connecting families

[hunterterri58]

Hello
I am researching my Blackburn line. I have worked back to 1754 when John blackburn was born in Westminster.  He married in Essex, but had children first in Essex and then in Westminster so I researched and found him in Westminster and seemingly the right age too.  however, there are many Blackburns in this part of London.

I have now compiled a spreadsheet of those born from 1754 back to 1540 when it seems to fizzle out so assume they moved in there around that time.

However, I cannot see how to identify which family came from which family to get an idea of how to connect them.

for example, I found a John and Elizabeth, the parents of my John above and their family, and took a gamble on ages and found a John born to a John and Susannah in the same area in 1728.  But to find this John's father John, I am struggling.

Even his marriage is not found.  I have entered a John Blackburn and Susannah in England and only one came up and that was in Yorkshire, where there seem to be a number of Blackburns also.

I have got a number of churches on the spreadsheet, but obviously not all churches as they didn't come up with a Blackburn in my search.

Any thoughts on what is now a big puzzle would be greatly appreciated. It feels like these Blackburns should somehow all connect, but I don't know how.

I understand that mostly the marriages would be in the womans parish, I found very few marriages in the london area for these families.

[Pheno]

Sorry, this is a bit confusing.  For example your first para contains both the words here and there without actually saying where here and there are.

I think it would help if you used the modify button and were a bit more detailed - this might help people help you more.

Pheno

[KGarrad]

It's a misplaced assumption that everyone  with the same surname is connected!

Take my surname, Garrad.
I have a well-researched family tree, going back to 1550. my family is originally from Suffolk/Essex.
But I know that there are other Garrad's in other places - e.g. London.
I have no known link to London until the 19th century.

Another of my lines is Vanstone.
I did some analysis on the 1861 census. About 65% of the people shared 8 forenames!
And all from a quite small area of North Devon.
They are almost certainly connected; but how?
So many Williams married to Elizabeths.

[martin hooper]

I see what you're trying to do but as KGarrad says you can't assume families with the same surname are connected. And you can't gamble on ages. You need to research each family including all siblings, backward and forward in time. If they are connected you might find a record that connects them with an address, a will, a census and so on.

You can also try making a 'what if' assumption and doing some research. Sometimes everything seems to fit then all of a sudden you find a record that blows it out of the water. So that assumption was wrong.

Keep going. There's no easy answer, just methodical research and an open mind.

Martin

[Vance Mead]

I think London is in a category of its own. Apprentices and others came continually from all over England, so you can't assume that they are related as a single family. In a rural village, on the other hand, there is more likely to be continuity within a family, especially among yeoman and gentry landholders.

[hunterterri58]

Sorry, this is a bit confusing.  For example your first para contains both the words here and there without actually saying where here and there are.

I think it would help if you used the modify button and were a bit more detailed - this might help people help you more.

Pheno

Sorry about that. I've tried to make it a bit clearer now.

[hunterterri58]

I see what you're trying to do but as KGarrad says you can't assume families with the same surname are connected. And you can't gamble on ages. You need to research each family including all siblings, backward and forward in time. If they are connected you might find a record that connects them with an address, a will, a census and so on.

You can also try making a 'what if' assumption and doing some research. Sometimes everything seems to fit then all of a sudden you find a record that blows it out of the water. So that assumption was wrong.

Keep going. There's no easy answer, just methodical research and an open mind.

Martin

Hi
I made a start on that, thinking that might help me, but so many did not seem to marry in the area or even in England it seems, so I don't know if all churches have been digitised or not and some may not yet be on ancestry.

What are the best ways to do this >

Teresa

[hunterterri58]

I think London is in a category of its own. Apprentices and others came continually from all over England, so you can't assume that they are related as a single family. In a rural village, on the other hand, there is more likely to be continuity within a family, especially among yeoman and gentry landholders.

So do you think then that it is possible that the John blackburn and Susanna that were married in Yorkshire are these people and moved down then?  There were no other marriages to a susanna at all, but some churches may not have been digitised yet?

What records would be best to search?

Teresa