Andrew Spring (1779-1852)

I have been trying to figure out who the spouse of Margret Hilts (1782-1818) daughter of Christopel Hilts b: 1738).

I have conflicting information on her. I was given that her husband is Philip Sternberg and they had two children: Catherine (b: 1808) and Christina Maria (b: 1817).

I was also given that her husband was Andrew Spring (b: 1779 Rowan, NC, USA d: 1852 York, Onatrio, Canada).

First of all, besides user submitted trees on Ancestry.com, I can't prove either relationship.

I can't really find Philip Sternberg at all through Ancestry.com or findagrave.com.

However, this is what I found on Andrew: He is the sone of Albright and Barbara Spring according to the Canadian Immigrant Records, Part Two (Berczy Papers) found on Ancestry.com.

I found an 15 Nov 1836 Ontario, Canada marriage between an Andrew Sping and Anne Nibls. If this is my Andrew Spring it would make him  57 years old at the time of marriage.

Finally, I found an 1851 Census of Canada West (Ontario) listing Andrew Spring, male, age 73 (est birth 1779) born in US, living in York County, District # 42; sub-district: East Gwillimbury; Sub District #: 406.

He is living with Samuel Spring age 23 (son) and son's wife Mary Ann Spring age 23 and another son John Spring age 22.

Based on this, it makes Andrew 50 years old when his son Samuel was born and 51 when John was born, therefore, if Anne Nibls is his wife, it would be a later marriage. However, I was given that Andrew wife Margaret Hilts was born 1780 and died 1855. If Margaret didn't die until 1855, why is she not living with her husband and sons? Perhaps she actually died in 1835 if he did remarry in 1836.

Based on all this information, I am just as confused as when I started. When I go back to the person who gave me this information, she claims it is correct because of all the user submitted trees that have this information. However, when I contacted those users, those that replied (which was alot of them), stated that they copied it from another user submitted tree. I wasn't able to get the information from the orginial user. Also, my person stated that she was listed on the 1855 census, but I can't find her.

Moral of this story: People should not copy into their trees, information that they haven't proven. Or at least include their sources and list whose tree you copied it from. I add it into my tree showing the source and then I can sort out those sources as those that I need to prove when I find more time. Another idea, mark it as speculation based on a user submitted tree and try to contact the submitter of the tree if they don't list any sources. If they did list sources, track them down and analyis that information.