Monday, December 13, 2010

Parish Register 5 Andover St Marys

The last fiche in Parish Register 5 which will bring me up to 1699 for baptisms, 1701 for marriages is down to the last 27 images (the marriages). Parish Register 4 brought me to June 1714 for burials. Parish Register 6 will bring the baptisms and marriages up to 1714. Total baptisms thus far in the Andover transcription as of 22 Sep 1699 total 7140; I will now transcribe the marriages hoping to complete that this week. Time will tell as it is a busy season!

I am surprised at the number of non-Andover baptisms (some from as far away as Devon and London). One is left with the impression that there was constant movement through Andover going west and east in the late 1600s. The marriages will be interesting if the priest recorded location if not Andover of the parties to a marriage. My own great grandfather Edward Blake of Upper Clatford (1 mile/1.5 km south of Andover) married Maria Jane Knight born and raised at Turnworth Dorset. I still have no idea of where they met although they did marry at Upper Clatford. There was a Knight family at Upper Clatford but they do not appear to be a relative of hers but the Knight family from which she descends was very large so could be a line I have missed. One thought has just occurred to me that I should check the census for that Knight family at Upper Clatford (never thought of doing that before but genealogy is a learning curve for me starting from absolutely no knowledge in 2005).

Another interesting line has emerged at Andover - Durnford. I suddenly have Jane Durnford daughter of Thomas Durnford and Mary Ball at baptized in 1771 at Winterborne Stickland Dorset. There is a Durnford family at Andover in the late 1600s. It is not a very common surname so quite struck me. I shall continue to view the entries with interest. That is really the benefit of transcribing the entire register of a place. You see the lines as they appear and disappear from a parish. You see all the marriages into particular names which you might not think to search on the IGI. This particular set of baptismal registers is not on the IGI however I believe that the marriages are for this time frame.

I did transcribe Knights Enham (link on my webpage or go to the OPC Hampshire site where it is posted) hoping to find some Blake lines there but the registers begin too late to assist in that regard (burials of the expected people in the late 1600s early 1700s as I know the descent of the family in this time period at Enham). The Manor Book would likely be interesting as the Blake family were first at Enham when I find them in the early 1500s in Hampshire. That is a project for Salt Lake City the next time we are there. I have the manor book for Andover (about 100 images) which I shall also try to transcribe. Much of it is in Latin but it would be a worthwhile project to look at the Blake family there since they held a number of properties in Andover itself in the 1500s and 1600s. In 1710 John Blake is still a freeholder and this I believe is John Blake married to Elizabeth and the son of William Blake Clerk and his wife Ann Hellier. Although by the end of the 1600s their holdings were considerably diminished. By the Poll of 1747 only Robert Blake appears as a freeholder and he is descendant of Robert Blake brother to Nicholas Blake. The Blake properties where they are still held are in the female Blake lines and the names have changed due to marriage.

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