In my last Blog, I was looking at Mary Heap as a possible mother for Robert Hartley born in Colne Parish about 1803-1804. I realized that she was married too early to be a good candidate.
Here is the possible birth for my ancestor Robert Hartley:
This is the possible marriage of the couple above:
I see that I have added possiblilty to possibility, but I have not many choices here. The question is, why would James have married Mary Berry from the Parish of Kildwick?
Joyce and Kildwick
When I choose my father cousin Joyce’s maternal matches and search for ancestors from Kildwick, I get about 68 matches. This seems unusual to me. According to Wickipedia, Kildwick had a population of 194 in 2011. As a comparison, I will check to see how many matches Joyce has with ancestral connections to Trawden. Joyces has 65 matches on her maternal side. However, that includes a lot of closer relatives who know they have Robert Hartley in their ancestry from Trawden. Also Trawden had a 2011 population of 2,765 which is over 10 times that of Kildwick. Either this is a huge coincidence or I may have Kildwick ancestors. However, the actuala Parish of Kildwick was much larger. According to Wikipedia:
Ancient Kildwick Parish was unusually large for it included the townships of Kildwick, Bradley Both, Cononley, Cowling, Holden, Eastburn, Farnhill, Glusburn, Ikornshaw, Silsden, Steeton, Sutton and Stirton and Thorlby.
Here is a map, though it is quite busy:
Genuki further supplies this information:
In 1822, the following places were in
the Parish of Kildwick:
“BRUNTHWAITE, in the township of Silsden, and parish of Kildwick, liberty of Staincliffe; 5 miles N. of Keighley, 8 from Skipton.”
“CARR HEAD, (the seat of Richard Bradley Wainman, Esq.) in the township of Cowling, and parish of Kildwick, liberty of Staincliffe; 5 miles from Colne, (Lanc.) 6 from Skipton.”
“CONONLEY, in the township of Farnhill with Cononley, and parish of Kildwick, east-division of Staincliffe, liberty of Clifford’s-Fee; (Cononley Hall, the seat of John Swires, Esq.) 3 miles S. of Skipton, 6½ from Keighley, 10 from Colne, (Lanc.) Pop. included in Farnhill.”
“COWLING, in the parish of Kildwick, east-division of Staincliffe, liberty of Clifford’s-Fee; 5 miles NE. of Colne, (Lancs.) 6 from Skipton, 8 from Keighley. Pop. 1,870.”
“CRINGLES, a hamlet in the township of Silsden, and parish of Kildwick, liberty of Staincliffe; 5 miles from Skipton and Keighley.”
“CROSSHILLS, in the township of Glusburn, and parish of Kildwick, liberty of Staincliffe; 5 miles from Keighley and Skipton, 8 from Colne, (Lanc.)”
“EASTBURN, in the parish of Kildwick, east-division of Staincliffe, liberty of Clifford’s Fee; 4 miles NW. of Keighley, 5¾ from Skipton, 10 from Colne. Pop. included in Steeton.”
“EDEN, a hamlet in the township of Sutton in Craven, and parish of Kildwick, east-division of Staincliffe; 4 miles from Keighley.”
“FARNHILL, in the parish of Kildwick, east-division of Staincliffe, liberty of Clifford’s-Fee; 4 miles S. of Skipton, 5½ from Keighley. Pop. including Cononley, 1,350, which being united, form a township.”
“GLUSBURN, in the parish of Kildwick, east-division of Staincliffe, liberty of Clifford’s-Fee; 5 miles S. of Skipton, 5½ from Keighley, 8 from Colne, (Lanc.) Pop. 787.”
“HIGH BRADLEY, a hamlet in the townships of Bradleys both, and parish of Kildwick, and liberty of Cliffords-Fee; 3 miles from Skipton. Pop. included in lower Bradley.”
“ICKORNSHAW, (or Cornshaw) in the township of Cowling, and parish of Kildwick, east-division and liberty of Staincliffe; 4 miles from Colne, (Lanc.) 7 from Skipton, 5 from Keighley.”
“KILDWICK GRANGE, a hamlet in the township and parish of Kildwick, liberty of Staincliffe, 5 miles from Keighley.”
