Talk:Mary Lum

Notability?

So she's "known for being the wife" of Stephen Girard (I'd say "Being related to a notable person in itself confers no degree of notability upon that person" [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability_(people)#Family] applies, honestly)... did she ever do anything of any note herself? It seems the sole points of interest are that she went "insane" and had a mystery baby, both points mentioned in Girard's own article. In point of fact, ALL the details here are more-or-less just taken from Girard's own article, and to make it worse, there are barely any sources cited. Let's break it down just for the record, going point-by-point through all the information in this article:

1) her dates of birth and death- not in Stephen Girard's article, but could easily be added after the first instance of her name

2) her being a Philadelphia native, daughter of a shipbuilder- in Girard's article (in fact, that article surpasses this one by giving his name, John Lum)

3) the year of their meeting- in Girard's article

4) year of marriage- Girard's article mentions their 1777 meeting and says they married "shortly afterward"; could easily be made to incorporate "1778"

5) their address at 211 Mill Street, Mount Holly Township, NJ- in Girard's article

6) the store they established- a line on this could simply enough be added to Girard's article in the relevant place (albeit a source is lacking here)

7) the details of Mary's insanity- basically identical in Girard's article, here trivially embellished but at any rate unsourced

8) the duration of her life in the insanity ward and the circumstances of her death- a line on this could follow the description in Girard's article

So of the 8 points above, 4 (the major ones) are already in her husband's article, and the remaining 4 (uncited little extra bits of information) could very easily be inserted there. There just seems no reason for this woman to have an article unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious. Of course Wikipedia requires more focus on women, but surely there are countless women who've contributed something to the world other than "being a wife and going insane"? 78.144.66.140 (talk) 11:54, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

"Historian Brenna Holland speculated"

"Historian Brenna Holland speculated in a 2019 paper that Girard may have wanted nothing to do with a child and may have had Lum committed as a way of escaping responsibility, however, there is no clear evidence as to the child's father"

Remove this. This adds nothing of value to the article and the statement even says that it's unproven. Visit eforie (talk) 16:20, 30 March 2026 (UTC)