Merrills of Lincolnshire

[John Gage]

Hi, my name is John Gage and I currently reside at Skegness in Lincolnshire, but lived and grew up in a village now, attached to the town, called Winthorpe. As a person with a major penchant for Medieval History, I have long been interested in genealogy, particularly British and European. But until recently I had little interest in my own family genealogy, except for a mild flirtation in the 1970's when I received the family bible (which in effect had little more than my paternal grandmothers family in it). However recently, due to having retired and for other reasons I won't bore you with here, I have not just become interested, but passionately interested. I think my main reason for this was: 1). I was provided with a good headstart, so avoided that somewhat tedious early beginning, 2). I had a wealth of anecdotal evidence provided by my mother in the 1970's and 3). that my previous history/genealogical/technical experience, enabled me to make rapid progress in the early stages and therefore enabled me to build a substantial tree of my ancestors, going back 300 years. My main difficulties however began at that point. I was now in the realm of Parish Records (BMD's), hardly any transcribed for my area, although I am expecting a few on microfiche and a few others on floppy disk from LFHS in the near future. Unfortunately the Lincs. Archives are housed at Lincoln, which is 45+ miles away so a 90 -100 mile round trip. To use this facility productively, I will need to become more organized and make sure I have arranged to view specific items, whatever they might be, well in advance. One of the reasons for my continued interest, has been the realization that I had resided and grown up in an area, hitherto unknown by me, to be populated by one of my ancestor groups, the Merrill family. This reinforced a curious sense of belonging to the area which I had not fully appreciated until now.
Please see below for my list of families where I have to date come to a dead end.
1. My matrilineal ancestry:
SURNAMES: MERRILL, LANGTON, GEBBY/GREBBY, FOSTER, BOOTH, DRACASS, SHOWLER, GARRETT, JOHNSON, BONNETT (All East Lincs.)
Trying to find parents/ancestors/siblings of the following persons highlighted bold and underlined:
Sarah Langton, b. abt. 1730, d. 1759, mar. 6 Jul. 1749, Winthorpe, Lincs., William Merrill, b abt. 1719, Winthorpe, Lincs., d. 3 Apr. 1783, possible son of William Merrill, b. abt. 1695, Winthorpe, Lincs., mar. ? ? b. abt. 1699, Winthorpe, Lincs. Martha ?, b. abt. 1760, Winthorpe, Lincs., d. 13 May 1817, mar. abt. 1780, Thomas Merrill, b. 5 May 1751, Winthorpe, Lincs., d. 7 May 1827. Mary Gebby/Grebby, b. abt 1735, Of Firsby, Lincs., mar. 14 Sep 1756, Burgh le Marsh, Lincs., Nathaniel Foster, b. abt. 1730, Burgh le Marsh, Lincs. Edward and Ann Booth, parents of Winifred, b. abt 1766, Of Thorpe, d. 2 Dec. 1833, Friskney, Lincs., mar. 13 Aug. 1787, Thorpe, Lincs., Nathaniel Foster, b. 1759, Burgh le Marsh, Lincs. Ruth Garrett, b. 1771, Lincs., mar. Joseph Showler, b. 1762, Lincs. Elizabeth ?, b. 1791, Lincs., mar. Thomas Showler, b. 1791, Horncastle, Lincs., d. 1866. (Spilsby District) Lincs. Ann ? b. 1793, Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire, d. Jun. 1869, Long Hedges, Boston, Lincs., mar. Robert Barker, b. abt. Jun. 1795, Toynton, Lincs., d. Dec. 1854, Long Hedges, Boston , Lincs., Elizabeth ?, b. abt 1782, d. 1863, Halton Holegate, mar. John Johnson, b. abt. 1778, d. 1850, Halton Holegate, Lincs. Elizabeth ?, b. abt. 1826, Thorpe, Lincs., mar. Joseph Johnson, b. 1816, Halton Holegate, Lincs. John Lewis Bonnett, b. abt. 1847, Halton Holegate, Lincs., mar. Elizabeth Johnson, b. abt. 1849, Toynton St. Peter, Lincs.
2. My patrilineal ancestry:
SURNAMES: GAGE (Lincs., E. Yorks. & Norfolk), INGHAM (N.W.Lincs.), HALL(S) (Norfolk), HOWLANDS (Norfolk), BILHAM (Norfolk), PARMER/PALMER (Norfolk).
Trying to find parents/ancestors/siblings of the following persons (in Lincolnshire) highlighted bold and underlined: Elizabeth Moss, b. 1782, Langworth, Lincs., mar. 25 Oct.1808, Middle Rasen (Drax), Lincs. John Ingham, b. 1776, Faldingworth, Lincs., d. 3 Jun 1855. Ann ? b. 10 Jul 1834, Saxilby, Lincs., d. aft. 1881, Gainsborough, Lincs., mar. Saxilby, Lincs. John Ingham, b. 5 Nov 1828, West Rasen, Lincs., d. 1898, Gainsborough, Lincs. (All other members are of Norfolk, not Lincolnshire)
I would very much appreciate any help in pushing my ancestry forward.
John Gage

[Bo Peep]

|wave|Hello John and welcome to the Brit-Gen community. I am delighted you have joined us and wish you every success with your research.

[arthurk]

Hi John, and welcome.

Have you tried the public library for parish registers etc? Where I live in Lincs they have microfiches and films of parish registers and census returns for the local area, with the appropriate reader/printer. I don't know what's available in your neck of the woods, but it would certainly be worth asking.

If you have a major interest in one parish, it might be worth buying copies of the registers on fiche from Lincolnshire Archives (so long as you have access to a reader - the library may well be happy for you to use theirs). You also mentioned the Lincs FHS, but I'm not sure from what you wrote whether you're aware that UK members of the Lincs FHS can borrow any available parish register fiches from the society's resource centre, for a small charge.

Good luck,
Arthur

[John Gage]

Dear Arthur Kenedy,

Thanks for that advice, I'd completely forgot that my local libraries, might have the relevent registers on hand, although I was aware that I could use their microfiche viewer as I have used them in the past to view other records. I was aware that LFHS had some recards and I have already bought some, but they are taking a long time in sending them out. I wasn't aware that I could borrow these records though. Anyway thanks again for the info.

Regards,
John Gage

[arthurk]

Might be worth enquiring about whatever it is you've ordered, as they're usually pretty quick. And the microfiches that you can borrow - they're not transcripts, but copies of the parish register fiches that they have in the archives, i.e. images of the originals.

Arthur

[John Gage]

Dear Arthur Kennedy,

They arrived in this mornings post, unfotunately as ever with floppy disks one was flaky, however i managed to rescue it using another machine and some copying tactics. TKS anyway.

regards
John Gage

[conniejane]

hello my name is jane. i am a direct descendent of john and elizabeth johnson of halton holegate. through their son anthony densil johnson. interestingly, densil had a daughter hannah who married william warminster bonnett. if you are interseted in getting in touch, i am at connie dot jane at hotmail dot co dot uk Be nice to hear from you. all the best. jane