RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Somerset => Topic started by: Rubbish on Thursday 29 January 09 09:45 GMT (UK)
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I have found the excellent list of Marriages at Combe Hay on the net, but am still looking for all Gay Family baptismal and burial entries for Combe Hay from the start of the registers to 1720. Can anyone who has access to this information please get in touch.
Thanks
Paul aka Rubbish
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Hi Paul
Have you been in touch with the Somerset Hundreds groups at Yahoo groups? There may be someone there who can help - let me know if you would like me to do this.
I hope to be visiting Taunton in the next month or so - if you don't have any luck, I'll have time do to a little research myself
Steve
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Hello both
As a matter of interest for me? Where have they buried all our ancestors from Combe Hay? I visited the village a little while ago looking for the Brown families but found nothing! Mind you, this applies to much of my tree, where were all the bodies buried in those days?
Nanny McPhee
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Hi Nanny
Do you mean you can't find headstones - or records of the burials. The latter should be in the parish register of burials. If you are looking for headstones, I think only a few people could afford them, and most burials were unmarked
Steve
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Hello Steve
Sorry, I didn't mean headstones, I know that a lot of families in the early 1800's couldn't afford a marker. I did mean space. It is only a small churchyard and it seemed to be full of stones but no spare land for the poor unfortunate deceased.
Having said that, I know my 4xGt Grandparents were not too badly off as John Brown was a carpenter and worked on the Caisson Hydrostatik Boat Lift project on the Somerset Coal Canal in 1796 and the man who patented the project, Robert Weldon was a witness at John Brown and Ann Pyatts wedding. Ann's father was a farmer so they should have been able to have an headstone?
Nanny McPhee
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Hello again Steve
I have found on IGI the birth of an Elizabeth Gay in 1739 in Coomay [which must mean Combe Hay] She married a John Shepheard on 14th Dec 1760 in Coomay. John was born c1735 of Gloucester Film No.457052. You probably have this already if you have the marriage list.
Joanna Gaye born c 1533 married Joannes Phelps 20th Oct 1544 Joannes born c1529
Joannes Gay born c1535 married Isabella Kelston 2nd Oct 1559 Isabella born c1539
Thomas Gay christened 25th March 1621 [no parents recorded]
John Gay christened 08th March 1667 parents John Gay/Elizabeth
Thomas Gay christened 03rd April 1672 parents John Gay/Elizabeth
Joseph Gay or Millard or Smith christened 20th Mar 1670
Margaret Gay or Millard or Smith christened 08th Sep 1673
father John Millard or Smith, mother Eleanor Gay
IGI Batch No.7203827 All at Combe Hay
Found these this evening, any good to you?
Nanny McPhee
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Thanks Nanny,
The original enquiry was from Paul - I'm sure he'll reply to you - but as I'm descended from the same family he is researching, thanks from me as well.
Regarding space in churchyards - in practice, bones were often removed (in the Middle Ages) & placed in Charnel Houses, usually attached to the church. This made way for other burials - I don't know when this practice ceased - with the Reformation I guess. Otherwise I think families just buried one on top of another - some plots can contain up to 6 or more bodies (I think coffins are a fairly modern idea)
Steve
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Nanny,
Thanks for spending time scanning the IGI. You gave me a couple of new entries that I did not know about. I aree looking for headstones is usually an unfruitful task. They also weather very quickly and any placed before 1800 are usually undecipherable.
Paul
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Thank you both for your replies, glad to help somebody else for a change and besides it is nice to look for someone other than the same old gt's all the time.
That is very interesting about the Chanrnel houses too. Another bit of bedtime reading methinks!
Nice speaking to you boys!
Nanny McPhee
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Hello again
My question has now been answered regarding the missing ancestors. After reading up about the charnel house I have now realised what the stone, laid on the ground, marked 'entrance to vault' meant when I was visiting an ancestral village a couple of weeks ago, it is laid just outside the Porch door of the Church of St Sarran, at Bedwellty, Monmouthshire. Thanks so much for that! I did try to put a photo of it here but am not that clever with images....yet!
Nanny McPhee
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Hi Paul
I know you started this thread a while ago, but I've been travelling and only just had a chance to catch up with all the Chat.
May I ask if you have info on more current Gays in Combe Hay? My Great Grandfather, Frank Gay b. 1849, was born in Combe Hay - and I think his mother Caroline (Garland) b. 1824. His father, Moses, and Moses' father, Paul, both seemed to be masons in Bath, but as the family was in Combe Hay mid-1800s, I was just wondering if they moved to Bath from there.
Any light to shed?!
Best
Sami
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HI,
I am afraid I have no info on more recent Gays. What I do know is that the Gays of Combe Hay are not related to the Gays of South Stoke in the 17 century and 18 century.
Sorry I could not be of help.
Paul
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Hi Paul and Steve (and Nanny)
I've already been in touch with Steve about the Midsomer Norton Gay family - but hadn't realised that your interest clearly extends far beyond this one line of research.
Hope you won't mind if I chip into this thread! I am researching the Gay family in the Bath area of Somerset in the 16th and 17th centuries. Somewhere amongst them I'm trying to discover my true ancestral line (match to Somerset Gay family recently confirmed by DNA). Very confusing!
At present I'm trying to sort out any links between Richard of Claverton/Richard of Haycombe and the Gay family in South Stoke. And then there are also references to the Gay family in Combe Hay (who Paul knows are not linked to those in South Stoke). Then there is an as yet unidentified Robert Gay of Nettlecombe, born in about 1601, who claimed to have a brother with an estate in the Bath area. Not forgetting the Gay family in Lyncombe and Widcombe from the early 1500s - John Gay, with a wife Joan and son Thomas (lease 1531), Thomas with sons William and Richard (lease 1565) - then John Gay with sons Henry and Benedict (lease in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I).
Plenty of information - but how to sort it all out? Can you help please? Or can I help you?
PZ40 and fellow old Bristolian - in the more general sense!
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HI,
I am afraid I have no info on more recent Gays. What I do know is that the Gays of Combe Hay are not related to the Gays of South Stoke in the 17 century and 18 century.
Sorry I could not be of help.
Paul
Please can you tell us what evidence you have discovered that the Gays of South Stoke and Combe Hay were not related in the 17th and 18th century?
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I noticed your looking into the GAY family of Combe Hay.
If I can help in any way just let me know as I have the transcripts for Combe Hay Marriages from 1539 to 1836.
Periods missing from transcripts are from March 1640 up to 1664, April 1731 Jan 1737, Feb 1737 to May 1740
There is also a period where the Banns have been added as well, 1754-1774.
Cheers
Geoff
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Thanks Geoff
Very good of you to reply - much appreciated.
It's evidence of any connections between the Gay families in the various parishes around Bath in the 1500s and 1600s that I'm researching. At the moment I can't link the Gay family in Combe Hay to any of the other branches. I think the earliest record for the Combe Hay family is the marriage of John Gay and Isabella Kelston in 1559 - but I'm not sure if there was anyone called Gay in Combe Hay before that date - or whether John Gay came from another Manor in the Bath area. So it's just the origin of the first John Gay in Combe Hay that I need help with!
Many thanks
PZ40