William Dove and Jane Morgan

William Dove and Jane Morgan were the parents of Mary Dove and online records had given me a marriage for Thomas Rawlence and Mary Dove 9 Dec 1807 at Woodford, Wiltshire, England. I hesitated for ever so long to look seriously at this marriage but decided when I was writing up my 52 ancestor Challenge for my 4x great grandparents to at least write about William Dove and Jane Morgan my possible 4x great grandparents.

Enter electronic availability of Wiltshire records online at Find My Past. I had read the Woodford Parish Records and accepted the spelling of Mary's last name as Dove in the 9 Dec 1807 record of Banns for marriage with Thomas Rawlence. However Find My Past has the surname of Dear - Thomas Rawlins married Mary Dear 9 Dec 1807 at Woodford, Wiltshire, England. There isn't an original copy of the register online at this time.

As it turns out I do have a copy of this record from the Banns book:

The records on Find My Past are from the Wiltshire Parish Records Index which was created locally so I do tend to think that their knowledge of the families is greater. The surname Rawlence does leave one wondering and has left me in that state ever since I found it over ten years ago. Does the surname of Mary spell Dove or Dear - this is a different record from the actual marriage record which was used in the Find My Past Transcription.

Time will tell the correct surname of my 3x great grandmother. A few strong DNA matches with people still living in this area in England may be helpful as I inherited strongly from my Rawlings grandmother.