{"id":2247,"date":"2017-03-21T14:25:34","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T14:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/?p=2247"},"modified":"2025-07-02T12:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T11:42:08","slug":"genealogy-tip-always-check-the-original-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/genealogy-tip-always-check-the-original-record","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy Tip: Always Check The Original Record"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently revisited the marriage between Harvey’s 4 x great-grandparents, Stephen Bunstow\/Bonston and his wife, Grace<\/a><\/strong>. Stephen married Grace Farmer on 27th October 1818 in St Saviour’s Church, Dartmouth in Devon.<\/p>\n

When I first looked at this, I didn’t have access to the original record but doing so now puts a different complexion on things. Far from Farmer being Grace’s maiden name, the record states that Grace was a widow so I set about looking for a marriage between a Grace and an unknown Mr. Farmer.<\/p>\n

\"The

The marriage between Stephen Bonston and Grace Farmer<\/p><\/div>\n

Next, I discovered a marriage between Charles Farman and Grace Lang<\/strong><\/a> on 16th March 1812 at the same church. I now had Grace’s correct maiden name. Charles appears as Farman, Farmer and Firman in different records. There’s even mention of the name Palmer too. He died in 1815.<\/p>\n

I then found a baptism in 1795 for Gracey Tucker Lang. She was the youngest of six known children of Samuel Lang and Jenny Tucker<\/a><\/strong> so this takes me back another generation.<\/p>\n

So what can we learn from this? To always view the original record whenever possible, be it in an archive, a scanned image, facsimile or photocopy. You can often find more information than is available in a transcribed record.<\/p>\n

Finally, there’s a tiny bit of extra detail in Stephen and Grace’s marriage record. Not only was Stephen a mariner when he married, just like Grace’s first husband, but we find out that he was ‘late of Dover’. However, this is where the trail goes cold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently revisited the marriage between Harvey’s 4 x great-grandparents, Stephen Bunstow\/Bonston and his wife, Grace. Stephen married Grace Farmer on 27th October 1818 in St Saviour’s Church, Dartmouth in Devon. When I first looked at this, I didn’t have … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,110,112,108,109],"class_list":["post-2247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ancestors-corner","tag-bonston","tag-bunstow","tag-farman","tag-lang","tag-tucker"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t