From: CHRISTINE WILLOTT <christine.willott@btopenworld.com> > Dear Audrey, > > I am willing to stand corrected by someone from Yorkshire, but > Matlock is in Derbyshire. On streetmap.co.uk there is not another > Matlock in the UK. > > What you are attempting is a mammoth task and given that lots of our > ancestors could not read and write let alone spell, nigh on > impossible.> To be fair to Audrey, if you look at the "History" section of her website, she does say that John Bowne (1627-1695) left Lime Tree Farm at Matlock, Derbyshire, to migrate to Boston in 1649. However, I am in agreement with you that she has assumed a mammoth task which, as I have said in a previous post, does not seem to me to be helped by the fact that the project doesn't seem to take into account alternative variant spellings of the name. Audrey may perhaps tell me differently but I cannot see a mention of other versions of the surname which, as you point out, is vital given that many - no, make that most - of our ancestors were illiterate. I am also interested to know how she derives the name BOWNE from the time of William the Conqueror (dare, I say it, as so many of our American cousins seem determined to do!) which she does in reference to John Bowne. Surname dictionaries - which are at best speculative in my opinion - show the surname as being a variant of De Bohun and there was indeed a De Bohun in the Domesday Book of 1086. However, this does not prove all the links in between, which can only be accepted by documentary evidence. And, as Audrey says she is seeking the earliest common ancestor, then clearly the links haven't been proved. There could be other derivations for the Bownes which do not connect them to the De Bohuns. Indeed, there could even have been an ancestor who changed his name for some reason - it happened all the time. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE

Hi Roy My Co Durham Granny came from Sunderland/Monkwearmouth/Bishopwearmouth. Originally these were 3 separate small villages. Her antecedents were called Gordon and were all fishermen. Now it is not outside the bounds of the imagination to say that as possibly herring fishermen they could have migrated from the Gordon clan in Aberdeen, although there is no proof for this. One tree on ancestry, however, not only has them coming from Aberdeen, but gives them a coat of arms and links them to the aristocracy! :-) NB Please pay to speak to me! My own surname of Willott is unusual. There are only about 200 of us on the entire electoral roll for the whole country. My brother in law (whose research is meticulous) has found though that the family originated in Oxfordshire, and prior to 1777 it was a bog standard Willett. (They were ag labs too so we are of good ordinary stock like most people.) I know you will agree, you have to triangulate your research (ie find the same thing from more than one source) otherwise it gets family history research a bad name amongst historical researchers. The research must be valid and reliable. Chris ________________________________