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  1. #1
    pottoka
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    Question Pride goes before a fall ...

    I don't know if I should be posting this here, or yet, but I've been looking for him for so long and been so frustrated that I hope you'll bear with me ...

    One of my family lines is Gaunt, and a bushel of them had Myott or Myatt as a second name. I had a struggle finding the John Myott born in 1837, but did eventually, although I knew who his father was from the Censuses, and I knew that his father was the Myott Gaunt who had passed down this strange name, as I have the parish records for the baptisms of John's father, Samuel, and his siblings, as well as the obituary of Myott's wife and Myott's name in adverts in the paper as he seemed to climb the social ladder.

    Once I thought I had found his death and ordered the certificate, full of confidence - how many of them could there be? - but it was his grandson who had died of measles, aged 4, the only person in the family, I believe, to have been named directly after him.

    This was a family of Liverpudlians, with one birth over the Mersey in Birkenhead, so I carried on searching in Liverpool and Lancashire ... and not finding anything. Then, one evening, about three weeks ago, I went on familysearch. I don't remember what I put into the search boxes, but I found him. Yes, gentle reader, I found him.

    In Staffordshire.

    So I cannot yet claim total success, as I do not have the parish record for his baptism in my hand. But one of his children was called James Derby Gaunt, which was his father's name, and his mother was Helen Myott.

    Come wind, come rain, come snow, I shall be in Staffordshire Archives finding the proof I need during the month I'll be in England in December/January. And taking the line back, hopefully, although it looks as though I've got myself into one of those pockets where everyone's name is the same, i.e. Gaunt.

    And the title of the this post? Well, I found Myott - he's my 4xgreat-grandfather - late one night, so, the following morning, I turned on my laptop, went downstairs to make myself a pot of tea and brought it back up to savour in bed while I explored Myott and his family. And, for once, I was feeling happy and glad to start the day.

    You can see it coming, can't you?

    Yes, I put the tray down crookedly on the table, and it slipped and emptied the entire contents of the teapot and milkjug on to the computer which was just where it shouldn't have been, on the floor.

    Luck, me? Yes, lots of it. All bad!

  2. #2
    Jan1954
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    Oh dear!

    At least you have your 4xgreat-grandfather in compensation for the soggy laptop.

  3. #3
    Name well known on Brit-Gen
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    So glad I can't put my machine on the floor. (Well I can & do for vaccuuming, but hey)?

    Pottoka, I loved wandering around Staffs / Shropshire for my Man's family. I hope you have the necessary luck to find your lot.
    Happy Families
    Wendy
    Count your Blessings, they'll all add up in the end.

  4. #4
    Name well known on Brit-Gen
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    Pottoka was this then the G'Father?
    Name:James Derby Gaunt

    Birth:19 July 1805 Baptism :5 Mar 1806

    Parish:Liverpool St Nicholas

    Father's Name:Myott Gaunt Maguire st lab'r & Elizabeth Haley his wife
    .......
    More of yours?

    Derby James Gaunt
    Christened 1st Jan 1799 Milwich, Staffordshire, England
    Father James Gaunt + Mother Elizth.

    01 Jan 1799 Derby James son of James & Elizth. Gaunt bap
    Book:Baptisms at Bloxwich (Baptism)
    Collection: Staffordshire: Milwich - Parish Registers Index, 1573-1711, Parish Registers, 1713-1812.


    Darby Gaunt
    born abt 1800
    Death reg. Jan-Feb-Mar 1870
    Age at Death: 70
    Stafford Staffordshire 6b-20
    Happy Families
    Wendy
    Count your Blessings, they'll all add up in the end.

  5. #5
    pottoka
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jan1954 View Post
    Oh dear!

    At least you have your 4xgreat-grandfather in compensation for the soggy laptop.
    Thanks, Jan. And my 5xgreat-grandfather, too, actually. Yet another John. You wouldn't believe what a pain it can be on some sites looking for John Gaunt, because you get lots of replies about John of Gaunt, son of Edward III. But no relation.

    The computer was more than soggy, I'm afraid. It gave up the ghost - and when I finally scraped together enough Sioux to buy another, I couldn't find Myott in Staffordshire, whatever I put into familysearch; he just came up as Dad in Liverpool!
    I did eventually track the eerm, old sweetheart, down, I did it by putting in the names of his parents, which can't possibly be how I found him in the first place!!

  6. #6
    pottoka
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    Quote Originally Posted by Waitabit View Post
    So glad I can't put my machine on the floor. (Well I can & do for vaccuuming, but hey)?

    Pottoka, I loved wandering around Staffs / Shropshire for my Man's family. I hope you have the necessary luck to find your lot.
    I usually keep it on the bed ... I kicked out my unworthy bedfellow a long time ago for snoring too loudly, so we're now like aristocracy with a bedroom each! But I kept the big bed which I use as an office and desk. At the moment, there's even sewing on here, so I have to watch the pins

    I've got some Shropshire ancestors, too! Lovely county, but then most have good bits and bad bits. But my heart belongs to Derbyshire.

    For careless tea drinking computer-users, apparently, the thing to do is to turn it upside down immediately (which I did), then pour rice all over it, right-sde up, which will soak up the damp. So I'll know next time, won't I?

