Recent content by Virginia

Thank you for that great example!! One would think that such errors wouldn't happen nowadays but it sounds like unfortunately getting names/dates incorrect was & still is fairly common!! The only thing I base some dates on (such as my great-grandmother's) is that I have the piece of paper my...

OK, and yet another dumb question! IF the ancestors stayed in the same parish from birth to death (which mine did) couldn't the curate or rector just go back in the parish BMD registers & check when the person was baptized? That seems to me to be a very logical thing to do but don't know what...

Another thought that just occurred to me! Since "my" Thomas Bowen was born from 1732 to 1736 can I then assume that the year-dates given on the Marriage Allegation for Thomas & Sarah would be accurate since the Julian calendar was still in use at that date? It would only be AFTER 1752 that...

Tell me about Tell me about the inaccuracy of census data b/c I came across a real doozy with my great-grandmother, Mary Emma Williams who married Howard Prime Bowen in England & then moved to Canada. I have photos of what we KNOW was the Bowen family plot in Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal...

Many, many thanks for that link Radiorails!! That possibility had been at the back of my mind after spending a couple of days searching for Thomas Bowen 1732 to no avail so I'll have to sit down with some paper & a calculator & see how much the dates I've got change using that information! I...

Yes, I know about that marriage however on the Marriage Allegation & Bond it says Thomas's age was 28 in 1764 & Sarah's was 22 which puts the birth dates at about 1736 & 1742. HIS baptismal year is within reason but that 8 year age gap on the Marriage Allegation is quite leap from 8 years to...

This is probably a dumb question but how accurate is the information on a headstone? One ancestor I'm researching is buried in the St. E. Church, Yardley cemetery & his headstone says: "T.B. died (date)1807 aged 75 years". I did the math & T.B. according to the headstone was born in 1732. I...

Oh yes indeed - "religious sects" is a term I know much about since one paternal ancestor in Ontario, Canada, belonged to what is nowadays considered to be a "cult". It was the "Plymouth Brethren". My great-grandmother was the daughter of a Unitarian minister & the baptisms in Canada were in the...

I also have to give a huge thank you to all the people who helped me out here because I MAY have found the "Thomas Bowen" I'm tracing. In my bins of The Bowen Hoard that was passed down through the generations, there's a letter to my grandfather who in 1939 wrote relatives who lived at...

We have to hope though that the children were baptized within a month or two however, I've just come across some ancestors who waited a year, two even THREE years to baptize their children. My grandfather & his siblings were actually baptized DECADES after their birth when the family had...

I combed through the original Birmingham, Saint Martin's parish registers & actually found a Thomas Bowen born in 1734 to William Bowen. I'm going to take yet another look at the 1735-37 registers just in case I find a better match. Just puzzled WHY a person taking the details for a Marriage...

Thanks!! I didn't even notice that there! That will make things simpler!

I've wondered why they needed a marriage licence as well. We'll never know now. Can't see that it was b/c she was pregnant however how would a still birth or miscarriage be noted?? On my mother's side of the family a number of ancestors married by licence bless their hearts because in Devon...

I couldn't resist - I looked! Your tree departs significantly from what my Bowen tree looks like unfortunately. Do you know if there's any way we can post our email address so it's private? Bottom line is the problem whether James was a child of Jonas & Esther Prime. My view is that James...

Thanks for sending it along! I won't be able to check it out today (February 13) - have to go to the city. Will check it out on the weekend.