Talk:Mary Weston Fordham

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the arts and entertainment work group (assessed as Low-importance).

Poetry Low‑importance

	Poetry portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Poetry, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of poetry on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoetryWikipedia:WikiProject PoetryTemplate:WikiProject PoetryPoetry articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Women writers Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women writers, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of women writers on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Women writersWikipedia:WikiProject Women writersTemplate:WikiProject Women writersWomen writers articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

United States Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

African diaspora Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject African diaspora, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of African diaspora on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.African diasporaWikipedia:WikiProject African diasporaTemplate:WikiProject African diasporaAfrican diaspora articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Biographical info for Mary Weston Fordham

The bio info here is simply wrong; the sources cited apparently pulled numbers and "facts" out of thin air.

Just comparing the claims in the first few lines of the article should give some clue that something's badly awry: Mary Weston Fordham is claimed to have been born in 1862, but nevertheless taught school "during the Civil War". If she was born in 1862, she will have been all of 3 years old by the time the Civil War ended.

Her parents were Louisa Potter Bonneau and John Firman Weston, both members of Charleston's elite antebellum Free Persons of Color.

Her father was not the Rev. Samuel Weston. Samuel's wife was named Sarah, not Louise, although she was Louise's sister. Samuel and Sarah did indeed have a daughter named Mary, but she was born in 1852, still far too young to have taught school during the Civil War.

The subject of this article was hired in 1865 to teach at the Saxon Institute, which would later become the Avery Normal School.

The most thoroughly-sourced reference for the life of Mary Weston Fordham is Smith & Phelps, _Notable Black American Women: Book 2_, pp. 231-5. The sources for their claims are contained in the text of the article. Mary Weston Fordham is on my wife's family tree, so I've had the occasion to research her life, and can say that Sandra Govan, who wrote the article in Smith & Phelps, has the measure of the issue.

My apologies, but I have no idea how to edit the Wiki page itself.

Geeceem49 (talk) 16:55, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

71.191.145.253 (talk) 23:48, 9 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]