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Hi Spain

Thank you very much for getting back to me I really appreciate it, I will have to have a really good look into this to see if there is a connection with my family.

Best wishes to you

Eddie

Good afternoon

I hope that you don't mind me contacting you, I came across your post regarding William and Catherine Shoebridge and was very interested in it because my own family is also mystified as to why William and Catherine changed their name from Shoebridge to Hatch as we are also descended from them with our surname being Hatch, we come via their son Charles. I have often wondered whether William was illegitimate and decided to change his name on finding his real father or mother's name or whether they decided to change their name once in Westwell for some reason as the Hatch name appears to be frequently used in Westwell. My mother and I visited Canterbury record office a few years ago and couldn't find an entry for the birth of William but his marriage certificate of 1839 states that William's father is Thomas Murrell? I wondered whether you have any more information regarding William's father? There is a Shoebridge Hatch marriage in 1788 in Biddenden between a Robert Hatch and a Jane Shoebridge and I have occasionally attempted to look for a connection, they had a daughter called Mary who seems to have had a rough time of things and i wondered whether either they or Mary may have had other children which would provide a link to William. any way it was nice to come across someone investigating mutual ancestors!

kind regards

Hatch74