Hi Joy, Thanks for your very detailed response and suggestions. I understand very well about deaths/burials being important as I did a lot of work on a family that was the only good match for a Scottish ancestor's family of origin and then subsequently found records showing that the family had briefly moved to another parish and that the same-named person I'd thought was my ancestor had died as a child in an epidemic in that other parish. Since then I have always kept at the front of my mind that just because someone seems like a good match, that doesn't mean they are the person I'm seeking. John Kinsman alias Evans named one of his children Charles, which was the name of one of Ann Evans the elder's children. Subsequent generations also used the name Thomas which was another of Ann the elder's children's names. I almost included this information in my second response to Paul, but since they were common given names I wasn't sure it meant anything. None of John Kinsman alias Evans's known children match Elizabeth Evans's children's given names. Unfortunately none of the bastardy bonds I have personally read for Hartland in the late 1700's and earliest 1800's name the child. The two children of John Kinsman have been easiest to identify and trace because in both cases there are an examination and a bastardy bond, with both records naming John Kinsman as the father, and in both cases the mother baptized the child using both parents' surnames, which the child then used themselves. I know it is possible that John Kinsman's father John Kinsman could have been the father, or that a third man named John Kinsman may have been in Hartland at the time and just not left other records that I've found so far, which is why I always try to use phrases like "he's most likely to be the father" and "I believe he probably is." The Evans and Kinsman families don't seem to have been in touch at all after the bastardy bond was issued. John Kinsman alias Evans seems to have been much closer to his wife's family and I have no evidence to date that he ever even saw the Kinsmans at any point after his birth beyond possibly running into each other around the parish. After the bastardy bond and baptism the next record I have for him is his parish apprenticeship when he was age 8, and I'm not even sure if he saw his mother again after that (assuming he was still living with her when he was indentured, which I don't know for sure). Since John Kinsman alias Evans was apprenticed on 6 June 1804 and Ann was still pregnant when she was examined in December 1804, he would have definitely left home before the next child was born, though I agree it still would have been rather odd for the same Ann Evans to name a second child John. But I don't know whether the same Ann gave birth to both children. Since you and Paul both think George and Rebecca Evans are the best candidates for Ann's ancestor, it seems that I have been on the right track in trying to reconstruct all the family relationships and should continue on with my reconstruction work, long and confusing as it may sometimes be. Thanks again for all your ideas! Liz Loveland

I meant any connections to the other members of the Evans family rather than the Kinsman family.  I noticed that in 1841 John Evans is living next door to a William Evans, a carpenter, and next door but one in the other direction from a Charles Evans whose age suggests he is Ann's son baptised 1781.   Ann did baptise a son William at Hartland in 1788 and the 1861 census gives William's birthdate as c1789 although the 1851 census gives the birth date c1793.    My own experience with my ancestors is that they can often be found within a few doors of each other.  Whether this was for mutual support at times of need or whether they passed information about a vacant property by word of mouth, I don't know.  It isn't hard evidence that they are brothers of course and if Ann senior was Ann junior's aunt the group were related anyway.   Joy     ________________________________ From: Liz Loveland <lovelandfamilyhistory@gmail.com> To: devon@rootsweb.com Sent: Wednesday, 8 January 2014, 0:47 Subject: Re: [DEV] Tracing mother of an 'illegitimate' child Hi Joy, Thanks for your very detailed response and suggestions. I understand very well about deaths/burials being important as I did a lot of work on a family that was the only good match for a Scottish ancestor's family of origin and then subsequently found records showing that the family had briefly moved to another parish and that the same-named person I'd thought was my ancestor had died as a child in an epidemic in that other parish. Since then I have always kept at the front of my mind that just because someone seems like a good match, that doesn't mean they are the person I'm seeking. John Kinsman alias Evans named one of his children Charles, which was the name of one of Ann Evans the elder's children. Subsequent generations also used the name Thomas which was another of Ann the elder's children's names. I almost included this information in my second response to Paul, but since they were common given names I wasn't sure it meant anything. None of John Kinsman alias Evans's known children match Elizabeth Evans's children's given names. Unfortunately none of the bastardy bonds I have personally read for Hartland in the late 1700's and earliest 1800's name the child. The two children of John Kinsman have been easiest to identify and trace because in both cases there are an examination and a bastardy bond, with both records naming John Kinsman as the father, and in both cases the mother baptized the child using both parents' surnames, which the child then used themselves. I know it is possible that John Kinsman's father John Kinsman could have been the father, or that a third man named John Kinsman may have been in Hartland at the time and just not left other records that I've found so far, which is why I always try to use phrases like "he's most likely to be the father" and "I believe he probably is." The Evans and Kinsman families don't seem to have been in touch at all after the bastardy bond was issued. John Kinsman alias Evans seems to have been much closer to his wife's family and I have no evidence to date that he ever even saw the Kinsmans at any point after his birth beyond possibly running into each other around the parish. After the bastardy bond and baptism the next record I have for him is his parish apprenticeship when he was age 8, and I'm not even sure if he saw his mother again after that (assuming he was still living with her when he was indentured, which I don't know for sure). Since John Kinsman alias Evans was apprenticed on 6 June 1804 and Ann was still pregnant when she was examined in December 1804, he would have definitely left home before the next child was born, though I agree it still would have been rather odd for the same Ann Evans to name a second child John. But I don't know whether the same Ann gave birth to both children. Since you and Paul both think George and Rebecca Evans are the best candidates for Ann's ancestor, it seems that I have been on the right track in trying to reconstruct all the family relationships and should continue on with my reconstruction work, long and confusing as it may sometimes be. Thanks again for all your ideas! Liz Loveland ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message