“LOW BRADLEY, in the township of Upper and Lower Bradley, and parish of Kildwick, east-division of Staincliffe, liberty of Clifford’s-Fee; 3½ miles from Skipton, 6½ from Keighley, 12 from Colne, (Lanc.) Pop. including Upper Bradley, 506, which being united, form the township usually denominated Bradleys both.”
“MALSIS HALL, a single house in the township of Glusburn, and parish of Kildwick, 5½ miles S. of Skipton and 5 from Keighley.
This was formerly the seat of a family of the name of Copley, and according to Whitaker’s Craven, was considered as the Manor house of Sutton, “for, by inquisition taken 34 Henry VIII. it was found that Alvary Copley was seized of the Manor of Sutton, or Malseyes, held of William Vavasour, Esq. as of his Manor of Addingham.” It is now the residence of Mr. William Spencer.”
“SILSDEN, (and Silsden Moor) in the parish of Kildwick, east-division and liberty of Staincliffe; 4 miles from Keighley, 7 from Skipton, 12 from Colne, (Lanc.) Pop. 1,904. The Church is a perpetual curacy, dedicated to St. James, in the deanry of Craven, value, p.r. !£86. Patron, the Earl of Thanet.”
“SILSDEN MOOR, a hamlet in the township of Silsden, and parish of Kildwick, liberty of Staincliffe; 4 miles from Skipton.”
“STEETON, in the parish of Kildwick, east-division and liberty of Staincliffe; (Steeton Hall, the seat of William Sugden, Esq.) 2 miles NW. of Keighley, 7 from Skipton, 11 from Colne, (Lanc.) Pop. including Eastburn, 753 which being united, form a township.”
“STONE GAPPE, a single house in the township of Glusburn, and parish of Kildwick, liberty of Staincliffe; 4½ miles S. of Skipton.”
“STOTT HILL, a hamlet in the township of Cowling, and parish of Kildwick, liberty of Staincliffe; 5 miles from Colne, (Lanc.)”
“SUTTON IN CRAVEN, in the parish of Kildwick, east-division of Staincliffe, liberty of Clifford’s-Fee; 5 miles NW. of Keighley and Skipton, 9 from Colne, (Lanc.) Pop. 1,092.”
“SWARTHA, (or Swarthey) a hamlet in the township of Silsden, and parish of Kildwick, liberty of Staincliffe; 4½ miles N. of Keighley.”
“TOM’S CROSS, in the parish of Kildwick, and wapentake and liberty of Staincliffe; 4 miles NE. of Colne.”
“WOODSIDE, scattered houses in the township and parish of Kildwick, liberty of Staincliffe; 4½ miles from Keighley, 4 miles S. of Skipton.”
I copy this information as it gives the distance from Colne for some of these places.
Here are the top five matches:
Jennifer and R.M. must be related as their trees are the same length. When I check shared matches, R.M. is Jennifer’s daughter. Here is Jennifer’s tree:
Jennifer shows as a second cousin to Jenny in shared matches. Here is Jenny’s tree:
This should narrow down where to look. Further, I See from Jennifer’s tree taht CHarles Bell and Sarah Jones are from Yorkshire. Here are more names along that line from Jennifer’s tree:
Further, the Bell and Caygill lines are the ones in Yorkshire.
Goodby Mary Heap; Hello Mary Berry
I will replace Mary Heap with Mary Berry in my Ancestry Tree, to see if anything shows up on DNA matches:
I gave her a birth date of 1775. That would put her at about 26 when she married James Hartley, widower. There was a Mary Berry born in Colne and baptized in March that year:
This appears to be the best gues for Mary’s birth.
Summary and Conclusions
- When you don’t know who your ancestors are, you have to make many guesses to see which guesses are most likely
- I assumed that the parents of my ancestor Robert Hartley were James and Mary of Bough Gap, Colne Parish Lancashire
- I further assumed that the Mary who married James Hartley was a Mary Berry from Kildwick Parish, Yorkshire, not far from Colne
- A check of my father’s cousin Joyce’s matches revealsed that many of them had ancestry from Kildwick.
- The closest match had a very large tree but no Berry names from that area in her ancestry.
- I have put Mary Berry into my tree, to see if there are many or any DNA matches that show up.
- Although I am skeptical that Mary Berry is the right ancestor, I think I have a fairly good procedure to check on potential ancestors. That is, whether there are many DNA matches on the ThruLines.