Revisiting brickwalls and "backburners".

[coombs]

DNA still depends on the accuracy of the other person's / persons' research (their ability to be able to look or find evidence, purchase or obtain the paperwork etc, Certificates, Wills) for their Tree/s.

Some Trees, are very good, but some Trees copy the errors of others, when checked against documents.

Some don't even have the Census images attached.

Keep your chins up coombs and everyone, I always maintain that some place, somewhere (unknown currently), a document, record or Headstone, has the answer, or a clue to it at least.

I'm still trying too, I've got a clearer scan of a witness signature and I'm no longer certain it says James Cockin, or B.T., Jane Cockin.

Halfway through the k, the writer has stopped and carried it on too.

Mark

A trip from Devon to Oxfordshire was maybe a couple of days on a horse and cart, and was very easy compared to a 7 month journey to Australia.

One day you may get a breakthrough with your George Hood, who was over 100 years younger than my James Gater. I reckon James came from humble beginnings and became a maltster. Very common job for those living by rivers.

[Biggles50]

As long as you have the minimal information on a highish cM DNA match then you have a reasonable chance of linking them into your tree,

I have many who have no trees, but luckily they have used their actual name and they have identifiable DNA Shared Matches.

It can be the luck of the draw.

The spanner in the works is the NPE and that may or may not result in success.

Endogomy or Pedigree Collapse can screw with results and cause sites like DNA Painter to give incorrect answers. 

Conversely we have a 100+ cM match who has been a Brick Wall for 8 years, we know his first, middle and last name but there are over a hundred of them and limited Shared Matches that gives no clue, he also is not on any other site.

Always keep options open and test out any assumptions that are made.

[BushInn1746]

Had a quick look in the London Gazette for the earliest Gater that could be picked up by OCR scanning and found a Thomas Gater, late of the Parish of St Paul, Shadwell, Middlesex, Victualler, in 1761.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/

The Court were awaiting a Schedule of his Estate and Effects, for the benefit of his Creditors.

Not just in any old Prison.

In the King's Bench Prison, although I bet the conditions were not much better!

Mark

[coombs]

Hi, I had a look further into that Thomas Gater and cannot find any obvious connection to my Gaters.

I found a Hayter family in Burford and they left will but no connection to James Gater. James Gater Jnr did occupy a house in Burford owned by Benjamin Jordan and Jame's wife witnessed the will of Rebecca Jordan in 1750.

[coombs]

I did find a Thomas Gayfer of Wapping, London, married a Mary Townsend of Burford, Oxon in 1715, according to the Oxfordshire Marriage bond indexes. I since found he was a stone mason, and had a son James who was apprenticed in the late 1730s. And a son Thomas and John. Likely another coincidence though, even though my James Gater's friends were the Newman stone mason family of Burford/Fulbrook. I'd need some compelling evidence of any connection to James Gater (c1680-1737) before I added anyone of the same surname (outside his children) to my tree, ones who could be a brother, sister cousin etc.

Gater has variants such as Galer, Gayter, Gayfer, Gether etc. The surname is more common if you add in all the variants.