Hi,
Firstly, do you have the family tree from Elenor down to you including Gwythers?
Secondly, I have spent virtually around the clock with piles of paper, assembling the THomas Gilbert part.
My thoughts are these...
...In 1665AD, London and much of the country was ravaged by plague, starvation from the farmer workers not being able to work due to sickness and the Great Fire of London which burnt the whole city down in 1666AD, but cleared the plague.
Hence, after 1666AD, there were many new opportunities, a lack of labour and every reason for survivors to marry and produce lots of kids. With the City of London burnt down, not through military action, but an accident, there was a whole new spirit of renewal in England, and with planners and architects scurrying about, the idea of everything being written down was suddenly appealing.
Hence would not tend to have kids outside marriage, but once married, women became baby farms, pumping out a kid virtually every year.
Furthermore, with all the scare of the plague, people would live in fear of the outside world, so people tended to stay put and marry people in the same village.
As a result, close sequences of births by people with the same first and surnames would probably be the same parents. My conclusions are in the next reply...
- R
