Hello List I recently posted some info to this list from the Introduction of the Thorney French Register, which has been well received, and a big thank you to those who have posted to the list and emailed me privately to this effect. I vividly remember an afternoon about 18 months ago when I first came across the name HANCAR in the Sandtoft Register and thinking I wonder if this is where my ANKER ancestors came from. I then did various readings and searching through numerous PRs, and have put together my theories supporting this, which I will now share with you. The general path There is good evidence supporting a chain of events of which a very brief summary goes something like this; (I am speaking very generally here, just to paint a picture of the relevant facts which relate to my ancestors). Cornelius Vermuyden was awarded a contract to drain the fens by Charles II in the late 1620s. Over the next ten years or so, a number of families were brought over from Holland to assist in the drainage work. The initial influx settled in Hatfield and Sandtoft, but after numerous attacks on this community by the locals, these families started moving to places further south in the Cambridgeshire Fens including Thorney and Whittlesey where there were Hutuenot/Walloon communities which were beginning to be established. My proven direct link so far Through various Baptism, Marriage and Burial PRs, I have tracked my ancestors back to James ANKER who was Baptised in November 1688, son of Isaac, in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire. James is my 6 x Great Grandfather. Ramsey is only 2 or 3 miles from Whittlesey, especially if you go over the fields (so I'm told). There are 4 children of Isaac all baptised in Ramsey between 1683 and 1688. The HANCAR to ANKER connection So, after establishing the general route from Hatfield and Sandtoft to Whittlesey and Thorney, let's see if I can prove that some of these people are the same in both places. The biggest piece of evidence for this is Rachel. A Baptism in the Sandtoft Register (Stovin Manuscript) in March 1672, Rachel, daughter of Isaac HANQUAR and Jenne LEGRAND. In February 1700/01 in Ramsey, Thomas COLESON married Rachel ANKER. In June 1701 there is a marriage in Whittlesey (B/T produced by the Cambridgeshire Family History Society) for Thomas COSOY and Rachel ANCHOR. On the IGI website for the same date, it is recorded as Thomas COSON. The age for this marriage is consistent with it being the Rachel who was baptised in 1672. Also supporting this, is the fact that Thomas and Rachel had 3 children baptised in Whittlesey between 1703 and 1713. There is a slight wobble here however, because the Whittlesey PR as mentioned above, has 2 of these children recorded as CORESON, but, one of them was Isaac, the same name as Rachel's father. So I am making a bit of an assumption that these children are all part of the same family. If that is correct, it further supports my Rachel theory as she would have been in her early 40s when she had her last child. Rachel COLSON was buried in Whittlesey in 1718/19. Therefore, I think I've proved that Rachel ANKER of Whittlesey and Ramsey, is the same Rachel HANQUAR that was baptised in Sandtoft. There are a few other pieces of evidence which show movement between Sandtoft and the Whittlesey area. In the Sandtoft Register there were 2 other children born to Isaac HANCAR and Jenne LEGRAND; Marie in 1651, and Jan (son) in 1656. It is interesting to note the different spelling of HANCAR and HANQUAR (as in the baptism of Rachel). In the Thorney French Register, between 1657 and 1670, there were 4 sons baptised to Jean HANCAR and Jenne DESTRIE. I am thinking that Jean HANCAR and Isaac HANCAR (father of Rachel), could be brothers. Also from the Thorney French Register, there is a very interesting baptism in 1675/76; Judith, duaghter of Isaac ANCAR and Susanne LE FEVRE, and one of the sponsors was Marie HANCAR. This information is from the B/T at Cambridgeshire Records Office. Is this Marie, the same daughter of Isaac HANCAR and Jenne LEGRAND ? And is Isaac her father who has remarried, or could it be her brother ? The other sponsor at this baptism was Jacob VERMEIL. There is a slight wobble with this entry because I have spoken to someone who says that there is no record of this on the LDS film of the Thorney French Register. >From the Hatfield PRs, there was a marriage in 1640 between James VERMEIL and Mary HANCAR. Are these 2 people related to the HANCAR and VERMEIL in the Thorney French Register that I've just mentioned ? The first burial that I've come across in the Cambridgeshire fens relating to my ancestors was for Isaac ANKER in Whittlesey in 1685. I am thinking that this could be