Possible Duplicates
I have an ancestor Samuel Cowell who is recorded as marrying a Sarah Goodey in 1798. I am wondering how the index or whatever in his case KZZN-LZK is allocated.
His first wife, and I assume this is she, died and he remarried.
Marriage records show a Samuel Cowell ( widower) GD23-38B, remarrying in 1804. in the same church as all their children were christened.
However these children are all recorded to Samuel and Sarah Goodey.
The only records that exist are marriage records and christening records.
How can one prove whose children these are if parents are only recorded as Samuel and Sarah Cowell.
I believe these are the same Samuel.
What to do ?
regards
Charles Cowell
Best Answers
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So, if you need to prove lineage from child to mother with as much certainty as possible, you need to research all records for all children as well as Samuel himself and both wives. You are looking for land records, wills, court records which may either reference the first wife or tie the second wife to specific children; you are looking for the same such documentation for the adult children in later life who may reference their real mother. And you may have to use several documents in conjunction with each other in a logic chain. For example if one document of sibling A indicates sibling B is a full sibling, that is half the needed information. Then if you can find another document that states who the mother of sibling A is, you can deduce that sibling B had the same mother.
Go wide as possible, and put all bits of partial information in a spreadsheet. Good luck.
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Oh, and if you can find newspaper articles of the time, they often have valuable genealogy information too. In the late 1800s it was a thing to do biographical sketches of the elderly in the community. I have collected such sketches for a community I am focused on and I can tell you they are a gold mine.
In addition, some "historical" books on early communities are a goldmine too. Read past the speculative history and focus on the names, places, etc. You can find such books here in FamilySearch. Some you can read online, others you may have to purchase.
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Looking at the children listed for Samuel KZZN-LZK, the birth/christening dates all post date the marriage of Samuel GD23-38B and, as you mention, the locations are similar. So it seems highly likely that all the children relate to the second (?) marriage. You comment that Samuel GD23-38B was a widower but this does not prove that the marriage in 1798 was the first marriage. St Botolph Aldersgate is some 44 miles from Castle Hedingham - a long way in those days although more plausible being near London.
Unless you can dig up more evidence as suggested by @Gail S Watson, my inclination would be to shift the children over to Samuel GD23-38B and not to merge the two Samuels.
Regards
Graham Buckell
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Answers
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Thankyou, that really is of some help.
I do know that in the first marriage from a letter that he had four children from his first marriage, including one son Henry Bridge Cowell. He appears as a witness to the marriage of his step sister ( my ancestors, sister). Finding any other record of him is proving problematical.
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