Continuing the #52Ancestors year-long challenge by genealogist Amy Johnson Crow, here is my son-in-law's 8th great-grandfather, 9th for his and my daughter's children, William JEFFS (birth est 1675-?) from Warwick, Warwickshire, England. I'm referring to him as William-2, as there are several Williams in this family. Apparently the surname JEFFS comes from the time of the [1066] Norman-French, Geoffroi, later spelled Jeff. The final 's' is shortened from the old patronymic 'son', i.e., Jeffson became Jeffs.
Warwick is a medieval town, on the River Avon, and the St Mary's Church the JEFFS family attended has a 174ft high tower, seen in the photo here. Information can be found on several sites by googling the church. The image here was uploaded to Wikipedia by the photographer, Matthew Field [matthewfield.com].
From digging through page after page of several different versions of early Parish Registers in Warwick [St Mary's Church], I've managed to find a few details. The first item is that I can only find one family named JEFFS [or variant] in the Parish. That's good news for research, in that Jeffs individuals found are likely to be William's family - children or parents, possibly siblings. No siblings of William-2 found after an exhaustive review of several hundred pages and two different registers!
I believe I've found William-2's father, also named William-1 [of course!], who was buried 14 Feb 1728/29. I never found a "Widow Jeffs" buried, however. Still, it shows he was living near or with his son William. As mentioned before, I've estimated William-2's birth year to be approximately 1675. And I'm assuming he was born in Warwick region.
William-2 married Mary [unknown surname] in approximately 1700 in St Mary's Church, Warwick, although I have yet to find the marriage in the register. I'll keep on looking in the other nearby churches in case they married in Mary's original church.
William-2 and Mary had the following nine children, all christened at St Mary's Church:
1. Sarah [ancestor], bap 21 Jun 1702, d. 23 Nov 1755; m. 13 May 1727 to
Richard PARSONS; 3 known children
2. William-3, bap 26 Mar 1704; m. est 1725 to Mary ___; 1 known child
3. Thomas, bap 20 Oct 1706; m. unknown; 1 known child
4. Mary, bap 20 Mar 1707/08; m. unknown; 1 known child
5. Elisabeth, bap 6 Jan 1710/11
6. Anne, bap 2 Apr 1714
7. Alice [Alce], bap 2 Sep 1716
8. John, bap 20 Nov 1718; m. est 1745 to Elizabeth who was buried
26 Jul 1750; their son Samuel also died in same month.
9. Richard, bap 24 Nov 1721
It is clear I need to continue searching for more details of the JEFFS children, and also for additional historical information of the region. For example, in the Burial section, one month I saw there were 23 burials, where normally there are 2-8 burials per month. Epidemics? Harsh winters? Inadequate resources in the family for food and heat?
Four years after his father died, William-2 was buried, 16 Feb 1732/33., aged approximately 58 or thereabouts. I have no idea of the cause of his death, nor if his wife were still living. So far, I have not found a will, but that is not unusual for this time period.
As usual when researching 'ordinary folk' in the early 1700s there are limited resources to check. To date I've found no court cases, no wills, nor any additional church records. I can check the Hearth Tax rolls from 1662-1672 to see if there are any JEFFS men in Warwick or very close by. And also check the Victoria County books for Warwickshire to see if any JEFFS men are mentioned at all, as well as to check the region for trades, challenges, and more.
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If these are your ancestors, I am happy to share what little I have on these ancestors. And if there are errors, please do let me know, via calewis at telus dot net, or in the Comments below and I will get back to you either by email or in the Comments. I appreciate the opportunity to correct any issues in these family trees.
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