Sorry this post is so long! I have a brick wall for William Johnsey/Johnsea/Joncey who was buried in Shorncote, Gloucestershire in 1833. I think he married Sarah Stop in Kempsford in 1815 and his 1st son Henry was born there. His 2nd son Job was born in Shorncote and I haven’t found any further children. I can’t find a birth for William in that exact area but he was an agricultural labourer so I’m assuming he may have come from another village. So I am trying to research all the William Johnseys around Gloucestershire/Oxfordshire borders but I have a number of questions about how to go about this...
I am assuming he was born around 1760-1797 but there was no age on the marriage or burial records so I have based this on his death, marriage and wife’s age.
There are potential matches in Idbury, Fifield, Fulbrook, Coberley, Compton Abdale.
The most interesting is the family born in Compton Abdale to William & Mary. They have a son called William b.1760 and Thomas b.1767 who possibly marries Ann Smith in Whittington in 1801 and Thomas & Ann have a son called William b.1802 in Colesbourne who marries Jane Gegg in 1828 & has children including William, Henry & Job who all seem to end up in N. & S. Cerney as does Henry, son of my Willliam.
1. Am I barking up the right trees in terms of dates?
2. How far could he have travelled from his birthplace? Are these locations feasible? I have found a marriage of a William Joncey of Brimsfield to Mary Young of Coln Rogers in Bibury 1749 which might match the parents of the family in Compton Abdale (father - William was a shepherd).
3. How do I find out if the parish records for the villages are complete on Ancestry or Find my past?
4. How do I best use wild cards to pick up name variants? So far I have seen Johnsy, Jonsey, Joncy, Joncey, Jancy, Johnsea, Johnson, Jauncy, Johnsee. Is there a combination which will capture them all but exclude all the Jones?
5. Should I be looking at him marrying younger than 18?
6. I don’t live close enough to the Gloucestershire archives to be able to visit at the moment but if I can what other records can I look at to trace the journey of an Ag Lab from birth place to burial? As I am not sure how to confirm if any potential matches are him.
7. If I am trying to do research on friends & family before census data should I be looking into siblings, witnesses to marriages and/or all the residents of the town through the parish records and neighbouring towns too? It seems like a needle in a haystack for Ag Labs.
While I appreciate anyone looking up records for me (especially if you find anything I have missed!) what I would really like is advice & strategies so I can do it myself.
