It’s hard to believe that September comes to a close this week and fall has arrived.

Randy Seaver has presented the last Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge of the month for us:

1)  What is “Your Oldest Confirmed Record?”  What is one of the oldest documents you’ve personally found for any ancestor? 

2)  Share your oldest confirmed  record:  what it is, where it came from, and what it revealed. 

Randy clarified what an “oldest confirmed record” is:

I was unsure what “oldest confirmed record” means.  Is it “a record only I have?”  Is it “a record that is old in years that I’ve found in a repository or online database?”  Is it “an old church confirmation record?”

 I asked Google Search AI and it told me:

An “oldest confirmed record” is the furthest back verified document, like a birth certificate or census entry, that proves a specific ancestor’s existence in a family tree.

Like Randy, I have some documents from the 1400s and 1500s – English wills – but, offhand, I can’t remember the ancestors who left them.

Since I’m much more familiar with ancestors in New England in the 1600s, I’m going to stick with the 17th century.

Sampson Mason is my 8X great grandfather, baptized on 6 December 1624 at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Bolton, England in the Greater Manchester area, the son of Robert Mason.

Sampson is one of my rare north-of-England colonial ancestors. Most were from the southern counties.

Sampson settled in Rehoboth, Bristol, Rhode Island and is last mentioned in records on 1 November 1676. He married Mary Butterworth, c1650, and became the parents of thirteen children. I’m descended from the youngest, daughter Thankful, born c1672, probably also in Rehoboth.

Another fun SNGF challenge. Thanks, Randy!