ARMSTRONGS of Ravensden

[wdurham]

Yes, John - found them. Although John b about 1814 seems to be missing?

It was the Armstrong entries I meant - no marriage for William and Ann, and no Thomas or Eli baptisms, only Sarah. There are member entries, but they aren't in the extracted batch.

Yet I am sure you found the marriage of William and Ann in the Thurleigh PR - so I wonder why it's not in the IGI batch?

[johnP-bedford]

The marriage of William Armstrong & Ann Wrench was in 1827.

The IGI batch for marriages at Thurleigh only goes up to 1812,

Thus the IGI is not 100% complete - so you need to refer to Parish records for dates outside those held on the IGI.

I'm sure you know this site ..
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers/CountyBedford.htm#PageTitle

Regards John   

[wdurham]

Doh!

I hadn't NB'd the dates on the Marriage batch! Thanks for reminding me, John.

[bedfordshire boy]

Agreed John

Virtually all of Beds pre 1812 has been extracted onto the IGI (parish registers that is, not necessarily non conformist registers). I don't think I've found any entries that have been missed in the transcription process, although the LDS in its infinite wisdom, inexplicably removed some extracted records when cleaning up the IGI if the entry was duplicated by a member submission.

So pre 1812 Beds is very reliable, and if a baptism is not there it usually means that it didn't take place at all or was non conformist. Marriages are easier as pre 1837 non conformists other than Jews and Quakers had to marry in the established church. So all marriages pre 1812 should be on the IGI (other than as mentioned above when there should be a member submission which would obviously need checking as one doesn't know if it was a duplicated extracted record, or a fictitious one)

Post 1812 is a different story, although coverage is pretty good, but even the Hugh Wallis site is not up to date, and you have to be careful with some of the more recent "C" batches where more and more seem to be female only - at least you know that the "J" and "K" batches are single sex.

And it should be born in mind that the IGI can't include what isn't in the PR - if a year or more is missing you obviously can't find it in the IGI, although "P" batches are taken from Bedford Archives transcripts which compared the PRs with the BTs and any anomalies are noted (which is why sometimes the IGI has what appear to be peculiar entries where names differ in the two records). A couple of my parishes have missing years 1800-10 where no marriage records exist at all

Regards

David

[Peppie]

Please Please Please watch the Ravensden records on the IGI ....

I found a huge amount of males missing. When I bumped into someone from the LDS at a fair I asked why and was told.... they must have taken all the boys to the next parish to get them baptised.....  I knew full well they were there as I'd seen them in the microfiche down a the SOG.

I'd also say keep an eye on Wilden as some of the fiche is barely readable so mistakes will happen.

Age old saying but if it's on the IGI still check the originals. 

[johnP-bedford]

Good morning Peppie,

I suspect we've spoken before,  I think we are linked somehow.

I have a Walter Partridge b 1862 of Riseley who married Emily Louise Fensom b 1863 of Ravensden on 22/11/1886. Emily was daughter of John Fensom & Susannah Rogers. Arer they from your family of Fensoms of Ravensden. ?

Walter is son of William & Maria Gell,  & grandson of Robert P of Riseley, who is brother to my gt-gt-grandfather.

Regards John

[bedfordshire boy]

Thanks Peppie. It's not so much that males have been missed; it's that no males were extracted after 1812 (pre 1812 is OK). Why the LDS extracted only females on some their more recent batches is beyond me! (and they don't seem to know themselves)

David

[wdurham]

I have been giving these Armstrongs some thought.

We have:

1. John Armstrong and Sarah, b about 1670-1680 They have one documented son who survived to adulthood, William b 1701 in Riseley.

2. William had two sons that we are aware of - John born in Riseley in 1729 and Thomas born after the move to Wilstead in 1734.

3. Thomas married Christian and he and his descendants populated Wilstead and Haynes and parts further east with Armstrongs.

4. John married Edith and produced two sons that are documented: William b 1754 in Wilstead who went off to Cople via Maulden, and (according to Bob's tree) populated Cople, Goldingdon and Blunham - and John b about 1760 in Wilstead who appears to have ended up in Ravensden, probably also via Maulden, as that's where his parents died. One of John's daughters was Edith.

Now, at the same time, we have:

1. Samuel, b about 1760-1770 who married Sarah and produced first (and only?) daughter Edith in Elstow.

2. Thomas, b about 1760-1770 who married Phoebe and produced first daughter Edith in Upper Gravenhurst .

3. Jos (Joseph/Josiah/Joshua?) who turned up in Thurleigh in 1788 and married another Sarah, Sarah Beal. They haven't any documented children that I have found.

None of these three are recorded on the IGI until their marriages, and Thomas's marriage is a member entry not an extraction. Tho' the baptisms of his children do confirm the marriage to a Phoebe of one ilk or other.

Now - is there a possibility that Thomas and Samuel at least were unbaptised sons of John and Edith, born either in Wilstead or Maulden?

It seems likely that John and Edith were pretty poor, or the Maulden overseers would not have paid William's apprenticeship bond in 1766, well before either of them died.

And although Beds is pretty well doucmented on the IGI, there are no baptisms in Beds which fit any of (1) to (3) above that I have found.

[castlebob]

Hello Wendy & all,
I should've mentioned that I believe Samuel & Sarah's first child was possibly Sarah b1774 who wed a Mr Holmes in Elstow in 1795. I have heard that Sarah &/or baby died on way to USA.
Two points I think may be of interest: As you know, dates around the 1752/4 era coincide with the switch from Julian to Gregorian calendar, where we jumped a year to match continental dates.
Elstow was Bunyan's 'patch', & many of the family seemed to follow that path.
I have a wild theory that perhaps the Armstrongs came south with the Scottish Covenanters, fought in Northants in the Civil War, settled in Beds!
Bob