james thurston

[old rowley]

Hi Unicorns43 and welcome to Rootschat,

if memory serves me correctly the old county line for Middlesex was between Bow and Stratford with the River Lea being a natural boundary betwix the two meaning that Bow was in Middlesex and Stratford in Essex.

OR

[unicorns43]

hi there, thank you for your help. i have a mary anne thurston. she was on the census records in 1851 in great waltham aged 9. her dad is james thurston and her mother was mary anne smith.. her dad is the man i am stuck on. he doesn't seem to have parents or siblings, which is strange.

[findem]

Hi O R,

You're no doubt right about Bow, I wasn't too sure of my ground when I linked it with Essex, I Googled Bow but didn't find any help there, I Looked at it on a Road Atlas and it didn't seem to far from parts I know were Essex so I thought Essex.

Unicorns43, I came across your Mary Anne Thurston whilst looking for my wife's Mary Ann Thurston, that Mary Ann in two consecutive censuses, gave two different counties as birthplaces, I found out later that her father died a month or two before she was born.  Within a year her mother remarried and they all disappeared of the face of the earth so no doubt that turmoil had something to do with her confusion, in 1865 she surfaced in West Ham where she married George Turner.

Good luck with your Thurstons

[unicorns43]

hi there, thank you for your help. the thurstons do seem very hard to trace. james is the one who has me totally stuck. there seems to be nothing about his parents at all. it is as if he has juat appeared which is strange lol..even my aunt in new zealand and my cousin in london have had no luck going any further back. 

[thegoat]

Hi Unicorn

Also researching James - he’d be my 3x Gt Grandfather.
As you say, hard to secure details of origins. Best I’ve found is his fathers name given as James on his second marriage certificate from 1867, and there is a baptism of a James, father James mother Rosetta in 1808 in Great Baddow (if you’re not familiar, this is definitely in the right area geographically). Baptism record behind Essex PRO paywall so haven’t confirmed as yet, waiting to have the time and spare money to pay their fees for a month or so and do a bunch of lookups at once.
Hope that helps, if you’re on Ancestry you can probably find me and my tree with James’s details on there.

[Kate-Birchtree]

I realise I might be a bit late to this Thurston chat - sorry if the below is no longer useful!

I'm related to this James too, and have been researching him/the Thurstons for awhile. I've found records connecting this James Thurston (baptised 1808, Great Baddow) to parents Rosetta Harman and James Thurston.

The baptism transcript, as well as a marriage transcript for a Rosetta Jarmin (sp) and James Thurston's marriage transcript (1807, Romford), are on FreeReg.

Rosetta's parish is listed on FreeReg as being Romford, while James' is listed as being Upminster. Research so far seems to indicate that Rosetta wasn't born in Essex - looks possible that she was born in St Mary le Bow in 1779.