  7. #7
    pottoka
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    Quote Originally Posted by pottoka View Post
    Thanks, Jan. And my 5xgreat-grandfather, too, actually. Yet another John. You wouldn't believe what a pain it can be on some sites looking for John Gaunt, because you get lots of replies about John of Gaunt, son of Edward III. But no relation.
    Sorry, got that wrong: John, no dates, is 6xgreat-grandfather, father of James Darby Gaunt, 5x, 1727-1816, father of Myott, 1770-?.

    Strange that they have this name Darby/Derby for a while when later generations of the family lived in West Derby, and I ended up being born in Derbyshire. I shall be interested to see where that one came from.

  8. #8
    pottoka
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    Quote Originally Posted by Waitabit View Post
    Pottoka was this then the G'Father?
    Name:James Derby Gaunt

    Birth:19 July 1805 Baptism :5 Mar 1806

    Parish:Liverpool St Nicholas

    Father's Name:Myott Gaunt Maguire st lab'r & Elizabeth Haley his wife
    .......
    More of yours?

    Derby James Gaunt
    Christened 1st Jan 1799 Milwich, Staffordshire, England
    Father James Gaunt + Mother Elizth.

    01 Jan 1799 Derby James son of James & Elizth. Gaunt bap
    Book:Baptisms at Bloxwich (Baptism)
    Collection: Staffordshire: Milwich - Parish Registers Index, 1573-1711, Parish Registers, 1713-1812.


    Darby Gaunt
    born abt 1800
    Death reg. Jan-Feb-Mar 1870
    Age at Death: 70
    Stafford Staffordshire 6b-20
    Yes, they're all family. My 2xgreat-grandfather was John Myott Gaint on his birth certificate, born in Birkenhead, which was why I had some trouble finding him; he later became John Myatt. I think it's easier to pronounce that way. His father was Samuel, and his father was Myott. Myott's parents had three sons baptised Samuel before one survived (number three) so it was obviously a name they wanted to use.

    Myott's father was James Darby Gaunt whose eldest son James was the father of Derby James Gaunt. This latter had a daughter called Ellen Myatt Gaunt, so the name wasn't given just to the males of the family. I've seen another Ellen Myatt Gaunt from much the same place and time, but daughter of Eli, but I haven't fitted her in yet.

    Derby James Gaunt, who did die in 1870 - I've got the PR for his burial - also, strangely enough, had a younger brother called James. Myott himself had a son called James Derby, followed by another called James.

    Myott seems to have made something of himself by moving to Liverpool. He was a labourer when his first child was baptised in Liverpool in 1804, a bookkeeper in 1810 and a tea dealer in 1817. I believe he became a customs officer and also dabbled in property from what I remember reading in the Liverpool Mercury.

    I have no death or marriage - to Elizabeth Healey, who seems to be from Staffordshire, too - for him, and three of his children don't seem to have been baptised. Several of them did things like witnessing a sibling's wedding or marrying, then disappearing off the censuses. Maybe I have Gaunt cousins on Mars!

  9. #9
    woodstockaus
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    Quote Originally Posted by pottoka View Post
    Maybe I have Gaunt cousins on Mars!
    Or in Australia.....

    I've been researching the life of my great-great-grandfather, Thomas Ambrose Gaunt (1829-1890). He was born on 18/3/1829 and baptised at St Leonard's Shoreditch. The family lived in St Botolph without Bishopsgate. His father was Thomas Healey Gaunt (also spelled Eley and Haley on various documents, and in one case recorded as Thomas Myatt) and his brother was Myott/Myatt James Gaunt, born in either 1824 or 1825 depending on which of his two baptismal records you believe. Given the coincidence of "family names", I couldn't help but wonder if your Gaunts and my Gaunts are connected. I'm afraid I can't tell you much more about the father except that he married Diana Elizabeth Light on 29/9/1820 at St Mary's Islington and both of them were listed as "of this parish." So far I haven't been able to find any birth or baptismal record that I can definitely identify as his.

    As to the Australian link, Thomas Ambrose married Jane Trowbridge in London in June 1853 and then migrated to Melbourne, Victoria. They had a family and Thomas established himself as a successful jeweller and clockmaker - many of his turret clocks are still going in various public buildings around Victoria. I've been told that he also opened a shop in London once the business was established, but I haven't been able to find any records about it.

  10. #10
    Knowledgeable and helpful
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    I believe I might have a theory for his original move to Liverpool. As you probably know the Myotts or Myatts were a pottery family from Staffordshire, Myatt- Meakin being probably the most famous of the later names. They were also monumental masons my Godfather John Myatt was one such. In 1796 Samuel Worthington opened the Herculaneum pottery in Liverpool and recruited almost his entire workforce from Staffordshire. The initial group went by barge from Longport near Burslem and took 2 days to arrive at Toxteth Park where they were greeted by cheering crowds (no doubt rustled up by Mr Worthington). The pottery flourished for over 40 years finally closing in 1840 whereupon most of the workforce returned to Staffordshire. Not all of them were potters and not all of them stayed potters my G G G G grandfather was born there and worked both as a potter and a blacksmith there, his son eventually became a forgeman in Etruria.

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