Valentia was born in 1576. She was the daughter of Ludgate Sparks and Valentine Butler (see Note about her parents below.). She passed away in 1605.
Valentia married Lionel Branch July 08, 1596 in St. Martin, Ludgate, London, Greater London County, England.
They were the parents of: Christopher W. Branch (September 02, 1602 - February 21, 1681)
See WikiTree G2G:
"Obviously her (Valentia Branch's) father wasn't called Ludgate as you realise.
I've searched for Spark(e) on the apprentice rolls here https://www.londonroll.org/search and there are only three entries for Drapers: William Spark - New Apprentice 1545, William Spark - Freeman 1555 and William Sparke - Master 1565. These are almost certainly the same person and I would therefore suggest the likely father of Valentia.
Apprentices couldn't marry so we should look for a marriage from 1555 onwards and a William Sparke married an Elizabeth Ratcliff 21 June 1562. Irritatingly it's not at the same church but at St Vedast, Foster Lane which is just the other side of St. Paul's. "England Marriages, 1538–1973 ," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V52H-LY5 : 10 February 2018), William Sparke and Elizabeth Ratcliff, 21 Jun 1562; citing Saint Vedast Foster Lane And Saint Michael Le Querlo,London,London,England, reference , index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 942 B4HA V. 30
Of course this is just speculation, not proof. One mystery would be why Lionel and Valentia called their eldest son Richard when both parents' fathers were called William - although their second son on wikitree has a middle initial W. Their first daughter was Elizabeth which would fit."
answered Feb 15, 2019 by Matthew Fletcher G2G6 Mach 9 (97.8k points) selected Apr 22, 2019 by Kerry Larson
1605 --- THE GENEANET COMUNITY TREES INDEX
Name: Valentia Sparks Gender: F (Female) Birth Date: 1576 Birth Place: London, Middlesex (London), London, England, United Kingdom Death Date: 1605 Death Plac: London, London, England, United Kingdom Father: Ludgate Sparks Mother: Valentine Butler Spouse: Lionel Branch Child REN: Christopher W Branch View on Geneanet: https://gw.geneanet.org/jennynryburn2016?n=sparks&oc=&p=valentia Researcher: Richard Parker Source Information: Ancestry.com. Geneanet Community Trees Index [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2022. --- Original data: Geneanet Community Trees Index. Paris, France: Geneanet. --- Description: This collection contains an index of more than 1.5 million family trees accumulated into a single database. The information in this collection was compiled through Geneanet, a collaborative genealogy website. Each record in the index includes a link to the originating family tree on Geneanet. Records from the original site can be viewed in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
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Featured National Park champion connections: Valentia is 13 degrees from Theodore Roosevelt, 22 degrees from Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, 13 degrees from George Catlin, 12 degrees from Marjory Douglas, 19 degrees from Sueko Embrey, 15 degrees from George Grinnell, 23 degrees from Anton Kröller, 15 degrees from Stephen Mather, 23 degrees from Kara McKean, 15 degrees from John Muir, 15 degrees from Victoria Hanover and 22 degrees from Charles Young on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
S > Sparks | B > Branch > Valentia (Sparks) Branch
Categories: Uncertain Family
And Ludgate and Valentine Butler got added as her parents on Geni. A curator there disconnected the Butler connection but still has Ludgate as her father, so I started a discussion there to show the evidence presented that Ludgate wasn't the name of her father.
Please remove the reference to Ludgate as her father here on Wiki so that doesn't continue to get perpetuated, since so many people use Wiki pages as their source.
Thank you for all your work on these connections.
Discussion on forums here at WikiTree: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/770755/good-evidence-valentia-sparkes-parents-christopher-branch
Referred to discussion on the subject over at Geni: https://www.geni.com/people/Valentia-Branch/6000000002249040552#/tab/discussion
I haven't looked it up yet, but I also pass on this reference provided by WikiTree member Kerry Larson: This article adds information: Brayton, John Anderson. "Notes on the Ancestry of Valentia (Sparke) Branch, Mother of Christopher Branch," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 2002):293-298. Digital version at American Ancestors
edited by Greg Lamberson