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Hi

I have spent several months trying to work out where my relative Henry Whitford fits into the St Columb Minor family.

I believe he married Elizabeth Martyn on 15 Oct 1764 St Col Min (the witnesses were Henry Warmington and Margaret Nicholls), and that their children were -

1765 Henry
1766 Richard (Richard was bap 10 Nov 1769, but his age at burial suggests that he might have been the son of Elizabeth, as she died in 1766, possibly in childbirth)

It seems that Elizabeth was buried 5 May 1766 St Col Min.

Then it appears that Henry married Margaret Nicholls on 14 Sep 1769 St Col Min (the witnesses were James Nicholls and Elizabeth Nicholls), and that their children were -

1771 William
1772 John
1774 Jenepher
1776 Dorothy (my ancestor who married Richard Hockin 27 Nov 1800 St Col Min)
1777 Margaret
1779 Elizabeth
1781 Mary
1783 Anne
1785 Anne

I think Henry was buried on 15 Nov 1787 St Col Min, and that Margaret was buried on 4 Aug 1803 in Newlyn East (where two of her sons and a daughter were living at the time).

In the past I’ve found that a lot of information can be gleaned from the original parish records on the Family Search website, and I’ve learned a lot of information from the names and signatures shown in the marriage pages.

So I downloaded quite a few pages with marriages showing the names and signatures of the Whitfords and Nicholls, and I’ve printed them off to enable me to get a better look at the signatures.

It’s interesting that the signature of the witness Margaret Nicholls at the first marriage is exactly the same as that of Margaret Nicholls in the second marriage, so it appears she is one and the same.  Also Margaret signs her name with a small ‘n’ for Nicholls.

James Nicholls also signs his name ‘Jams’ and his surname also with a small ‘n’.

I found that the same James Nicholls married Prudence Moffat on 25 Jun 1764 (same signature).  His witnesses were Richard Nicholls and Richard Whitford*, and this Richard Whitford* married Mary Moffat (sister of Prudence) on 29 Jul 1758 (witnesses Richard Stephens and Richard Nicholls).

(* I have an idea of where my Henry fits into the family and I have a suspicion that this Richard Whitford is possibly one of his brothers.  I don't want to go into this more deeply at the moment, as I don't want to confuse matters.)

I've found a lot of cross-referencing of the same names/signatures, in these and other marriages.   

I’ve researched the baptism/marriage/burial records on COPC and FSO, and I’ve scoured the original parish records, as mentioned above, but even after months of research I just can’t work out who either Elizabeth Martyn or Margaret Nicholls were.  (To be honest I’ve been really struggling to work out who’s who in the Martyn family, and I’m similarly confused with the Nicholls family/ies.)

If only I could work out who Elizabeth Martyn and/or Margaret Nicholls were it might help me to confirm my thoughts about Henry, so I'd be really grateful if anybody can be of any assistance.

Many thanks
Goldberry

PS. I have to admit that I've put off asking for advice, as I'm very jittery about how to ask the questions, having has a horrible experience on another forum the past, where I felt like I'd dipped my toe into a lake of piranhas. I've tried to say, I think, perhaps, possibly... I'm not making any claims, just that it is how it appears to be based on my research to date, and everything is based on my own research not somebody else's.......

....so please be gentle with me. 

My 'cousins' and I have been researching the ancestry of our shared 3xg grandfather Thomas James. Between us this has been researched over many years.  Now we have come together to finally try and knock down the brick wall.  Several times we've thought we had located him, but each time it has turned out not to be him after all.

What we do know for sure about our Thomas is that he drowned at the age of 36 in 1835 in a boating accident when pilchard fishing in Newquay.

We also know that he married Catherine Hocking on 28 Dec 1822 in St Columb Minor, at which time he was shown to be living in Cubert, and we know from the information on his childrens' baptism records that he was a miner.

Thomas and Catherine had 6 children all baptised in St Columb Minor:

Mary A James     1823-1915 (m James Moyses)
John James        1825-1915 (m Elizabeth Nicholls)
Catherine Ann    1827-1899 (m Thomas Gerry)
Margaret           1829-1911 (m William Alfred)
Samuel             1831-1832
Sarah Jane        1833-1875 (m Charles Pearce)

Having pretty much researched any Thomas James born in Cornwall between 1789-1801, it seems that we might finally have found Thomas's family, but they are a bit of an enigma!  Many of the siblings appear to have died very young, but there some that we are unable to find any information for other than their baptisms.  We feel that unless we can find a solution to these missing siblings that we are unable to prove that we have finally found the right family.

