Did I miss a possible source for birth/baptism record - England (Dorset or Oxford), 1620ish, for John Puckett? [closed]

Question

I'm looking for a source for the birth/baptism of John Puckett - said to be either Dorset or Oxford, in 1619 or 1620, son of Henry Puckett and Ann (Nin) Puckett.

I've looked at sources I found through England Project's reliable sources page & county pages with the following (non-)results:

• did not find any Pucketts in the 1623 Visitation of Dorset
• no Pucketts in Oxfordshire's marriage bonds either
• a "Mary Puckett" was found - mentioned in a 1625 will probate record for Francis Robinson (testator's granddaughter, not married & not yet 21),^[11] but cannot identify who she might be in WikiTree (if a blood relative of Francis, she'd be the child of a daughter Robinson m Puckett, neither of whom are named in the will, but most of the descendants named are given houses; granddaughter Mary Puckett is left £10 - the same as "Anne Hopes, servant of the testator", which to me implies she was a step-daughter of one of his sons).

I also looked for him in freereg.org.uk with no luck (although Pucketts were found in Dorset marriage records).

Comments

I don't expect that you are the first to get tripped up by that one ...

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The thing is - there just don't seem to be Pucketts in Oxfordshire, whereas they are on the ground in Dorset.

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Perhaps we should be looking for two separate families, since a Puckett DNA researcher says that there were two Puckett families in colonial Virginia & the DNA of descendants does not support the theory that two brothers immigrated in 1637 (perhaps referring to the William & John named as headrights in 1637 grants?)

The John & Elizabeth (Smith) Puckett could conceivably be the parents of the John who was named in a headright in 1637 - they married in 1629, so it's a stretch but not implausible to think their 7-year-old (or younger) son sailed to America with Groves (perhaps as an apprentice?). More likely, especially if there are two different Puckett families, the John who was named in Groves' 1637 grant was a different John than married Anne (said to be born Jefferies - no source for her maiden name or their 1649 marriage).

So. We do know that John and Ann Puckett's four children who were living in 1679 were born in the 1650s, and a child of John and Elizabeth (Smith) Puckett, born after their marriage in 1629, fits that timeframe (born 1630, say, and first child born 1654).

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Lois - who's the one in Surry?

And the "brother William" for Essex... I can't see what's in the FindMyPast link - is that the brother William attached in WikiTree, or is there a baptismal record for a brother William?

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It's a father William in Essex. (says from FamilySearch)

First name(s)	John
Mother's last name	-
Last name	Frauncis Alyas Puckett
Place	Castle Hedingham
Sex	Male
County	Essex
Baptism year	1621
Country	England
Baptism date	19 Aug 1621
Record set	Essex Baptisms
Father's first name(s)	Willyam
Category	Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
Father's last name	Frauncis Alyas Puckett
Subcategory	Parish Baptisms
Mother's first name(s)	-
Collections from	England, Great Britain

The others are from Ancestry: there are images - one is dubious

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Let's face it Liz, the Pucketts could come from anywhere in England, especially for that date period, lots of missing PR's. Also many people couldn't be bothered to register their children's baptisms, especially if it meant going to another parish.

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Probably so. Still, the searching did do one thing - convinced me that he is probably NOT the son of Henry!

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I want to thank you for all the work you are doing on the Puckett family. As a Puckett myself I have found it very frustrating that I can't connect my paternal line to any Puckett's after my 2nd grt grandfather Alfred, who seems to have been misplaced a number of years ago by a well meaning researcher. In discussions with descendants of Samuel Puckett of Estill, Kentucky, it was determined that there were no MD's in their line. Alfred was an MD, his wife's grandfather, Elijah Bettis, was an MD. I have always been told that Alfred's line came from John 1620 etc., But it doesn't appear to be correct as I can't find a direct link. I can't find his Mother either although I did find that William Henry Harrison had a daughter named Alice. I'm not sure which William Harrison, however.

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I didn't find vol 27, but Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset, Volume 8 - https://books.google.com/books?id=tcQxAQAAIAAJ&q=pucket#v=onepage&q=puckett&f=false - has a Thomas Puckett (p 269) serving on a jury in Portisham/Portysham... 1557/8 if I'm reading it right.

The HathiTrust catalog for Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset only goes to volume 21.

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I have examined Gary Puckett's DNA research, and I have a very different take on the results:  https://sites.google.com/site/womackgen/puckett-family/puckett-y-dna-testing?authuser=0.  Basically, we see different results because one of the early Puckett males was not the biological son of his supposed father; he was likely adopted.

Answer 1

For Dorset you might want to look at Dorset OPC, has quite a few Pucket, Puckett records revealed in a quick search some records from 17th century might be connected family.

Comments

The place I would look is Portesham

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Thanks! I've found an abstract of the 1663 will there...

http://members.iinet.net.au/~suegar/studwillac_1.htm

No living sons named in will. Daughter Jane is executrix.. Jane Frampton (daughter): rest & residue

edit - in Studland... haven't searched for Portesham yet

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ooh - just noticed the list of names for Studland had a lot of Groves (John in America was named as a headright for John Groves of Elizabeth City).

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Hehe  looks like you've got lots of rabbit holes to go down! Good luck.

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But I just got out of the rabbit hole I've been in! (Actually, still there a bit - his children need help too... see notes at [Puckett-515]. Does that mean I'm trapped in a rabbit warren?)

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A very old one ... I have so many lines that go back this far in Dorset - where I hail from - that just end up going nowhere. Sadly many of the useful records for the time before the Civil Wars just don't exist, so we're left with rabbit holes. But chin up you've done great work so far!

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Thanks! I think that maybe he (Puckett-171) needs to have an expanded "Parents" section under Research Notes & be disconnected from Henry & Ann (Nin) Puckett ... I think it's a bit telling that none of the descendant profiles attached currently are named Henry! (There's a gr-grandson, Henry Womack, a descendant from John's through his daughter Mary who married Richard Womack, but he's apparently named for his mother's father.)

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I would agree. There's no link connecting this John and Henry, and too much of descendants connecting their immigrant ancestors with the most available parents.  And the "three (or two in this case) brothers immigrating" line is such a fairy tale.

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Sounds like a good plan. Probably what is needed is a study of all the 17th century Puckett families in England to determine, by elimination, who emigrated and who stayed. Then maybe in the process the two lines could be untangled.

Ancestry does have a few recorded around Oxfordshire, and I noticed that there is a tiny concentration near Witney but there are only a handful of mostly later than 1620 records.

Others pop up in London (your Surrey record was for Bermondsey IIRC which used to be in Surrey and is just south of central London), Yorkshire, Essex, Bridport (Dorset again, lots there), Cornwall and Warwickshire.

Answer 2

maybe the Essex find (John son of William) is where the other colonial Virginia Puckett family came from.

Considering the lack of Pucketts in Oxfordshire, I'll buy into one family from Essex and one from Dorset ... and for the Dorset family, I really like John & Elizabeth (Smith) Puckett who married in 1629 being the parents of the John in Virginia who left 500 acres for his family (which was granted him in 1665) & who had four children living in 1679, born in the 1650s.

I thought that I had maybe seen a 1630 birth year for him somewhere, but I don't find one in the changes tab. Still, born 1630 fits as both son of John & Elizabeth and father of John, William, Thomas, and Mary. Wish that his son William's profile had a reliable source for the middle name of "Smith"!

Comments

If you detach John from Henry & fam, it gives you a greater range of possible birth dates