Last Will and Testament

Often starting, In large bold fancy letters, with;

In the name of God, Amen

The often have a section similar to this;-

... being sick and weak in body, but of good and perfect memory thanks be given fox xxx xxx xx make and xxxx this my last will and testament as followeth. First Commit my Soul into the hand of Allmighty god, and my body to be buried in the parish Church of xxx

... being very sick and weak of body but of sound and perfect disposing mind and memory blessed be God for it Considering the vulnerability of this mortal Life xxx to this my Last Will and Testament in manner following first of all I commend my soul to Almighty God hoping to have all my Sins pardoned and to have Eternal Life through the xxx of Jesus Christ my Lord and only saviour and my body I commit to the earth to be xxxxx buried according the xxxx of my Executors hereafter named and such worldly Estate as it hath pleased God to intrust me with.

The above section may be the Testament part.

John Watts

Who was John Watts and who were his family?

There are various John Watts in the Hampshire area born in the second half of the 1700s and the first half of 1800s.

This is an attempt to sort out the various families associated with John Watts so as to establish the father and grandfather of Louisa Watts.

John Watts (continued)

Who was John Watts and who were his family?

There are various John Watts in the Hampshire area born in the second half of the 1700s and the first half of 1800s.

This is an attempt to sort out the various families associated with John Watts so as to establish the father and grandfather of Louisa Watts.

Richard Broomfield

Started 13 Nov 2022 - 

The first task is to establish the number of Richard Broomfield's there are in the county of Hampshire, to help delineate between the records of one Richard Broomfield and another. Normally I would us my set of CDs from the Hampshire Genealogical Society. Transcriptions of Baptism, Marriage, and Death indexes.

Those records are now available on FindMyPast. So, online instead of by CD. However, I still keep my subscription going with HGS, and even do some transcribing for them.

I searched for Richard Broomfield records in Hampshire. Setting the approximate year of birth to 1770 reduced the list to 28.

Then I need somewhere to put all the information I find, so I start a One Name Study in respect of the surname Broomfield in the TNG database.

Normally, a person is added to the database, and then a family is created. Records are added to the person. However, in this instance, it is a case of adding a person for each instance of record, until there is sufficient evidence that it is the same person. Then those same people on the database are merged

For instance, there are two marriages recorded for a Richard Broomfield of Lyndhurst. One on 25 December 1820 to Sarah Ochelford and another to Mary Collins on 16 April 1831. The record has a note that Mary has been previously married but does not recall a name. There is sufficient time between the two marriages that it is the potentially the same Richard Broomfield in each, but nothing to confirm this. Hence a new record for each person as if separate, until proven otherwise.

I should point out at this stage that I do not know where this article is going. It may be the ramblings of a mad, eccentric, old man. Or it may come to a logical conclusion. It is written as the research progresses not as a report of the findings. This will therefore not be to everyone's taste.