Sorting Out The Jowetts …

St. Leodegarius Church, Basford, Nottingham

I thought I’d more or less sorted out how my Nottingham Jowett family fits together. But whilst browsing through the baptisms for St. Leodegarius church in Nottingham I found two Jowett baptisms I hadn’t seen before; Edmund in May 1837 and John Edwin in March 1839. What concerned me was that their parents’ names were Edmund and Sarah Jowett – the same as my 3x Great Grandparents, who lived in the same area. This Edmund was a saddler, whereas mine worked on the railways. Have I got the right family in my tree??

Once I got home I did a Census search for the families & fortunately managed to separate them. The saddler Edmund was living in Nottingham with his family at the time of the 1841 and 1851 Census, whereas my Edmund & Sarah were still in Draycott, Derbyshire at this time and didn’t move to Nottingham until around 1859. I also found both families in the 1861 Census, mine in Rawson Street, Basford and the others in St Peter’s Street, Radford. Saddler Edmund was also quite a bit older than my Edmund – phew!

But as I was reviewing this side of the family, I rechecked the baptisms in Wilne, Derbyshire, where my Edmund was born & realised that there are two Edmund Jowetts baptised there; one in January 1825 to William and Sarah, the other in June 1826 to Edmond and Martha. I had thought his parents were William & Sarah but I’ve now realised it’s possible that they were Edmond & Martha.

It’s also occured to me that I don’t have any BMD certificates for Edmund. There won’t be a birth certificate for him as he was born before registration began (in 1837) but there should be marriage and death certificates available. So I looked up his marriage reference, to Sarah Morton, via FreeBMD and ordered his marriage certificate which should reveal his father’s name.

The certificate arrived quite quickly and confirmed that I have been working with the wrong parents for Edmund Jowett (1825). His father was also an Edmund, NOT William. So I have been deleting some sixty-plus Jowetts from my tree that are, as yet, unrelated! At least I am on the right track now and haven’t gone any further back with them!

It also confirms that I have the correct father for Sarah, and I can also enter the correct baptism in my Roots Magic program. Onwards & backwards!

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© Caroline Cox and Caroline’s Chronicles. 2011 – current year