Post by Cornish Terrier on Jun 28, 2010 9:02:07 GMT -5
Ron - a plan of attack is good!
But let's see if we can refine it a little as there are probably other factors to be considered.
First thing to understand is that not all records have been transcribed and that means there may be more burials for the name Mary Grills.
And if I am reading this correctly then I need to immediately stop you travelling down the well worn Garden Path!
What you have written here is an indication that you are looking for burials for Mary BOWHAY.
You seem to have forgotten that she married James GRILLS and therefore it is a burial for Mary GRILLS that you should be looking for!
Returning to the availability of records.
There are many Parishes for which little or no records have been transcribed so that needs to be kept in mind but we can start with what we have.
This may be a little restrictive.
I work on age 48 being about the ultimate age for childbirth back then and so far it has proved a useful indicator with none that I can recall above that.
So - what we need to do is determine the date of baptism of the last known child of James and Mary.
From there we deduct 48 which will give us the earliest possible birthdate for Mary Bowhay.
Although in most cases it is to young let's consider age 16 to be the youngest at which Mary might have married.
If married in 1749 the the latest we would expect Mary to be born would be 1733.
It now depends on that last child to determine the earliest birthdate.
Currently I think 1756 is the last child we have and that raises a few points.
If this is correct then we have 1708 as our earliest birth year which gives us a range for Mary Bowhay's birth of 1708-1733.
Certainly any entry outside of those dates may be ignored.
The next question is about the number of children - were there any more after 1756?
If William was the last child then we have some options to think about.
1. Mary was an older woman when married.
2. She died soon after William was born.
3. For some reason she was simply unable to have more.
Now, it does seem that James Grills is most likely the son of John and Grace and baptised in 1724 at St Mellion.
It is not unusual to find records of a man marrying a woman much older than himself.
Although I have seen records where the gap is 20 years it is more common that a difference of up to about 10 years would be the case.
So let's reduce the search period for Mary Bowhay to 1714-1733.
Based on records covered in the IGI that gives us:-
Mary Bowey d/o Edward bp. 23rd August 1713 Calstock
Mary Bowhay d/o John and Mary bp. 16th March 1714 North Hill
Mary Bowhay d/o John bp. 10th May 1716 Callington
Mary Bowhay d/o Sampson and Judith bp. 25th April 1723 Stoke Climsland
Mary Bowhay d/o John bp. 10th August 1726 St Stephens by Launceston
Next we need to look at possible marriages and again IGI gives us:-
26th February 1741 Nicholas FOOT married Mary BOWHAY at North Hill
24th December 1751 Charles WALKEY married Mary BOWHAY at Stoke Climsland
That would certainly seem to remove the North Hill baptism from the equation while the Stoke Climsland marriage could belong to any one of the other baptisms above.
We should not forget the possibility that one or other of these marriages might have involved a 'widow'.
And also notice that the marriage to James Grills is not in IGI which means there may be other records we don't have.
With one baptism almost certainly eliminated (North Hill) I would suggest that we might also eliminate St Stephen by Launceston given that all events in the frame so far tend to have centred in an area much further south. (Keep the record in the back of the mind though!)
There was a Charles WALKY baptised at Stoke Climsland in 1727 so he may be the man involved in the above marrage which would indicate that his wife was less likely to have been a widow and, therefore, probably one of the above baptisms.
At this point the baptism at Callington in 1716 might be leading the pack!
And that would fit with my theory that Mary was possibly an older woman when she married.
We should also consider the possibility that Mary was widowed when she married James Grills!
Well that is about all I can come up with for the moment so I will leave you to think about it.
BTW - Petrockstow is in North Devon and appears to be some way from the border with Cornwall.
Hopefully I have answered your other questions .......... even if I took the scenic route!
CT
But let's see if we can refine it a little as there are probably other factors to be considered.
First thing to understand is that not all records have been transcribed and that means there may be more burials for the name Mary Grills.
The other thing is that I have a couple of dates and burials relating to Mary Bowhay, again can you suggest the better one to hunt.
And if I am reading this correctly then I need to immediately stop you travelling down the well worn Garden Path!
What you have written here is an indication that you are looking for burials for Mary BOWHAY.
You seem to have forgotten that she married James GRILLS and therefore it is a burial for Mary GRILLS that you should be looking for!
Returning to the availability of records.
There are many Parishes for which little or no records have been transcribed so that needs to be kept in mind but we can start with what we have.
worked on Mary being married around the age of 21 years to 26 years of age
This may be a little restrictive.
I work on age 48 being about the ultimate age for childbirth back then and so far it has proved a useful indicator with none that I can recall above that.
So - what we need to do is determine the date of baptism of the last known child of James and Mary.
From there we deduct 48 which will give us the earliest possible birthdate for Mary Bowhay.
Although in most cases it is to young let's consider age 16 to be the youngest at which Mary might have married.
If married in 1749 the the latest we would expect Mary to be born would be 1733.
It now depends on that last child to determine the earliest birthdate.
Currently I think 1756 is the last child we have and that raises a few points.
If this is correct then we have 1708 as our earliest birth year which gives us a range for Mary Bowhay's birth of 1708-1733.
Certainly any entry outside of those dates may be ignored.
The next question is about the number of children - were there any more after 1756?
If William was the last child then we have some options to think about.
1. Mary was an older woman when married.
2. She died soon after William was born.
3. For some reason she was simply unable to have more.
Now, it does seem that James Grills is most likely the son of John and Grace and baptised in 1724 at St Mellion.
It is not unusual to find records of a man marrying a woman much older than himself.
Although I have seen records where the gap is 20 years it is more common that a difference of up to about 10 years would be the case.
So let's reduce the search period for Mary Bowhay to 1714-1733.
Based on records covered in the IGI that gives us:-
Mary Bowey d/o Edward bp. 23rd August 1713 Calstock
Mary Bowhay d/o John and Mary bp. 16th March 1714 North Hill
Mary Bowhay d/o John bp. 10th May 1716 Callington
Mary Bowhay d/o Sampson and Judith bp. 25th April 1723 Stoke Climsland
Mary Bowhay d/o John bp. 10th August 1726 St Stephens by Launceston
Next we need to look at possible marriages and again IGI gives us:-
26th February 1741 Nicholas FOOT married Mary BOWHAY at North Hill
24th December 1751 Charles WALKEY married Mary BOWHAY at Stoke Climsland
That would certainly seem to remove the North Hill baptism from the equation while the Stoke Climsland marriage could belong to any one of the other baptisms above.
We should not forget the possibility that one or other of these marriages might have involved a 'widow'.
And also notice that the marriage to James Grills is not in IGI which means there may be other records we don't have.
With one baptism almost certainly eliminated (North Hill) I would suggest that we might also eliminate St Stephen by Launceston given that all events in the frame so far tend to have centred in an area much further south. (Keep the record in the back of the mind though!)
There was a Charles WALKY baptised at Stoke Climsland in 1727 so he may be the man involved in the above marrage which would indicate that his wife was less likely to have been a widow and, therefore, probably one of the above baptisms.
At this point the baptism at Callington in 1716 might be leading the pack!
And that would fit with my theory that Mary was possibly an older woman when she married.
We should also consider the possibility that Mary was widowed when she married James Grills!
Well that is about all I can come up with for the moment so I will leave you to think about it.
BTW - Petrockstow is in North Devon and appears to be some way from the border with Cornwall.
Hopefully I have answered your other questions .......... even if I took the scenic route!
CT