, Putnam, New York, United States as a "possible" gravesite. It says Hannah died in "Fredericksburgh" which no longer exists. Colonial Fredericksburg says that Fredericksburg was the colonial name for the present day Hudson Valley towns of Patterson, Kent, Carmel and Southeast in Putnam County and Pawling in Dutchess County.