I know that a few of you had an interest in my story of the Deacon family and several of you provided me with valuable ideas and assistance. I thought that I'd bring this thread up to date as far as my Deacons are concerned therefore. I have been able to make progress because lots of the Leicestershire parish records are now available via FindMyPast which I subscribe to.
One bit of help offered above was to check who the marriage witnesses were and at the time I couldn't see them but I have been able to find the two parish record images of the marriages of an Elizabeth Deacon and then an Elizabeth Coton. One witness at both weddings was called Ann Deacon. While it isn't conclusive (quite often we never find certainty in this hobby of ours) I also found a Deacon family with both an Elizabeth and an Ann as siblings, so I am more confident than ever that Elizabeth Deacon married William Coton and a few years later married my ancestor Charles Vines. The parish record described her as a spinster in the second marriage but the local newspaper called her Mrs Colton (small name typo but hey!) so I am inclined for once to believe that part of the newspaper report and therefore that the parish record is inaccurate in that respect.
The main problem with that theory remains the lack of a record for what happened to William Coton, the groom at the first wedding. The ideal record, not for him obviously, was that he died shortly after he got married (he's dead now for certain). An alternative is that Elizabeth re-married bigamously but if I was going to do that I would not choose to re-marry in the adjacent parish church!
The Deacon family I found was married and baptised in the parish church of Wigston Magna. I looked at a map and realised that Kilby Bridge is a mile or two south of that church (Elizabeth claimed to have been born in Kilby). I then found that the church in Kilby was described as a chapelry of the Wigston church, meaning that it was in effect managed by the Wigston clerics. So I imagine that it was an option or even a requirement that such family events mainly take place in the parent church.
So I hope that I now have the right family and if so I have also moved that line back a generation plus I've added a new line via the newly discovered great great great great ....forgotten how many great grandparents ...that married a Deacon.
Hooray for parish records online!
Tony
