Wood/Baker Boughton Malherbe area, help please?

[sheena58]

Hello,

I'm trying to find further information on my 4xgreat grandmother Frances Baker and her husband David Wood.

Frances had two children when she was single: David born and died 1827, and Mary Ann Baptised Mary), my 3x great grnadmother 1829-1908.

Frances married David Wood in 1834.

Both baptisms, baby David's burial and the marriage were all in Boughton Malherbe.

Mary Ann's marriage record states that David Wood is her putative father, and given his name, it seems that the baby might have been the son of David Wood. I haven't been able to find out whether there are any bastardy records for the children.

I have not been able to find any further records of Frances or David, either in census returns, deaths/burials or baptisms.

Mary Ann might have been in the Faversham Union in 1841, and was married in Stoke in 1848, but I have found no record of her parents there either.

Any help finding out more about these two would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Sheena

[rosie99]

Mary Ann's marriage record states that David Wood is her putative father

I assume that you mean she stated David Wood was her father on her marriage certificate.  This is probably because she was brought up by him and her mother and she considered him as her father.

Who were the witnesses to the wedding

[sheena58]

Yes, David Wood is recorded as her father and written underneath is 'putative father'. The witnesses were James Glover and Sarah Godding, neither of whom mean anything to me, unfortunately.
While I realise that this doesn't necessarily mean he is alive, David is not recorded as deceased.

The marriage was actually in 1848, not 1841 as I originally typed. I've corrected this now.

[rosie99]

They are certainly hiding well 

[sheena58]

Yes, Unfortunately when I visited the Maidstone Archive and library last year to search, I didn't have time to go back far enough to find a baptism for either. I found a handful of other Baker records post 1813 (which is a far back as I had time to search) but not a single Wood, which made me wonder whether David was actually from outside of the parish, and perhaps they moved back to his parish after they were married.

None of this helps me track them down though....

If anyone has access to the pre 1813 registers for the parish, I'd be very grateful for help on this one, as I'm unlikely to get access to these records again in the next few years.