Proving the stuff you find online?

[Mutley]

Is FamilySearch (IGI) the only option for me or are there other sources?

I have been shown a reference to an online tree by an Australian descendant to
Christopher Hearth (1775 -) married Anne Selby had....

John Selby Hearth (1782 -) married Alice Walker had ....

John Selby (1812 - 1893) married Hannah Clift
(They say he went to NSW with brothers Daniel and William and he is their ancestor)

I think the John and Alice might be my ancestors from Maidstone in Kent
(They both died in 1849 in Southwark)
and did have sons with the same names that went to Australia on the Bounty Ships, so that ties in.

I found a reference to Christopher Hearth and Anne Selby on Family Search as having married at
Cathedral St. Peter, Sheffield, Yorkshire. This is not an area that has come up on my tree before now.
but I've not yet found births or a marriage for my John and Alice. in Kent

The online tree states that Christopher died young (after marrying a Mary) ??? and his children dropped his surname of Hearth. How can one prove that? (and what happened to Ann/e?)

I would have disregarded all of this except that I found a daughter that may have been born to my John and Alice and she used the surname of Hearth when she married. It has always confused me and I have never really established that she was mine.

Now I wonder......

BTW, my line stayed in Southwark and all lived and died there.

[Kerrywood]

I found a daughter that may have been born to my John and Alice and she used the surname of Hearth when she married.

Is this the marriage?

Sydney Morning Herald, 21 Nov 1865
MURRAY--HEARTH -- November 10th, at 106, Prince-street, by special licence, by the Rev. John Reid, of the Mariners' Church, Edward Murray, native of London, England, to Hannah Selby Hearth, daughter of John Selby Hearth, builder, Franklyn-place, Glebe, Sydney

Maybe she is a granddaughter of John and Alice?

[Mutley]

The daughter I originally found was in Southwark, Aveis/Avis Hearth who married William Cox and I followed her right through but did not actually prove she was mine.
(need to find my files for a reference, this is all a bit sudden!)

but the one you have found must be related, Glebe seems to be where John and Hannah went.
The tree mentions John Selby as being a carpenter from Newington that built a house for a John Blaxland.

Thank you, she must be a granddaughter.

So that proves, I think, that both the English and Australian children and grandchildren knew of the two names and seemed to use 'ee-ther or eye-ther' as they chose. How strange!

[Kerrywood]

The daughter I originally found was in Southwark, Aveis/Avis Hearth who married William Cox and I followed her right through.
(need to find my files for a reference, this is all a bit sudden!)

From this thread ?

Afraid I'll have to leave it till tomorrow ....

[Mutley]

From this thread ?

Afraid I'll have to leave it till tomorrow ....

That is the one, and we never did really sort it.
I'll also have to leave it till tomorrow I am going

BTW

The tree mentions John Selby as being a carpenter from Newington that built a house for a John Blaxland.

But it seems that John Blaxland's Newington House was in Australia not Southwark. ~~sigh~~
Were they as confused as I am?

[Coromandel]

Following Kerrywood's lead I have been doing some digging in the newspapers on Trove and came across this most intriguing death announcement. Well, it begins as a death announcement, but then it changes tack...

From the 'Empire' (published in Sydney), 6 May 1869:

'On Sunday, 2nd May Richard Selby Hearth, age eleven years, in consequence of inflammation in the spine brought on by a cut in the foot. This youth was the son of Mr. James Selby Hearth, second son of Mr. John Selby Walker Hearth, of the Glebe Sydney. Mr J.P.W. Hearth, grandfather of the deceased became on the death of his father John Hearth, heir of the estate of Whaddon Hall, in Buckinghamshire. The present Mr. Hearth's great grandfather, William Selby, through whom he claims the estate, was killed in the battle of Minden, in 1759. His daughter, Hannah Selby, was his heir. This lady married Mr. Hearth, and had issue four sons, William, John, Christopher, and Thomas. The first born, William, died, and all his children. John Hearth then became heir, and proved his title in Chancery twenty years ago; he is since dead, and his eldest son, Mr. John Selby Walker Hearth, of the Glebe, Sydney, is therefore the lawful heir to the estate. The Court of Chancery many years ago, appointed a receiver, Mr. Lowndes, who was in due course put in possession by decree of the Court, pending the discovery of the true heir.'

You can't believe everything you read in newspapers, of course, but this might give some new leads.

[Coromandel]

Mutley, you give a death date of 1893 for John Selby but I am wondering if it should be 1890.

Sydney Morning Herald, 25 April 1890
'THE FRIENDS of the late Mr. JOHN SELBY
are respectfully informed that his Funeral will leave
his late residence, No. 18 Franklin-place, Glebe, THIS
(Friday) AFTERNOON, at 1.30, for the Wesleyan Cemetery,
Rookwood. GEORGE SHYING, Undertaker, 176 George-
street West.

You can search the Rookwood Independent Cemetery records here:
https://www.
rookwoodindependent.com.au/
There is a John Selby (d.1890) there, with a Hannah (d.1893) in the same plot.

NSW BDMs have a death registration in the Glebe district in 1890 for John Selby. His parents' names are shown as John & Alice. They also have one for a 'Hanna' Selby in 1893.

[emeltee]

You say that Christopher Hearth was born 1775 and he had a son John in 1782 - not bad going for a seven year old!

Emeltee

[Coromandel]

It seems that Selbys all over the land were competing to try to prove that they were the long-lost rightful heirs to Whaddon Hall. It all started with Thomas James Selby, who owned Whaddon in the 18th century:

From 'Cases in the Court of Common Pleas and Exchequer Chamber', Vol. II (1836) (available on Google Books)

'The testator, Thomas James Selby, never was married; nor had he any relation that he knew, of the blood of the Selbys - he being only seven years of age on the death of his father.'

In his will dated 18 August 1768 he said 'I give and devise to my right and lawful heir at law (for the better finding out of whom I direct advertisements to be published immediately after my decease in some of the morning papers) all my manors of Whaddon and Nash . . . and should it so happen that no heir at law is found, I then do hereby constitute and appoint William Lowndes, Esq., of Winslow, in the county of Buckingham, and now major in the militia my lawful heir, on condition that he changes his name to Selby...'

This book gives details of Thomas James Selby's ancestry going back several generations.

There seem to have been many claimants to the title of rightful heir to Whaddon Hall, with several court cases in the 19th century. Anyone with Selby ancestry must have been tempted to delve into their family history in the hope that they might be The One.

Whether there really was a Chancery case involving John Hearth remains to be established . . . but this might all explain why they were sometimes called Hearth and sometimes Selby.

[Mutley]

You say that Christopher Hearth was born 1775 and he had a son John in 1782 - not bad going for a seven year old!

Emeltee

Thank you for spotting my typo. So sorry, I was copying from the tree that was found on Genforum. It should read 1755.