"The Family Records of Peter Eastman” LDS file #15589, brought to our attention by Pomala Black. Her research on the Eastman family is available here

This record is on microfilm, indexed in The Church of Later Day Saints, Archives in Salt Lake City. It is described as a manuscript copied by the Genealogy Society of Utah in 1952, from the State Library in Concord, New Hampshire. Included on the same film are the "Family Records of Benjamin Eastman" and "The Family Records of Samuel Eastman"

We encourage comments and speculation to share with and help others researching the subject. Please send anything you'd like added below to coleman@colemancoyne.com 

Comments and speculation by Matthew B. Rogers...

The file above is a real treasure. It seems to confirm Matthew Eastman was married to Sally Naomi (Eastman) before he married Sally Sanborn. A big Thank You goes out to Pomala for unselfishly sharing this information with us. 

We should point out there are some factual errors and inconsistencies in this document. 

We have no record showing Dr. Nathaniel Eastman, had a wife prior to marrying Naomi Rowlee.

The Grandfather of Matthew Eastman was Joseph not William.

In regards to Dr. Hezekiah Eastman: He was trained to be a Doctor by his Uncle Dr. Nathaniel Eastman. It’s not unreasonable to believe he and the Doctor’s daughter Sally would have known each other and could have been very good friends.

Hezekiah was pretty enterprising. Along with his Medical Practice he operated a Distillery and a Tavern. He enlisted in the Militia in 1811, served in the War of 1812, was captured and held prisoner by the British until 1815. He migrated to Jennings County, Indiana in 1818, along with Sally's parents and her brother.  

One of the complications in the story is Matthew Eastman enumerated in the 1820 census living with a woman who appears to be his wife and two sons under the age of 10. It look’s like Dr. Hezekiah left Genesee County before Matthew’s first wife would have run off. 

Matthew and Sally (Sanborn) Eastman’s oldest son Warren was born in September 1826 as per the 1900 census. I’m guessing this is why most studies place the marriage of Matthew and Sally (Sanborn) Eastman in 1825. It is possible Sally Sanborn moved right in with Matthew to help care for the son left behind after Sally (Eastman) ran off. But that’s a pretty far reach when you think Matthew didn’t remarry until 1825. 

It’s not hard to believe Sally the first would run off, after the loss of an infant son. However, in the 1820’s a wife didn’t run off with another man at least not in the technical sense. In that time a wife was the property of her husband. Such an incident would have been beyond scandalous; it would have been felonious on the part of the other man.  

In Matthew’s mind it may have been easier to blame a long gone respected relative in the form of Dr. Hezekiah, rather than facing the probability, his notional wife just ran off on her own or with a man of lesser quality then the Doctor. Hezekiah already had a wife and an established family. So Sally wouldn’t have been running off with another man, technically she would have been running away with kinfolk. That creates a much more sympathetic situation than the alternative. A wife running off on her own or with another man would impugn Matthew’s masculinity and require him to demand some sort of atonement. 

We know Sally (Eastman) later married Daniel Tyler and the couple didn't leave  New York until 1835/36. According to the 1850 census Sally’s son Joseph was born in New York around 1834 and her daughter Nancy was born in Indiana around 1836. It’s hard to believe she would have migrated to Indiana with the rest of the Eastman’s and returned to Attica to remarry Daniel Tyler. It seems more likely she would have stayed in New York, if for no other reason than to be near her son Orren Andrew Eastman.