is it possible?

[kylejustin]

i have thomas powton born 1793, thornton le beans, yorks in the census. he died in 1865, thirsk district. his wife was elizabeth, b.1789 deighton, yorks, she died in borrowby in 1873.

the marriage may be in 1813, coxwold- thomas powton, elizabeth walker, but im not sure. their first child seems to have been christened in north otterington in 1814.

anyway, jayg told me that there was bishops transcripts for some counties on familysearch, and north otterington is one of those parishes. i have found some powtons in the registers, from thornton le beans, and may have found thomas' baptism. it is the only one for him in the bt's vaguely resembling powton.

thomas ponston, son of thomas and tamar ponston, b.2 dec 1792, ch.1 jan 1793

the image def says ponston, but i found the following entry as well:
tamar, dau of thomas and tamar powton, b. 5 jul, ch.6 jul 1790

and the following marriage:

thomas powton, tamar neeson 26 may 1789

so im confidant that thomas and tamar had two children with their names, and the dau married richard barker in 1810, having a string of children until 1830, with a hint of dying in 1834.

and thomas powton's death in 1865 had an informant elizabeth barker, which until now meant nothing, except tamar powton and richard barker had an elizabeth in 1827, though i cannot pinpoint her in the census yet.

the only thing troubling my mind about thomas 1793, being the son of thomas and tamar is the absence of the name tamar in thomas' descendants. as far as i have found out, it doesnt appear at all, except in his sisters family.

so is it likely thomas powton and tamar neeson had my thomas powton in 1793? or is the absence of the name tamar in my family a hint that i have the wrong one?

[JudithM]

Maybe a hint to be cautious but, although more common to name children after family in those days than now, it was never an absolute rule and names then, as now, went out of fashion and so were not used by subsequent generations.
As there is a Powton couple with the same first names baptising children I would say in all probablility this is your Thomas, especially as Tamar was a relatively uncommon name). The name Powton could easily be mistranscribed as Ponston - a flowery "w" being misread as "ns". Bishops transcripts having been copied from the registers some time after the event to send to the Bishop this sort of error could creep in. It would be interesting to see the original register to check this, also to check that there isn't a Ponston family in the parish alongside the Powtons.

[Little Nell]

If you have an uncommon name that is a likely family candidate that's good, but quite often the uncommon names aren't used, or are given to children that die in infancy. I have ancestors with the first names of Parthenia, Sylvester, Emmets and Jeuel. Parthenia and Sylvester didn't hand their names on (wonder why!!!!). Emmets named none of his sons Emmets (it was his paternal grandmother's maiden name) but several of his grandsons had Emmets as a middle name, which made tracing them easier. Jeuel was my grandfather. He named his second son Jeuel George, but he was always called George and although there were 4 sons none of them passed the name Jeuel on. My sons are very grateful I didn't either!

[kylejustin]

ive got parthenia in the tree, i still havnt figured out where it comes from! the name josiah ran own parthenia's family, and a separate line used christiana for every generation for 200 years, im just guessing why not tamar? maybe it wasnt a pretty name for thomas? or maybe he did a daughter tamar? i know i havnt got all of his kids yet, i find a new one every time i look into them!
i will have to get the original registers, to double check, i think ill put it in pencil, until i can find some more primary evidence, like if thomas senior is related to the michael and john powtons that crop up in the bt's.