Good morning everyone, I am new to this list and would like some help to locate more specific details of my gg grandfather George DOWNTON.and his parents. In 1871 George married Elizabeth COATES in Sydney Australia. He gave the following details regarding himself .. age 26 ,indicating he was born in 1845, Dorsetshire, England the son of Thomas DOWNTON and Mary WALLACE. Also, I would like to make contact with others researching the DOWNTON Family. My other interest are SATTERLY , DOVE, DUDMAN, KNOTT, SNELL,WARREN,WALLACE. I am not familiar with your geography but have been advised to list on Wessex plus and Dorset sites;; Thanks from Jim Brisbane Australia.
Hi Jim I have been researching the DOWNTON family in Dorset for several years now, my maternal Grandmother was Audrey Downton, and her Father was Andrew John Downton, born in 1879 in Buckland Newton. When he was about 12 the family moved to the Isle of Wight which is where I come from. I have traced the Downton name back several generations, and have collected lots of information about other Downton families in the area between Dorchester and Sherborne on the Somerset border. The Downton name is relatively uncommon, when looked at nationally, but there are significant groupings in 3 or 4 counties, Dorset, Devon, Somerset and Shropshire being the main groupings (as well as London). I cannot find any reference to a George Downton around 1845 in my own family database. I have looked in the 1851 index for Dorset, and checked birth registrations against FreeBMD. There is only one Thomas Downton registered born in Dorset between 1843 and 1847, George Sidney Downton registered in Mar qtr 1846 in Weymouth district. Of course FreeBMD is not complete yet, but coverage around this time is relatively good. The 1851 index would suggest this is probably George Downton aged 5 born and living in Radipole. The good news is his Father is Thomas, the not so good news is that the Mother's name in the Census is Sarah, not Mary (there is a transcription of the 1851 census for Radipole on the Dorset OPC site http://www.dorset-opc.com/ Of course the 1851 census could be a blind alley, since there is nothing to say that the family were still living in Dorset in 1851. I think it would be worth spending some time seeing if there were other George Downtons registered in Dorset around this time, allowing maybe 5 years either way. Remember though that birth registration was legally required but was not well enforced at this time. Don't forget by the way that there are occasionally some variants of Downton, including Dowton, Dounton and even Downtown. Hope this helps. You can find most of Downton family online, see my signature below. Jon Baker http://www.vectis10w.freeserve.co.uk/genealog.htm -----Original Message----- From: Jim Satterly [mailto:jrandgc@bigpond.com] Sent: 03 March 2005 20:55 To: WESSEX-PLUS-D@rootsweb.com Subject: DOWNTON George Good morning everyone, I am new to this list and would like some help to locate more specific details of my gg grandfather George DOWNTON.and his parents. In 1871 George married Elizabeth COATES in Sydney Australia. He gave the following details regarding himself .. age 26 ,indicating he was born in 1845, Dorsetshire, England the son of Thomas DOWNTON and Mary WALLACE. Also, I would like to make contact with others researching the DOWNTON Family. My other interest are SATTERLY , DOVE, DUDMAN, KNOTT, SNELL,WARREN,WALLACE. I am not familiar with your geography but have been advised to list on Wessex plus and Dorset sites;; Thanks from Jim Brisbane Australia.