Parents:

William James    1744 Probus - 1845 Crowan    (married 16 Oct 1797 Stithians)
Mary Tiller            1776 St Enoder - 1814 St Enoder (registered in Ladock)

They had the following children:

Thomas            1799 Probus - (possibly 1835 St Columb Minor)
Samuel Tiller    1801 Ladock - ? *
William            1802 - 1805 Ladock
Dorcas       1805 Ladock - (between 1881-1891) (m Thomas Prisk)
William            1808 Ladock - ? **
John               1811 - 1811 Ladock
Marianne           1812 Ladock - ? ***
Elizabeth            1814-1814 Ladock

William James 1774 (widower/Yeoman) then married a widow, Elizabeth Rosewell (nee Johns), on 7 Mar 1815 St Enoder

They had two children:

Christian James    1818 Ladock - 1861 Crowan (m John Hart in 1837)
                        (Father William shown living with her in Crowan in 1841)
Maria James    1821-1823 Ladock

In addition, Elizabeth had 4 children from her previous marriage:

Elizabeth    1801 Gwinear - ?
Prudence    1806 Ludgvan
                (m George Bennet 9 Dec 1830 in Cubert, where Prudence was shown to be living)
John       1809 Ludgvan - ?
Andrew    1813 St Stephens in Brannel - 1834 Camborne

All of the above information has been found in records from either COPC or FSO. 

This family appear to have connections all over Cornwall which makes the research difficult.

* We recently thought we had found Samuel Tiller James (1802) on a convict ship which was sent to Australia in 1819, but following a query on this forum, somebody kindly informed me that he was shown as age 27 when on the holding hulk Leviathan.  So, unless he was lying about his age, this does not appear to be him.  (COPC showing as his name as James Tiller, FSO as Samuel Tiller.  Having viewed original parish register on FSO it does appear to be Samuel).

**We have been unable to find anything about William (1808).

***All of the baptisms and burials during this period in Ladock appear to be related to this family.  So it’s strange that there is a baptism of Marianne (Mary Ann?) in Oct 1812 and a burial of a Mary in Sept 1812.  I wondered whether it was possible that the two events had been muddled in the register.

If any users of this forum can shed any light on this family, we would be very grateful.

Thank you.

Hi

I wondered if anybody else is researching the Bice family.

I've noticed there are a lot of family trees online (many of which are muddled, which is why I like to do the research myself, rather than copy what other people have done), but when it gets to John Bice nobody currently appears to have a marriage, although his wife is known to be Joan (baptism of daughter Christian 1620 shows mother as Jone).

Obviously, new transcriptions of records are constantly being added, so I was quite excited to find a marriage as follows:

29 Jun 1612, Braddock, Cornwall
John Bise and Joane Crews

The timing of this marriage also coincides well with the birth of John's first son Luke (1613).

I wondered if anybody else had come across this marriage?





As a separate question, but linked to the above -

Taking the research one step further regarding Joan Crews:

I understand that Braddock is about 7 miles from Liskeard, where there was to be found a branch of the Cruwys family from Devon (various other spellings, including Crewse).  John Bice was a Yeoman, so it makes sense that he would marry into such a family.

There is a baptism:

Jone Cruise
baptised 24 Nov 1594
Fowey, Cornwall
Father Richard Cruise

In the Family Search Ancestral files I found information about the Crewse family of Liskeard, showing the birth of Richard c 1567, his father John 1530, and grandfather Anthony b 1505, Cruwys Morchard,Devon d 1540.  (To date my tree is based on documents I've found for baptisms, marriages, burials, censuses, etc. Can anybody tell me how reliable these Ancestral Files are?   Checking against Pedigree Files on Family Search in the past, I've found some of them to be wrong. Can anybody explain the difference between Ancestral Files and Pedigree Files, if any?) 

In the meantime, I  can't find any other children with this baptised with this surname (I've searched trying various spellings) in Fowey around the date of Joane Cruise, so at the moment I'm unable to make any connection to Richard from Liskeard.

Any thoughts, suggestions?

Hi

Working on the Martyn Family, I've just come across an entry in the Burials section of the St Columb Minor Parish Registers (Baptisms, Burials, 1560-1783 - FamilySearch), that states on 26 March 1591 "HERE THE PLAGUE BEGAN".  There are entries for several of the Martyn family of St Columb Minor over the next few pages.

Having done a quick Google search, I've also come across a mention of the plague in Illogan in 1591, Genuki says Redruth was visited by the plague in 1591, Cornwall in Focus states the Bubonic Plague recorded at Redruth 1591.

Another mention in the book - The Cornish Family: The Roots of Our Future:

"A bigger killer in the 1590s was plague, which appeared in 1591 in Redruth and neighbouring Illogan - where death rates were reported to have been ten times the norm - as well as in mid- and east Cornwall at St Columb Minor, Morval and St Neot."