Thanks, there are many family trees knocking about, some copied from others off Ancestry, Rootsweb and even GenesReunited but Ross Cotton and I are interested in sources of baptisms and marriages if not from parish registers extracted by LDS. Our problem is the entries in the IGI are not extracted records for this Robert Cotton.
Research from IoW Record Office burial cards for the Cottons in the 1730s shows the relevant burial appears to be that of "old Robert Cotton of Norton" who was buried on the 17 Mar 1734/5.
However the IoW Record Office did not find his marriage to Margaret Upton in Northwood as shown in IGI and in Ross's database (which needs to be amended to unknown date and place). Robert Cotton's second marriage to Eliz Peachel, widow of Norton in the parish of Freshwater was on 29 Dec 1724 at Freshwater per the IoW Record Office and follows her first marriage as Elizabeth White to Samuel Pechell Peachel 1 Jan 1708 Freshwater per private submitter's entry in IGI after 1991, not checked by LDS, not checked by IoW Record Office. There were no names of witnesses given until 1754.
A possible source proving Robert's father was William may be the Will of William's father Bartholomew who appears to have outlived William and Mary:
1667 Inventory and probate administration of Bartholomew Cotten of Freshwater, Isle of Wight, mariner Seaman,
Hampshire Record Office ref. 1667AD/058
There is a gap between the death of Bartholomew in Dec 1650 per Ross's database and the Probate of 1667, so I think that 1666/7 is more likely assuming there is not more than one Bartholomew?
Hampshire Record Office also has this:
14 Jul 1695 Sacrament certificate for William Cotton of Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, taken at Mottistone parish ref. Q25/2/9/83 which shows this William Cotton had taken up a post in Mottistone parish for which he had to prove that he was a practising member of the Church of England. Yarmouth is only across the Yar estuary from Norton. Mottistone is a little further away. This may or may not be the father of Robert.
So far IoW Record Office been kind enough to look these things up without charging me for research, but there must shortly come a time when we need some help from someone else on the island? If the Record Office does not have a microfiche of Bartholomew's Will, a copy by post costs £3.60; there is a printable order form, giving payment details, at
http://www3.hants.gov.uk/archives/copies-hals.htm, ('standard copy order form').
We also have a fantastic Y-chromosome testing project with over 100 male Cotton test results including twelve whose ancestors originate from the Isle of Wight whose lineages appear on this page:
http://home.comcast.net/~cottondna/family18.htmand the project is described here:
http://home.comcast.net/~cottondna/Every test helps to confirm scientifically the accuracy of the documentary research, the paper trail of baptisms and marriages which lead back to the island, and it justs gets better the more male Cottons who participate.
Thanks