Monday, December 6, 2010

Exciting news - Elizabeth Molton

I was contacted about a month ago by a researcher looking at the Arnold family - he had found my webpage entries for Arnold (and possibly my blog I think was in the email). They were enquiring about my Arnold line which is always very interesting to hear.

Hannah Arnold (my 4x great grandmother) married Charles Butt and for awhile I had the parents of Hannah wrong but now know that her parents were William Arnold and Elizabeth Malten however it isn't Malten (that is a bad transcription likely) - her surname was Molton and she was the daughter of William and Sarah Molton baptized 20 Apr 1766 at Winterborne Whitchurch which is stated in her marriage lines (not her parents but her place of birth). I have been trying to solve the Malten mystery for a bit although not with much attention I must admit. I am just starting now to work on the 4x great grandparents and I hadn't quite reached her.

My correspondent found the Elizabeth Molton baptism and realized that it was just a simple spelling error and sent it on to me - much appreciated to receive any comments on my lines and hope that people benefit from my research online. As it turns out the Molton family were at Winterborne Whitchurch at least from the latter part of the 1600s on and so the line goes back several generations on the OPC Dorset website.

Speaking of OPC Dorset I have now taken on Turnworth as well and must get that material submitted. This is the home of my Knight family (Louisa Butt married Samuel Knight (my 2x great grandparents with Louisa being the grandaughter of Elizabeth Molten).

I am carrying on with the Andover Parish Register 4 and have now reached 5728 burials as of March 1702/3. I found the burial of Charles Blake which is quite interesting. I did not notice it when I read the fiche but it was written in a very fancy script and my eye didn't pick it up. That is the very reason that I like to transcribe the registers that I work with - I find everything that way :) Charles is interesting because I have now discovered his ancestry back - he married at Andover but I could not find a baptism for him but he is listed in his father's will. One of my Blake correspondents traces back to Charles Blake who married at Abbotts Ann in 1737 and I rather think this is his line but a little more proof would be nice. The Abbotts Ann registers are particularly difficult in this time period but I will be working on them one of these days - perhaps when I reach the mid 1700s with the Andover I will then switch.

Snow on the ground here now and likely to stay. The ground is frozen and it is a dark day today - perfect for transcribing. The long cold winters are good for research. Soon we will have our skis and snowshoes out.

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