Second opinion(s) sought

[rpweedon]

Hello fellow Rootschatters

I have researched my family tree since the early 1980s.  I have established my surname line (Weedon) to the mid 1600s with certainty.  I have told the journey in a 150 page ‘report’ which also covers my efforts finding distant living relatives.

As one might expect going back to the 1500s has proved a challenge but I have developed a theory for another 4 generations based on a review of a succession of wills.  I am seeking someone with the requisite skills and interest to review my findings and hypothesis.

In the 1500 - 1600 period Weedon’s were husbandmen living in the Rickmansworth area and some were Dissenters and others dedicated to the church of the day.  To narrow the number of Weedon wills requiring transcription I made the assumption that the ‘family’ did not move from the Rickmansworth area.  I purchased all the wills in the area and had them professionally translated.  I reviewed them all and then cobbled together a probable descent by integrating the apparent relationships,  I am hoping someone would take on the project of reviewing / validating or disproving my conclusions.

I am happy to provide all the "raw material”.  No further data acquisition is needed.  What is needed is experienced judgement and knowledge of the period and Rickmansworth area.

I will provide the wills on which I base my analysis.

If interested in this challenge, please let me know.

Robert Peter Weedon
Orillia, Ontario, Canada

Moderator comment: personal phone umber removed in accordance with RootsChat general practice and guidance.  Please do not post them here.  Thank you

[susieroe]

Hello Robert.
I suggest that you contact Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, and also Hertfordshire Family History Society. It would be a good idea to join the Society, for their extensive knowledge of the area, and they may have your family name on file. Good luck in your project.

[martin hooper]

Hello Robert

A very interesting project.

You've assumed that the Weedon families stayed in the Rickmansworth area. How sure are you about that? Have you checked surrounding areas for the existence of Weedon families?

Martin

[Andrew Tarr]

You've assumed that the Weedon families stayed in the Rickmansworth area. How sure are you about that? Have you checked surrounding areas for the existence of Weedon families?

I think this is important.  One of my ancestors was a Tydeman, a family established for centuries in Earl Stonham, Suffolk.  The family habit was to name the first son Edmund (this continued as far as my grandfather 1869) and the second son Brice.  Needless to say, as the tree grew, overlaps proliferated.  When I visited the Stonham graveyard I found Edmund Tydemen everywhere, but none of them in my direct line, judging by the dates.

[rosie99]

I assume that you have done a DNA test to make sure your recent research is accurate.  I would hate to think that all that work was for nothing.   

[Rena]

As he was described as a "husbandman" I doubt he would have travelled far from his family home which was probably a smallholding/farm either as an owner or as a tenant.

When he left school my late OH went to live and work on a farm that raised livestock and his title was "husbandman".

I found this online:-
A husbandman was a farmer or a cultivator of the soil. In medieval and early modern England, it denoted a specific social status: a small landowner or free tenant farmer who ranked below a yeoman but above a serf.

The word's root is not related to the modern sense of "married man," but rather to managing a household and its resources:

Old Norse: hūsbōndi, literally "house-dweller" or "master of the house" (from hūs "house" + bōndi "dweller" or "freeholder").

Middle English: huseband.

Modern English: The term "husbandman" was eventually replaced by "farmer" in common usage during the 18th and 19th centuries. The modern word "husband" (married man) evolved separately from the same hūsbōndi root, as male heads of households were typically married.
In the Bible, "husbandman" is often used metaphorically for a vinedresser or vineyard keeper, with God being described as the ultimate husbandman (e.g., in John 15:1 in older translations).
Husbandman
Wikipedia

Husbandman - Oxford Reference
Quick Reference. The old word for a farmer below the rank of yeoman. A husbandman usually held his land by copyhold or leasehold...

The word "husband" originates from the Old Norse word hūsbōndi, which literally meant "master of a house" or "householder".