Welch family and Family History Library

I had a query on the Thomas Welch family in Birmingham. Thomas (b 1826 Rugeley Staffordshire) was a wheelwright and married to Ann (b 1834 Worcester) and they appear on the 1861 census with two children: John b 1856 and Martha b 1860. This is all the information that I have on Thomas - he is my first cousin 4 x removed. I haven't investigated him at all other than that information which I passed back to the individual who contacted me on Genes Reunited. I did take another look and found two marriages to Ann Williams Dec quarter 1852 and Dec quarter 1852. The first at Kings Norton and the second at Birmingham. Ann would have only been 17 in 1851 and 18 in 1852. Perhaps she married under age without permission and then married a second time with permission. There are too many births at Birmingham with surname Welch to determine if there were other children but there is an Emily born December quarter 1854 which would likely be the inquirer's ancestor (2x great grandmother). She is waiting for the birth certificate of Emily to determine the mother's maiden name. I wonder how many wheelwrights there would have been in Birmingham with the name Thomas Welch!

Off to the family history library soon and our research there. The days pass quickly for us with so many lines to look at. My husband will continue to draw out information on his Niemann ancestors at Staven and his Schulz/Passow ancestors at Brohm. He is putting together charts for the family reunion of the Schulz family in September. We have learned so much since the last reunion that it will be very interesting. We are a small group but very interlinked as Ada (my husband's grandmother) married William Henry Kipp and Charles (Ada's brother) married Elizabeth Kipp. Both of the Kipp lines are descended from Benjamin Kipp and Elizabeth Force although coming down from different lines with William Henry being the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth and Elizabeth the daughter of William Henry's brother Alfred. We have pictures of Benjamin and Elizabeth that we can bring with us in a Legacy file and pictures of the parents of Charles and Ada.

I spent some time on my lecture yesterday which I quite missed in my blog! It is ready to go but I will update some of the statistics before the lecture. It is interesting to me because it is my family and I hope that the audience enjoys it. The applicability is that this is a British Isles Family History group and all of my ancestry is British with this exciting deep ancestry created by my mtDNA which points to Scotland and the Scot/Irish in Ireland. Looking at my paternal ancestry involves a surname which is found in many parts of Ireland and in England. I end with the interesting mtDNA case history of my husband's 3x great grandmother - a young orphaned Irish girl (from Dublin) who came to Halifax as a young child. It will be my last lecture as I have decided not to do public speaking anymore. I find it very time consuming and I would like to dedicate my time to publishing some of the interesting items that I have discovered as I have moved back in time transcribing a lot of records on the way back.

The Family History Library ended up being an all day research as I decided to stay on for the afternoon session. I only took 113 images today because I was reading the Register searching out entries that I had missed in my first go through. I made a rather interesting discovery though. Richard Sproxton (bap 2 Oct 1691 Hutton Cranswick) did not marry Grace Wiles 19 Jan 1720. This was his father Richard's second marriage (Richard was baptized 2 Aug 1663 at Hutton Cranswick and had married Margaret Garrit 30 Sep 1688 at Hutton Cranswick). Margaret was buried 20 Sep 1720 and although the time interval is very short I none the less believe that this was his marriage. I suspect she was probably a widow and I am looking again at the marriages in the Wiles family at Hutton Cranswick. Richard (b 1688) was buried 3 Jan 1744 at Hutton Cranswick and Grace was buried 2 Jun 1753 also at Hutton Cranswick. There was such a large gap between the children of Richard and Margaret and the baptism of Elizabeth and Dorothy (children of Richard Sproxton and Dorothy English) and the burials of the other two provide the evidence that Richard Sproxton (bap 2 Oct 1691) married Dorothy English 15 Nov 1716 at Hutton Cranswick. Grace is listed as a widow when she was buried in 1753 and Richard Sproxton (bap 1691) was not buried until 9 Jun 1768. Dorothy (English) Sproxton was buried as a widow 19 Jan 1772 at Hutton Cranswick. It will take me a few days to fill in all the information on my Legacy file. I have found the evidence for the first marriage of John Sproxton (the elder) to Isobel with her burial 22 Aug 1650 and the subsequent second marriage of John Sproxton (the elder) to Anne Husen 25 Aug 1659 (mentioned as a widow). His son referred to as John Sproxton (the younger) married Ann Simpson of Beverley 5 Jan 1659 and he was the father of Richard (bap 1663). So all in all a very productive day and I would like to see the Protestation Returns if they exist for East Riding of Yorkshire. Along with subsidies that will likely be the only way to determine a linkage back in this family.

A new term for me is Grassman and I am assuming that is like a yeoman farmer. I shall have to join the Yorkshire list - something I have been meaning to do - to learn more about some of the terminology used in this county.

Tomorrow I will continue sorting and entering my results from today into Legacy. As well, I will continue working on the Hinxman will.