Question family in the UK

The Question family in the UK does not appear on the 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891  census there. The occasional occurrence after that can not be traced back to the Dunster Question Family. The BMDs on Find My Past can be traced back to the Somerset family for about 50% of the entries. The John Question family at Plymouth is a mystery that I may not try to sort out but the names are interesting in that they resemble the Dunster family.

Since the family is relatively affluent in the 1600s and appears suddenly with William Question marrying Susan Millett I must admit to being curious at the origin of the name. Are they perhaps French Huguenot and simply hiding their name as at the time it might not have been convenient for their name to be known? Lots of mystery in there for sure. I hope that one day someone will take on this family for a one name study with the Guild. It is a small family and I suspect the occasional ones far flung from the Question family at Dunster might just be singleton choices for whatever reason.

They marry into landed families which include the Siderfin, Quirke, Coffin, Long, Short, Clarke and Blake lines. Since the tendency at the time was to marry into the same social class it does leave one to wonder at the origins of this family.

There are 33 marriages on Find My Past and I can place about half of them. I do less well with the baptisms which are mostly at Plymouth and I do not know which John Question is there. There are 12 burials with 8 at Plymouth and one in Chard Rachel Question 4 Mar 1693 who could be perhaps the wife of Andrew Question (married 22 Apr 1674 at Timberscombe). However Chard is a good distance away from Timberscombe/Dunster/Minehead area.

The burial of Thomas Question is there (14 Oct 1738), Curate of St George Parish in Dunster, and a monument erected by his grandson Mark Long. Sarah was the daughter of Thomas and she married Samuel Long 24 Dec 1765 at Taunton St Mary.

There is a Question vault at St Michael Church, Minehead which is in poor condition apparently and contains at least two Question burials. I have the fiche for Minehead and will see what I can discover as I work through them.

There are very few records on Find My past in a global search (just those mentioned above). There was a John Question who was a waterman and became "free" 17 Mar 1719 having been bound 18 Sep 1713 at Stepney and is likely the progenitor of the rather small family of Question at Stepney. There is an apprenticeship of Sarah Question to Thomas Ballamy of Dunster in 1751 stay 9 pounds.

Searching on the Profiler website does not bring up this family name in England or the World. http://www.publicprofiler.org/#

When I searched on Ancestry I discovered a birth in Marne France of Louis Question (son of Pierre Question) and born 21 Nov 1610 at Magneux les Fismes; perhaps a longer look at the French records prior to this would be helpful. There are a number of entries in the London records which I suspect trace back to the John Question who was a waterman. Perhaps one day when time is available I will see if I can look at this family in London but not today :) Interestingly there is a marriage 23 Dec 1720 for John Question of Wapin Waterman and Elizabeth Luffe of the same Spinster and they do baptize a number of children at Stepney. The Land Tax Redemption has a 1798 record for a John Question at Minehead. Although there were sons born in the 1600s and 1700s daughters predominated in this family so it did perhaps daughter out or they emigrated.

Back to Blake!