Linking the Garwoods: So close yet so far...

Question

Hey there.

So in the early days of my research, I hired a professional genealogist. And even he ended up confusing two seemingly different families.

My 4X Great-Grandfather is a James Garwood. In the early days we believed it was profile Garwood-867, until one of his distant relatives approached me to tell me that he in fact changed his name and married someone completely different. So we had another look and now come to the conclusion that it's profile Garwood-803. Can't find a baptism, but the wills of a certain John Garwood and his wife Elizabeth both mention him.

I strongly suspect that my Garwoods may link to his Garwoods (we're seeing many of the same names - Robert, John, George, Elizabeth, we're possibly seeing surname variations on families - Scurrell, Sewell, Chaplain, Chapman etc). If there is a link, the big question is where?

My Garwood goes back to John Garwood (c.1700) whereas this guy goes back to a Nathaniel (c.1666).

Can anyone help me tackle this bird to the ground once and for all?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Norfolk Baptisms (FindMyPast, https://www.findmypast.com : accessed 22 Apr 2021) baptism record (image) for Garwood, James (Baptism Date: 19 Apr 1767, Parish: Norton Subcourse, Norfolk, Father: John, Mother: Elizabeth) Archive: Norfolk Record Office, Archive Reference: PD 675/3, Page: 7.

Comments

That's a very useful start, thanks for that. That goes towards confirming that I am indeed on the right path with this one.

So then we go back to John Garwood and Elizabeth Disney (m.23rd January 1761), possibly the John Garwood baptised 19th January 1729. I believe he is the son of John Garwood and Elizabeth (Rising?). But I can't find his baptism or their marriage.

And how, if at all, do they link to the other James Garwood? If I can somehow get earlier on both families I'm guessing there'll be a close link somewhere.

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Norfolk Baptisms (FindMyPast, https://www.findmypast.com : accessed 22 Apr 2021) baptism record (image) for Garwood, John (Baptism Date: 19 Jan 1729, Parish: Norton Subcourse, Norfolk, Father: John, Mother: Elizabeth) Archive: Norfolk Record Office, Archive Reference: PD 675/2.

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The Genealogist has a marriage for John Garwood and Elizabeth Dun on 6 Nov 1722 at Runhall. Page ref. 4006405#01726.

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Hey there,

Sorry it's taken a while to get back to you - totally forgot about these until I came on here to ask another question.

I take it Runhall is in the right area for these Garwoods? Is there any way of knowing whether this is the correct couple for the John Garwood in 1729? From what I remember, the earlier John had five children: Elizabeth bap.30th April 1727, John bap.19th January 1729, Elizabeth bap.3rd June 1732, Mary bap.17th January 1733 and Margaret bap.23rd March 1735, all Norton Subcourse. If I remember correctly, one of those children had a baptism entry that said the mother was "Elizabeth Rising". Unfortunately I lost the original email and I have no notes that refer to this other than the fact (or more likely speculation) that's who the parents are. Of course that could also be a mistranscription or a mistake that I misinterpreted to be the mother's last name.

Also, I'm still not sure where the connection is between my Garwoods and the other earlier Garwood family I confused for my own family (starting from Garwood-867), if indeed there is one to be found.

Sorry about this - I'm aware this is probably a tricky jigsaw to fill in.

Thanks a lot for looking into this for me.

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I don't know. I just provided a source for a John Garwood in the general area. It is the only one I found. You need to check the coverage for this area at each genealogy site. Don't assume that all available records have been uploaded. Some registers may be missing. Some parishes may not be represented. Also look for other evidence that confirms connections.

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Ah OK. Thanks. I'm pretty new to doing my own research (especially when it comes to using only free resources) and my disability means I don't have the same access to everything as you lovely people with working eyes. I'm sure I'll get there though. Thanks for looking.

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Family Search has a lot of help pages, such as this one, which are worth reading. https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/England,_Norfolk,_Parish_Registers_(County_Record_Office)_-_FamilySearch_Historical_Records

The Norfolk Record Office has some information here about parish registers. At the bottom of the page is a link to download a PDF file containing a listing of all parish registers that have survived, and the years covered.

https://www.archives.norfolk.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/family-history/parishes-and-churches/parish-registers

Family history societies of the relevant area can also provide valuable information, and some of their members have accumulated significant general knowledge of the area that they readily share with others.

A very common mistake that inexperienced family historians make is finding an event at the right time and assuming those people must be from the same family, before they have carefully researched. For example, there may be a marriage that took place 10 miles away from where children are baptised, and the parents have the same names as the married couple. If the researchers don't notice that the marriage register for the baptism parish, or neighbouring parishes, are not included in the record set, then they are unaware that the correct marriage may not even be in the record set. Some of the genealogy websites are very patchy in their coverage of some areas. Research each generation as thoroughly as possible before moving back to the previous generation. Research the siblings, not just your direct line. Records of other family members may provide evidence of family connections that you can't find on your direct line ancestors. If you're in a rush to go back in time as far and as fast as you can, and you restrict your research to your direct line, you can be led astray very quickly.

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Hi Leandra,

Thanks for that.

The FamilySearch pages could be helpful. The problem is that FamilySearch won't let me sign up, meaning I can't use that as a search tool. Not sure if there's a captcha I've got to do and can't, or whether it's a conflict between website and screen reader, but the sign-up button isn't doing a thing.

PDFs are another struggle. I have a PDF to plaintext converter, but it records page numbers which interrupt the flow of the reading, it flips any tables the wrong way, and if I'm really unlucky the PDF will be a photoscan and the OCR will completely mess up the text, making it completely unreadable.

The FreeUKGen sites are accessible, open-access (no accounts or captchas required) and free. I can also read articles from other text-based websites (Wikipedia for instance), assuming of course they haven't put essential data inside images (graphs, for example).

My options are thus very limited. I actually consider myself extremely lucky that WikiTree, for the most part, is accessible, given that a "family tree" is a very visual representation.

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FreeReg provides details of coverage and that database is continually being updated.

Are you familiar with the Online Parish Clerk (OPC) service? They transcribe parish registers and make them available online, no login required. Not all counties have the service though. Cornwall and Lancashire are excellent, Devon has incomplete coverage. I didn't find anything for Norfolk but I did find this transcription archive. http://doun.org/transcriptions/

Besides the OPC searchable database, you can also contact the OPC for your parish of interest for other information. Some of them have transcribed parish chest records, wills, etc., and they have good local knowledge.

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Hi,

Wow, that does sound very interesting. Thanks for that!

I've looked at the Norfolk transcription site and that does seem like a treasure island full of info, and I will definitely look into the OPC service.

Again, thank you very much for your help and especially patience.