5 x great grandfather Daniel Culmer - still not buried!

[Aceh]

My 5 x great grandfather Daniel Culmer married Mary Kipps at St Lawrence in Thanet on 7 November 1750 and between them they produced 7 children all of whom were baptised at the same church, now on the outskirts of Ramsgate. I descend from their son William (a twin) 1756 - 1816 and up to the marriage in 1750 all is proven.
Based on compelling circumstantial evidence from poor law records I believe that Daniel was the eldest son of William Culmer, a tenant farmer of Preston by Wingham and his wife Sarah Wigmore, however to date (and it's taken 10 years on and off so far) I have been unable to prove 100%, for want of a clinching piece of documentary evidence, that my Daniel was William's eldest son Daniel who was baptised at St Mildred's Preston by Wingham on 6 December 1727.

It appears from the accounts of the Overseer of the Poor for the parish of Preston by Wingham that a "Daniel Culmer" and "his wife" spent time either together or apart, and possibly sometimes with children other times without but this is not so certain, in both the parish of St Lawrence in Thanet and the Parish of St Mildred Preston. Moreover, William Culmer as a tenant farmer, paid poor rate at Preston up to October 1749 beyond which point he appears to have moved away from Preston, possibly to Sandwich, where appropriate burial records for himself, his wife and his youngest daughter have been found at St Clements. Working back through earlier accounts it appears that William was renting fewer and fewer acres of land so it may be that his standard of living was falling until he was no longer able to rent land and left the village, which may in turn be a reason why his eldest son appeared intermittently in the Overseer's Accounts from 1756.

Despite much hunting through parish records, vestry minutes, Ancestry, Find my Past, Family Search etc, the burial of my Daniel has not yet been found; although other Daniels are out there they were not married to Mary Kipps, whose burial has also not yet been found. I see these two burials as being crucial to proving the line back beyond 1750 so any assistance would be appreciated.

Burials for the following Daniels have been discounted; there are others but too far back:
30 July 1783 at Dover - he was a nephew of my Daniel
24 May 1801 at Stourmouth - married to Sarah Wood
13 Oct 1810 at Sandwich - married to Sarah Davis

   

[Aceh]

Not much luck here either

Does anyone know of a source of 18th century local history for Ramsgate and the area including Preston by Wingham or a local historian who may be able to give me a lead?

The problem is the latter part of the 18th Century is too early for the Kent Burial Index. Daniel Culmer & his wife Mary nee Kipps, assuming they are the couple referred to in the poor law records, are not of the gentry or the middling sort that one may find in the Gentleman's Magazine or anywhere else.
Some years ago a researcher into the Kipps family believed that Daniel may have been a sailor or a fisherman who may have been lost at sea, but she passed away before letting me have any details of a source that lead her to this conclusion. Neither the CKS nor the Cathedral Archives at Canterbury nor the East Kent Archives at Dover appear to have any records of those missing at sea. Parish records have fishermen drowned at sea whose bodies were retrieved and buried locally but there appears to be nothing else.
Of course Daniel & Mary may have left the county but in their seemingly impoverished situation it seems unlikely that they would forego local relief at their parish of settlement in order to go elsewhere.

I would appreciate any suggestions as to where I go from here.

[bearkat]

I've not had much luck. 

Have you tried looking for Davids and CULLMOREs?

There are a few CULMER and CULLMORE burials listed here

http://web.archive.org/web/20010825010511/http://www.rootsweb.com/~engken/cd.txt

which might help with your research somewhere along the way.

[Aceh]

Thanks Bearcat,

This appears to be a list of burials which I believe I have not seen before (there appears to be no title to it) - do you know who the author is / was? Library staff at the SOG say the late 1700s is too early for the Kent Burial Index. I have extracted from this list all the Culmers and other like sounding names, many of which I recognise (I have tracked the Culmers back to 1485) and will go through them but they are mainly too early and nothing jumped out at me when I scanned it quickly on screen.

From circumstantial evidence from poor law records including references such as "1773 - Charge for 2 journeys to Ramsgate on Daniel Culmers account 7/-", a removal order (from Ramsgate to Preston) concerning his teenage daughter, family naming pattens etc, I am 95% convinced that the Daniel son of William baptised Preston by Wingham in 1727 was the Daniel who married Mary Kipps at Ramsgate in 1750. However, so far I haven't been able to bury Daniel or his wife; there are no surviving wills or admons and the Accounts of the Overseer of the Poor for Preston beyond December 1786 have not survived.

The struggle continues!

[bearkat]

The burials are from an old Kent Gen Web page.

I think they are extracts from parish records from someone's personal research.  Sadly I don't know who it was.

[bearkat]

Did they have a son called Thomas?

Daniel CULMER his wife Mary and son Thomas are mentioned in

The Early Settlers of the Bahamas and Colonists of North America
 By Arnold Talbot Bethell

I can't see a date for the entry on Google books

http://urlm.in/swzs

It looks as though he had 57 acres in Long Island dated 26 December 1789

http://www.bahamasnationalarchives.bs/Genealogy/LandGrants/Famhis_Landgrant_bookC1.htm

[bearkat]

Scrap all that 

It looks as if Daniel, Mary and Thomas CULMER were in the Bahamas as early as 1740

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bhswgw/settlers.htm

[Jolee]

Found this
27th December 1727 Daniel son of William & Sarah baptised
Preston-next-Wingham Kent.

[Jolee]

Don't know if I'm am allowed to post this if I am not then sorry,
Rootsweb has a  Isle of Thanet request site they only deal with this area and are very helpful and know alot about the area it's isle-of-thanet@rootsweb.com