the Isaac that was married to Jenne LEGRAND. In Trevor Bevis's book "The Rivermakers" there is a section on the Petition to Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s where it lists James HANCAR and Isaac HANCAR as 2 of the Petitioners, and there is a footnote to say that James remained in Sandtoft and Isaac moved to Thorney. It doesn't say how this deduction is made. In the Hatfield PRs there were 2 burials in December 1671; James HANKER and Isaac HANKER. So, let's jump on the speculation train again, just to try and piece all this together into some kind of picture to suggest a reasonable scenario. The introduction to the Thorney French Register paints a general picture with supporting evidence which I will paraphrase and summarise as follows. The Spanish Inquisition was brought into northern France after the French regained Calais from the English in 1565. French Protestants were exiled from France, and a large number of them stuck together and gradually moved up through Flanders where a number of families were brought over by Corenlius Vermuyden in the 1620s and 1630s to work on draining the Fens They were experienced drainage workers as they had been doing this in France before they were exiled during the Spanish Inquisition. Here's what I think could have happened regarding my ancestors. I've found a number of pieces of evidence that could well link together, but, unfortunately I've no conclusive proof. Let's assume that there was one HANCAR family that came over with the other families to work for Cornelius Vermuyden. The father in this family was called Isaac (I'll refer to him as Isaac the First / Isaac I ). He was buried in Hatfield in 1671. His children were; Mary, who married James VERMEIL in Hatfield in 1640. Jenne who married Oser LEGRAND in Sandtoft in 1650. Isaac (Isaac II ), who married Jenne LEGRAND and they had children in Hatfield and Sandtoft between 1651 and 1672. Isaac was buried in Whittlesey in 1685. James, who's first wife died in Hatfield in 1653. He then married Cicely LAMBERT in Hatfield in 1654. They had a number of children in Hatfield and James died in Hatfield in 1671. Jean (male) who married Jenne DESTRIE and they has 4 sons in Thorney between 1657 and 1670. Roger, who had a son called Roger HANKER in 1665 in Pollington near Snaith, which I believe is in Lincolnshire but not too far from Doncaster. Roger ANCHOR (son of Roger) married Grace RICHARDSON in Whittlesey in 1700. As I mentioned earlier, I have absolutely no proof that these 6 people are siblings, I am just working on the theory that they are part of the same family who came over from Flanders to work with Vermuyden. To try and show how all this could link together, let me take you back to what I actually know, which is what I started this little story with. My 6 x Great Grandfather was James, son of Isaac, who was baptised in Ramsey in 1688. Siblings of James were John and Isaac, baptised in 1683 and 1684 respectively. There does seem to be a possible pattern here, i.e. Isaac had 3 sons called John, Isaac, and James which suggests that they could have been named after his father and 2 of his uncles. Because John is the first son, I am wondering whether Isaac's father is also John. So, just to try and sum this all up in a sentence or two - There's evidence to show that families came over from Flanders to work for Vermuyden. HANCAR was one of these families. Many of these families moved to Thorney and Whittlesey. The name ANKER / ANCHOR first appears in Whittlesey and Ramsey in the 1680s. There was a Rachel HANQUAR baptised at Sandtoft, and a Rachel ANKER married in Ramsey. There was an Isaac HANCAR in Hatfield and Santoft, and an Isaac ANKER buried in Whittlesey. There was a Roger HANKER baptised near Doncaster, and a Roger ANCHOR who married in Whittlesey. I've also looked at things from the point of view of one family coming over from Flanders in the 1630s and built a possible scenario based on this scenario. The question is, when does one have enough circumstantial evidence to be able to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. I would be interested to hear anyone's views on this, and if you think I have a good case. Or, you may have spotted something that just doesn't hang together and blows my theories out of the water, but if that is the case, I'd still like to hear from you as I would much prefer to know about it than live in ignorance or hope and pass down misinformation to my descendants. I hope I've not rambled on for too long, and I hope I've given some of you an interesting little read. Just to complete the circle, I live about 30 miles from my Sandtoft ancestors, and that is a pure co-incidence. Thanks for listening Regards David Anker