Hi Susan
Hope you are well. Where did you get the information regarding the 1615 christening of Matthew Austin from? I haven't been able to find it myself and another researcher has posted on here saying there is no christening for a Matthew Austen in Wye on the 1 Nov 1615.
Do you have a copy of the parish register entry you can send me or was this christening in a different parish?
There is a Matthew Austen christened in Chilham in 1627 and then before that the only one I have found is in Adisham in about 1562.
The Austen tree is quite complex and extensive so it may take us a few days (or weeks) to go through it and sort this out.
Matt
Hi, Matt,
It has been awhile in coming as I haven't had the time to get over to our Family History Centre - my work hours vs. their open hours - but, today I did get there and have the image of the 1615 baptism of Matthew Austen. I have highlighted in dark violet. This came from the original Parish Register for Wye, FHL film #1836327, about image 18 in from the title board. It is actually contained on the page following the page that begins baptisms in 1614.
Hi Susan
Yes it has been a while but that's no problem, I think we have both been busy with lots of other bits. I have managed to get to a few local archives and the National Archives in London where I've used to the FHC resources to get copies of Wills so that has taken up a lot of my time when I've not been working. Like you I have found that a lot of the days when I am not working are days when the archives are closed lol!
Thanks for sending that image. I forgot why we were looking into this Matthew however.
This is what I know about him already.
He was the son of Valentine Austen and his first wife Katherine Terrell.
Matthew was christened 1 November 1615 in Wye.
He must have died before 1626/27 however as in that year Valentine Austen and his second wife [Jane Terrell] had another son named Matthew
Matthew Austen christened 24 March 1626/27 Wye
This Matthew appears to have died young as Valentine and Jane had a second son named Matthew who was christened in Wye on 1 November 1629.
Jane died in 1633 and then Valentine married Elizabeth Sheaffe [my ancestor] in 1634. Their daughter Elizabeth married John Kennett in 1664.
As I have said before the Austen family is quiet complex lol! My biggest problem with this part of the family is trying to trace the family of Elizabeth Sheaffe. There are Sheaffes in the Cranbrook area but that seems far to far away from the area. That said, I haven't found any other Sheaffes in Kent at all.
It's a bit of a puzzle. Still that's the fun of genealogy :-)
Matt