"Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence"
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In other words, just because you haven't found any unusual events in a person's life, doesn't mean there weren't any. Example: Thomas Jennings of Woughton on the Green, born ~1766N, brother of my children's 5g-grandmother, Sarah Jennings born 1770N.
I haven't even found a christening for Thomas, but I know that he existed: I have found his marriage - to Elizabeth Holmes in 1787 N - and classified him as potentially a sibling to Sarah; I have found the christening of their son Thomas in 1787N followed by no other events whatsoever and assumed that either records were missing or that Thomas sr and his family had left the area.
As Thomas and Elizabeth aren't direct ancestors, and time being what it is, I probably would have left him there, fate unknown, to be revisited at some mythical future date.
Then I decided to search newspapers at FindMyPast for events in Woughton on the Green, and found the remarkably detailed story of what happened to Thomas and Elizabeth after 1787.
The life story set out below comes from the Bucks Gazette, 2nd May 1829 issue, reporting on a court case between the parishes of Woughton on the Green and Bow Brickhill, both in Buckinghamshire. On the basis of his deemed parentage, the place of settlement of one Joseph Leach or Jennings had been determined by parish officials in Bow Brickhill to be Woughton on the Green, but Woughton disputed this. Their case was that Joseph had been born to Elizabeth Holmes whilst she was living with William Leach in Bow Brickhill and the presumption must be that Leach, and not Thomas Jennings, formerly of Woughton, was Joseph's father. This would remove all links to Woughton and make Joseph's place of settlement Bow Brickhill.
The court case hinged on the fact that children of a married woman, at the time, were held to have been fathered by her husband unless "non-access" could be proved. The word of the woman herself was in law not good enough for this and thus the court heard a succession of witnesses including Elizabeth herself, William Leach, various relatives of Thomas Jennings but not Jennings himself, giving evidence on whether or not Thomas Jennings may have had "access" to Elizabeth around the time of Joseph's conception.
The evidence of the various witnesses told the following story:
tbc
In other words, just because you haven't found any unusual events in a person's life, doesn't mean there weren't any. Example: Thomas Jennings of Woughton on the Green, born ~1766N, brother of my children's 5g-grandmother, Sarah Jennings born 1770N.
I haven't even found a christening for Thomas, but I know that he existed: I have found his marriage - to Elizabeth Holmes in 1787 N - and classified him as potentially a sibling to Sarah; I have found the christening of their son Thomas in 1787N followed by no other events whatsoever and assumed that either records were missing or that Thomas sr and his family had left the area.
As Thomas and Elizabeth aren't direct ancestors, and time being what it is, I probably would have left him there, fate unknown, to be revisited at some mythical future date.
Then I decided to search newspapers at FindMyPast for events in Woughton on the Green, and found the remarkably detailed story of what happened to Thomas and Elizabeth after 1787.
The life story set out below comes from the Bucks Gazette, 2nd May 1829 issue, reporting on a court case between the parishes of Woughton on the Green and Bow Brickhill, both in Buckinghamshire. On the basis of his deemed parentage, the place of settlement of one Joseph Leach or Jennings had been determined by parish officials in Bow Brickhill to be Woughton on the Green, but Woughton disputed this. Their case was that Joseph had been born to Elizabeth Holmes whilst she was living with William Leach in Bow Brickhill and the presumption must be that Leach, and not Thomas Jennings, formerly of Woughton, was Joseph's father. This would remove all links to Woughton and make Joseph's place of settlement Bow Brickhill.
The court case hinged on the fact that children of a married woman, at the time, were held to have been fathered by her husband unless "non-access" could be proved. The word of the woman herself was in law not good enough for this and thus the court heard a succession of witnesses including Elizabeth herself, William Leach, various relatives of Thomas Jennings but not Jennings himself, giving evidence on whether or not Thomas Jennings may have had "access" to Elizabeth around the time of Joseph's conception.
The evidence of the various witnesses told the following story:
tbc