Anyone heard of Gheacham, Berkshire (now possibly in Oxfordshire)

[Cadoret]

I have a possible sighting for one of my gggggg-grandfathers - William Bedwell - but the familysearch.org record has him born in Gheacham, Berkshire. If it is him, this would be near Buckland, Berkshire, which is now in Oxfordshire.

I've looked on all the search engines with no results at all... has anyone ever heard of this place, or have any candidates for a mis-spelling?

thanks in advance, Graeme

[PrueM]

G'day Graeme 

I notice it's a submitted record that has the place as "Gheacham" - goodness knows where they got it from or what it actually is supposed to be 

I can't find anything in Genuki, or old maps, or Google, that looks remotely like "Gheacham" in Berkshire or surrounds.  There is a "Cheacham" but it's in Norfolk.

Prue

[behindthefrogs]

Assuming that it was written in old law script the most likely first letter replacing the G and h is a B.

Proceding from there my guess is Barkham.

[Vicwinann]

My guess would be Thatcham but that is nowhere near Buckland.
Regards
vicwinann

[behindthefrogs]

On second thoughts i agree with vicwinann Thatcham

[Cadoret]

Many thanks for the suggestions, guess I'll have to try some lateral thinking!

Unless I can get hold of a birth record - had the same problem with another one from 'Noolurch, Kent', which turned out to be Woolwich, when I saw the census copy!

Graeme

[tazzie]

   Hi ... Graeme....

  just thought I would throw these in......

  Marcham.....or....Greenham(nearer Newbury).

                     Tazzie

[Cadoret]

Thanks, I already had thought of Greenham, but couldn't see how 'ee' could be read as 'ea', apart from that it'sa a likely candidate... same goes for Marcham - misreading G for any letter without curved components like C or B seems unlikely...

To be honest, it looks like anything other than seeing an original document would be guesswork; I suppose I was hoping someone had come across the name before.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

[tazzie]

    As the entry is member submitted it could even be total guess work.

  I have written it in old english and ink and Greenham is a better match but a fair distance away.

  How about the other William Bedwell entry for 1710?
 It gives the village of Mersey Hampton in Gloucestershire about 14 miles as the crow flies. Ok nothing like Gheacham but we have proved that already.

   Good luck

                    Tazzie