Too many William Jefferys and too many Martha's/Anna Maria
Every now and again FamilySearch suggest some records for review. I don’t have access to any ancestry site and normally it is just a matter of reviewing the information and joining them up. Until I came across this person Anna Maria Bouvier1800-1827 G97R-RV4 allegedly married to William Jeffery born in Holborn London 1797-1872 M9C8-QVK on 12 June 1822 at Christ Church Spitalfields London. Five of their alleged eight children were born at Saint
Leonards, Shoreditch, London, two at St. Martin Ludgate, London and one that we can
dismiss (George Jeffery K8KF-F76) as he was born in Cornwall.
On investigation I found multiple William’s married to Anna Maria’s, Martha’s and one March.
Duplicate
William Jefferys
MMN6-MGB No information except he had a daughter Hannah Jeffreys MMN6-MG8.
MMF1-65D was merged with MMN6-MGB no information except he had a son John MGZF-M6D (christened at Mile End Old Town Holy Trinity and two daughters Frances Elizabeth MMF1-6PT and Hannah MMN6-MG8 both christened in St. Mary Whitechapel, Stepney, London.
MMXN-NYX William Jeffries (merged with L691-CLR an American) no information except he was married to Marth Mendalhall L4WD-7LK She was also American.
MGZF-MXM no information but was merged with MMN6-MGB– five sources but no information.
MG6X-S36 William Jeffreys no information except he had a son William Jeffrys MG6X-SSY christened Sion Chapel-Union Street (Lady Huntingdons)-Nc,Mile End Old Town,London.
Duplicate
Martha Jefferys MGZF-MXN See William MGZF-MXM merged with MMN6-MGB Zero information on her but two spouses MG6X-S36 and MMN6-MGB and two children William Jeffrys MG6X-SSY and John MGZF-M6D.
MG6X-S3G see William MG6X-S36. Zero information on her
MMN6-MP2 merged into MMXP-YQJ See William MMN6-MGB. See below.
MMXP-YQJ see William MMXN-NYX. Zero information on her. Two spouses William Jeffreys MMN6-MGB Two daughters Frances Elizabeth Jeffreys MMF1-6PT
and Hannah Jeffreys MMN6-MG8. Other spouse William Jeffries L691-CLR
one daughter Susanna Jeffreys MMXP-Y3F
Conclusion:
I am not certain the William Jeffery M9C8-QVK is the correct William Jeffery for Anna Maria Bouvier.
There appears to be a pattern to the births of children. I have placed a
spreadsheet online here It is in Libre Office format but I can convert if needed. Three children
were born at St Martin Ludgate. Eight at St Leonard's, Shoreditch and
four Altab Ali Park, Stepney. That may suggest they were all related.
Six of one family are resident in Deptford in the 1841 census marked
in pink though one child, Maria is born in Shoreditch whilst her siblings
were born in Ludgate.
There is also a LibreOffice document on the web that may be of interest if you can make sense of it !
If I could I would delete nearly all children from their parents and start again as there is nothing known of most of the William's or Maria's/Martha's.
Any advice?
Regards Keith
Answers
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Not related to your query @Keith6511 but just in case you or anyone else is confused by "Altab Ali Park, Stepney", this name is that of a park in the area. It was originally St. Mary's Park, which was on the site of the original church of St Mary Matfelon, popularly known as St Mary's, Whitechapel. The church was demolished in 1952 after bomb damage in the Blitz.
"Altab Ali" sort of stands out when it's in the middle of stuff from the 1800s in London.
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I confess I couldn't make it through more than a handful of the events but those conclusions I did follow seem to be using sensible techniques.
I would always, when trying to disentangle families like this,
- Assume that the children born to a named pair of parents are born after their marriage. (Yes, I know that there were illegitimate births but unless someone has successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of the church, such illegitimate children would not be described as if they had married parents. They would have a mother and, occasionally, a father. Illegitimate children are hugely unlikely to be described with just their father's name)
- Check the time interval between births - this is not always as easy as it seems since we often only have baptisms - nevertheless aside from obvious catch-up groups of baptisms where 2 or more are baptised together, I feel justified in assuming that 6 months (say) between baptisms is unlikely. Better to omit them for a start.
- Monitor birth / baptism places - I'm sure you'll know better than I how close some of these places are. Warning - non-conformist baptisms can mess this up. I've seen families suddenly go Methodist where the closest Methodist chapel is further way.
- I have often started again on another platform when disentangling. E.g. I have compiled families in private Ancestry trees before now, before returning to FS.
Good luck!!!
PS - none of the above mentions the various insights that you can get by looking at the edit histories in FamilySearch. I fear I would get drowned in data - not information - if I tried to do that for families as far gone as these. I personally prefer to start with reality - i.e. the source documents.
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Adding to @Adrian Bruce1 has said, I wouldn't delete any children or the relationships to parents, whether shown to be illegitimate or not because single women in 1500's-early 1900's often gave the names of their partners as if the men were their husbands so their children could be christened/baptized by the parish priest (often Catholic) or other local eccelestical leader — altho it's labor-intensive there are scraps of records/source documents that help to narrow- down the parents and children and all their relationships.
Best wishes with your research and thank you for helping make the world-wide tree better — I'm just another user 😎
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Once I have made a decision where is the correct place to put my findings/explanations in detail?
I did look for an Anna Maria who was unmarried but there were pages of the so I stopped at 117. I have unloaded an update to the spreadsheet.
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