Am I lucky, or just very persistent?

[benny1982]

Some lines I have managed to find vicars, mayors, an alderman and merchants, and it has helped me get back further into the 1500s and before, and I have found some landed gentry. Although I do lots of checking wills online (PCC wills, Essex SEAX etc, wills on |FMP and more) plus exhausting National Archives databases and Google Books and more and even reading individual wills of people with the same surname in the same areas and it has paid dividends, and then checking and checking to confirm I have the right people.

About 80% of my ancestors were humble ag labs, shoemakers, or fishermen whom I cannot get back further than say 1680ish, but with some lines, the other 20%, the further back I go, the richer they seemed to be.

 

[ptjw7]

I think luck plays a significant part in Genealogy as most of my relatives couldn't write judging by the number who just put an x.
Mind you I think most wills were written by solicitors judging by the complexity of some of them - so complex you have to read them several times to even get the gist of it!!!

 

[benny1982]

I think most of us descend from some landed gentry and worthy people. Often a worthy knight had several children, and the younger ones married yeomen, then their children became farmers then their children became ag labs. The family fortunes were split a lot and it dried up.

It can also depend on where in the country they lived, if they lived in prosperous areas such as Glemsford, Lavenham and Sudbury in Suffolk, you will find their relatives before them were clothiers or merchants or local Mayors. Many of my ancestors came from the Babergh areas of Suffolk. Babergh is a region not a place.

 

[Ladybird1300]

Or if they were silk weavers in London, they moved to Sudbury to keep their business going. Sadly now Vanners Silk mill is not owned by the family it was sold off during the 20th century.

My Russell family like yours lived in Chalfont St Peter. My ancestor Martha Russell bc1666 and her twin Mary inherited copyhold land from their brother John at the tender age of 9, they appeared in person at the monthly court Manor with their father William to pay 10s in rent and a fine of £4. This land was inherited by Martha's son Russell Farmer because her sister Mary didn't have any children, but it ended with Russell's son Russell for some reason the land was sold to someone else after his death.

But I find it odd that the name Russell Farmer has been used either as a first name or middle name from my ancestor b1689 to at least 1926, possibly later. Also I have two Farmer/Russell marriages and I'm trying to look into a theory that the Russell families are related in some way. It isn't easy because the marriages took place 127 years apart Christopher Farmer to Martha Russell 1688 St James Duke's Palace and Henry Farmer to Mary Russell in 1815 St Leonards Shoreditch.

 

[Ellie7]

I have several bapts in Horsforth of Adamson's with no parents listed.I am surmising they are the earliest ones. Have anyone came across this .

It turns out issue were bapts elsewhere( added Jan 2022)

 

[Ladybird1300]

Yes but usually in the 16th century I have a few that have stopped between the 1540's and 1580's, perhaps they only had to list the child's name and not the father. I have at least one that stops later in the next century without a father.

I've also stopped with the Russell family because it doesn't look like they were from Buckinghamshire. There are no baptisms for John, Martha and Mary in the county and the marriage I thought was right for William is now in doubt.

All these people in the Manor Court Rolls and the only record I have is Martha and Christopher because they married in Westminster. The only Russell twins I could find anywhere with the same first names were in Devon, but the parents were John and Grace. I'm finding this very odd.

 

[Ellie7]

Castantine Adamson
Gender Male
Birth year -Birth place -
Baptism year 1595
Baptism date 12 Oct 1595
Place Guiseley
County Yorkshire
Country England
Father's first name(s) GabriellFather's last name Adamson

 

[Ladybird1300]

Yes, often the next generation back the father is missing and sometimes in a different area I can go back to the earliest baptism and still have a father's name, different parishes do different things

 

[Ladybird1300]

Castantine Adamson
Gender Male
Birth year -Birth place -
Baptism year 1595
Baptism date 12 Oct 1595
Place Guiseley
County Yorkshire
Country England
Father's first name(s) GabriellFather's last name Adamson

You may have it but there's a marriage on FMP for a Gabriel Adamson in Guiseley 1621 to a Thomasin Walker,

 

[Ellie7]

They were roman catholics AND RICHARD 1ST was on the throne trying to bann that religion.