Geoffs Genealogy Update 04 February 2014
Tuesday February 4th, 2014 | Geoff
Quite often the results of our research into our forebears do not result in absolute certainty. We uncover information that seems to point towards a certain conclusion, but does not give us 100% certainty. Over the years I have found many pieces of research that have resulted in this sort of situation. In many of them I believe that the information I have found does relate to the people I am researching, but lack absolute proof. What to do in this situation?
The textbooks tell us that we should seek to obtain two sources for every piece of information, and few would argue that this is not a sound requirement. However, in many, many cases two sources is an unattainable goal, so we need to exercise our own judgement on this, I think. We certainly do not want to be so liberal with our standards that we end up putting incorrect information into our research findings, but we do not want to ignore relevant material for the lack of a corroborative evidence. How should we judge this?
About twenty years ago I obtained a copy of the will of my ancestor James Jacobson (c1692-1759). James was a Pawn Broker, who lived most of his life in the Tower Hill area of London. I have written of him in a number of previous entries in this blog. When he made his will on 8th August 1758 he was living at Peckham, to the south of London, but I have traced him in Land Tax Registers for London living at King Street, near the Tower, and there is a listing for him in 1758 in those records, suggesting that he may not have lived at Peckham for many months. I tend to assume that this was his retirement residence, as Peckham in those days would have been something of a rural retreat.
In James’s will he named a number of his relations, a list which included his sister, Jane Garratt, and his nephew, George Budd, and over the years I have borne in mind this snippet of information, hoping that one day I may be able to find out a little about them.
Recently, some very promising material has come to light in my research, courtesy of the Ancestry, Find My Past and Family Search websites.
The evidence that we have collected previously has led us to believe that the father of James Jacobson was Esco Jacobson, and that one of James’s siblings was a brother – Henry Jacobson. Henry first appears in the records living in Gosport, Hampshire, but he evidently moved to the Channel Island of Jersey at a fairly early age, and he lived there for the rest of his life, being buried in St Helier in 1760. As of a few years ago I believe you could still see Henry’s house in St Helier.
We have never found the birth or baptism record for James Jacobson, but bearing in mind Henry’s early life in Gosport it seems quite feasible that he may have hailed from that part of the country. Thus, when we found an entry on the Family Search website showing that George Budd married a certain Jane Jacobson on 8 March 1708 at Holy Trinity, Gosport we were very interested.
This was the first of a series of entries that enable us to put together a very convincing hypothesis:
George Budd & Jane had several children. George Budd was baptised on 3 February 1710, but presumably died whilst young as another another George Budd was baptised in 1713. In 1712 Jacobson Budd was baptised, and he was followed by Samuel Budd in 1714, Ezekiel Budd in 1716, James Budd in 1718 and Esco Budd in 1722. All these children were baptised at Holy Trinity, Gosport.
We then skip forward to 1734, when we find a Faculty Office Marriage Licence Allegation for the marriage of Jane Budd, widow, to John Garret, widower in London. These looks very much like our people. If so, we can deduce that Jane’s first husband had died before 1734, and also that the family had moved to London.
Other probably relevant discoveries are that in 1736 George Budd married a certain Grace Witcham in Somerset House Chapel in London, and three years later Ezekiel Budd was apprenticed in London, his master being named as John Garret and his father being George Budd.
There was also a marriage between a certain Rebecca Jacobson and Samuel Budd in 1736 at Somerset House Chapel in London, but we cannot identify this Rebecca Jacobson at present.
The family group that emerges from the above reads as follows:
George Budd (d bef 1734) m Gosport 8 Mar 1708 Jane Jacobson (b abt 1688)
Children – all baptised at Holy Trinity, Gosport:
George Budd (abt 1710 – bef 1713)
Jacobson Budd (b abt 1712)
George Budd (b abt 1713) m Grace Witcham 1736 in London
Samuel Budd (b abt 1714)
Ezekiel Budd (b abt 1716)
James Budd (b abt 1718)
Esco Budd (b abt 1722)
Jane (Jacobson) Budd second marriage 1734 in London to John Garret
All this information hangs together very well, and makes perfect sense in the context of James Jacobson’s will and what we already knew, but does it give us 100% certainty? As we have not yet seen the original sources for many of the above events it seems logical to make that the next step. It may also be possible to order the Gosport records on microfilm, to view at our local Mormon Family History Centre, but I’ve never yet seen Winchester Cathedral, and Winchester is the home of Hampshire Archives. Tempting…..
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