Betsy Ross (January 1, 1752 – January 30, 1836), born Elizabeth Phoebe Griscom, also later known by her second and third married names: Elizabeth Ashburn and Elizabeth Claypoole, is widely credited with making the first American flag purportedly in 1776, according to family tradition, upon a visit from General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, and changing the shape of the stars described on the flag from six-pointed to easier-to-produce five-pointed stars. However, there is no archival evidence or other verbal traditions that this story or "legend" of the first American flag is true and supposedly the story first surfaced in the early 1870s by the description of her descendents—a grandson—a century later, with no mention being made or documented anywhere in earlier decades.