Chasing Shadows in Sheffield, MA: The Search for the origins of Elizabeth Clark
I am sharing one of several brick wall ancestors in my lineage, namely Elizabeth_____ Clark, of Sheffield, Massachusetts.
Known Facts & Vital Records
Lifespan: Born c. 1746 (per gravestone); died November 8, 1782, at age 36 in Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.
Burial: Sheffield Plain Cemetery, recorded on gravestone as the "first wife of David Clark Jr".
Marriage: Married David Clark Jr. (1745–1824) c. 1768, estimated from the birth of their first known child.
Children: Joel (b. c. 1770), Elizabeth "Bette" (1773–1798), Huldah (1775–1839), David (1777–1852), Henry (1779–1859), and William (1781–1782).
After her death, husband David remarried in 1783 to Elizabeth Kellogg Smith, daughter of Benjamin Kellogg of Canaan, CT, widow of Ebenezer Smith, Jr., of Sheffield, MA.
The Missing Pieces
Parents: Nothing in the naming pattern hints at her parents' names. As far as the eldest children, Joel was a Clark name (brother of David Sr.), and Bette was a nickname for Elizabeth.
Birth Place: Does not seem to be from Sheffield; she may be from Salisbury or Canaan, Connecticut, which border Sheffield. David’s sister Phoenix married a man from Salisbury, and David’s 2nd wife was from Canaan.
Some Excluded Candidates & Negative Research
Elizabeth Stanton: Daughter of Elijah Stanton of Canaan, CT. Identified as the Elizabeth who married Samuel Wells of Canaan, Connecticut.
Elizabeth Joiner: Daughter of William Joiner of Egremont, MA; although he mentions her in his will, I could not find who she married or anything else about her. She may have gone to VT with her brothers. One of David & Elizabeth Clark’s daughters - Bette, named a son Joiner/Joyner, so had hopes.
Elizabeth Day: Daughter of William Day of Westfield/Sheffield, MA; his homestead was adjoining to the David Clark farm in Sheffield. Unsure if he had a daughter Elizabeth. He married several times, but no Elizabeth born about 1746 located.
Elizabeth Coit: b. 1746–1785; Identified as the Elizabeth who married Ezekiel Langdon of Salisbury, CT.
Databases searched include Westfield, MA, Sheffield, MA, Canaan, and Salisbury, CT town records, church records, land deeds, probate records, etc., and nothing found.
Hypothesis & DNA / Cluster Strategy
Geographic Corridor: Focus on families residing in the tri-state corridor of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and Litchfield County, Connecticut (specifically Sheffield, Westfield, Salisbury and Canaan) during the 1740s and 1750s.
Associated Neighbors: Land transactions involving sons Joel and David reference property linked to Eber Sheldon, James Wright, and abutting land owned by Sears, Day, and Callender which may indicate maternal kin proximity or collateral familial land transfers.
Genetic Genealogy: Current methodology relies on isolating autosomal DNA cousin clusters descending from David Clark Jr. and Elizabeth's children to identify shared ancestral matches filtering out known Clark lines, focusing on unidentified colonial families with daughters named Elizabeth born around 1746 in western Massachusetts and/or Connecticut.
