FLASH! DESCENDANTS OF JOSHUA NORWOOD, JR.

HIS WIFE WAS PROBABLY NOT SARAH GOODRICH (DAU. OF DANIEL)!

Recent research has located a marriage record between Joshua Norwood and Sarah Aldrich in Providence, Rhode Island, on 8 October 1740 at the First Congregational Society, pastor, Josiah Cotton.

As a result of this and the statement of Ebenezer Pool in his papers (Vol. 4, p. 238), it is likely that Joshua's wife was Sarah Aldrich and not Sarah Goodrich as previously reported. Research is now underway to identify Sarah Aldrich, but to date her ancestry has not been determined.

During my own early research I was puzzled by the absence of a marriage record for Joshua and his wife Sarah. Many secondary sources had her as Sarah Goodrich, but E. Pool said she was either Goodrich or Aldrich. When I searched the local records to find a Sarah Goodrich, I found three candidates of the right age, but there was no way to establish which one had been Joshua's wife. Someone else decided she was the daughter of Daniel Goodrich and I eventually accepted this despite lack of proof. With the new information out of Providence, I am convinced that we need to search for Sarah Aldrich.

Because Joshua, Sr. had moved his family to Attleboro-Rehoboth in the early 1730s, a location adjacent to Providence, it is entirely plausible and likely that the Joshua Norwood in the marriage record is our ancestor. Other interesting information to glean from this record is that Joshua was at that time possibly Congregational in belief and practice, although there has been much discussion about his grandfather and father having been Quakers. Nonetheless, several branches of the Aldrich family in southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island were Quakers, especially those in Smithfield, RI, part of Providence County. So far, no contemporary Aldriches had a daughter Sarah who could have married Joshua. Another possibility is that she was a young, childless widow of an Aldrich husband.

Any help anyone might be able to offer in this new line of research would be very welcome.