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Hi Anita
Our Kent Luckhurst line merged with our Wye Austens when Sarah bap 18 Nov 1722 Little Chart Kt married John Luckhurst (bap 18 Nov 1716 Hothfield Kt) on 6 Jan 1742 Pluckley Kt. From Sarah I then tracked our Austens from her father John Austen (bap 30 May 1680 Charing Kt) down the paternal line via Valentine Austen (bap 22 Jan 1631 Wye Kt, his father Valentine Austen (bap 31 Aug 1595 Chilham Kt) then his father Matthew Austen (bap 6 Sep 1652 Adisham Kt) to his father Richard Austen (b. 1512 Wickhambreux Kt) onto our Robert Austyen (b. 1479 Adisham Kt) and finally to Robert Austyn (b. ca 1445).  So you can see that although some of our Austens lived in Wye they were earlier than your Robert ~1660 and ours only lived in that Parish for 2-3 generations. Our Austens had proven wills which allowed me to track back before the inception of Parish Registers (PR) 1538.
May I suggest you join Kent Family History Society (KFHS) who have a much broader knowledge of the Austens and could post any queries you have among other members - with a number of members down under.
The Austens were a well known Kent family reaching respectable social standing. Our line had 50 children in 6 generations which shows even after the 50% fatality rate to adulthood creates quite a number of permutations, then the conundrum is identical given names similar generation and ages and same or adjacent parishes, making individual distinction difficult unless wills have been made.
Good luck
Terry
PS I forgot about the poor transcriptions, that's why I use KFHS transcribed PRs, although they do not have all parishes yet. If your line ventures near Hothfield Kt there is a good record or paper called Hothfield Memories that took me on another of our Luckhurst half bloodline a further 3 generations back.   

Elizabeth
Thomas Shefe (b abt 1440) was a "marbler" - I just note when I repeated it here it tends to want to lose the last "r".   

Hi All
I am a member of the Kent Family History Society (KFHS). While working a case on the Kent Bartons, namely Thomas (father) John (son) of Charing Kent, I could not back project from John's bap. With the absence of Hadlow PRs I searched the principal (highest populated and population density communities) to try and discover the early life profile of Thomas. The one Parish that I could not access online or in the KFHS PR transcriptions prior to 1836 was Hadlow. I enquired (May 18) with Kent History & Library Centre who advised that a Hadlow PR digitisation (transcription) was in progress and would be available on public domain mid 2019. I exhausted all the available East Peckham and Hadlow wills that were available. These I doubt would not be sufficient to cover the full profiles of your subject ancestors. I have kept my Barton case open pending Hadlow PRs and possible pre dated PR records till mid 2019 

Another of our lineages is the Sheaffes, but the Thomas Sheaffe on my line is the generation before yours he's the son (bap 1587) Richard Sheaffe  -  where our line takes his brother Edmund. From KFHS PR there are 3 potential Thos Sheaffes at Cranbrook for the marriage to Sarah 1. bap 1587 s/o Richard, 2. bap 1588 no father recorded, 3. bap 1592 s/o Alex. 

Looking back on my Austen lineage I have the same life profile for Elizabeth as you up to the point that Valentine died in 1651. Thereafter I have no trace, but did not search too hard as she and this Valentine's second marriage was not on my direct lineage.

I can also concur re the Sheaffe and Knatchbull relationship as our Richard Sheaffe's Jun 1557 will states two daughters Joan and Anne marrying into the Knatchbull family.

Terry

Hi Matt
Many thanks for the update. I have from Tyler Index Kent Wills those for Matthew (1562-1640) his wife Thomasin (abt 1563-1642) and Valentine (1595-1651).

I cannot find any source for the early marriage of Valentine before Jane Terrall and the first child I have for them is Matthew bp 24 March 1627 followed by another Matthew (elder died?) bp Oct 1629. I also came across a burial of a Thomasin 9 Oct 1630 but could not find a baptism. However as you said there are a plethora of Austens living in the same and adjacent parishes of similar generation, given names and ages - difficult to discern. As the saying goes, if you spend a lot of time researching your ancestors you end up finding out that you are your own cousin!!

My project is to research the four major bloodlines from my grandparents which are Luckhurst, Marchant, Crittenden and Morris ostensibly patrilineal until I hit the authentication buffers. Then my second phase is to track back and take the half bloodline branches taking the wife's father and trace  back patrilineal until I hit the authentication buffers. I have limited myself to only two such transfers to ensure the relationship is not too remote. But surprisingly I have made it back to the 12th generation with full provenance on the Luckhurst bloodline with one transfer, but have yet four more earlier branches to take, although one the Bournes will reappear three generations earlier. In the process I research the parishes for historical and QI facts along with hopefully supporting historic images and maps. The other task was to carry out a mini demographic analysis of all the ancestors on the direct line back to 1837 when civil registration started and a few years later the National Census to see the effect of the Industrial Revolution. This involved obtaining nearly 300 personal events from GRO £££££! So you can see that my project is not so much a family tree as my branching forms more like a poplar tree. After one year my draft write up (don't want to call it a book) has exceeded 320 pages.

My immediate goal is to trace back our Austens as far as I can with sound provenance. So linking  a series of  fathers and sons is the goal and at this time I am addressing Matthew and Thomasin. Does she have a maiden name? I make a record of progenies but only baptism and burial unless a QI fact surfaces.

Best Regards
Terry


 

I am not sure if this topic is extant. But I checked the Wye Parish Registers on line and there is no christening/baptism record for a Matthew Austen 1 Nov 1615. I also checked the Kent Parish Tyler Index for Wye and no record there either.