A Family History Marker

This is a step out from the usual rubbish I post here. I just thought I should make a visible record of where my family history research now stands; what I hope for the coming year; and mention a few areas where help is needed.

So, what achievements have there been in the last year or so?

Firstly, having taken a couple of DNA tests I have a myriad of "cousins" to be looked into, and possibly contacted. The first of these - not actually discovered via a DNA match but through a kind of collateral serendipity - could be exciting. My new correspondent has more information on my Campbell line than I had hitherto gathered and, hopefully, I will be able to follow up the sources he has identified.

Secondly, I think I have finally nailed William James Bawden's birth date and place - 7 June 1835, Chagford. It's the combination of an entry in the RN Engagement Books, a matching baptismal record, and evidence from Greenwich Hospital pension warrants that has convinced me. So now I think I can confirm his parents to be Thomas and Caroline.

Thirdly, I have at last started on the narrative of their direct ancestors that I have been promising to create for the boys. I've completed back to their 2x great grandparents so far (apart from Kate's autobiographical notes which I hope she will complete soon). Doing this has been a fantastic spur to cleaning up my direct line records - helped by the GRO's £6 PDFs of birth and marriage records rather than forking out £9.25. (Both still feel extortionate but the monetary difference is not to be sniffed at). Along the way there have been a number of other discoveries that have fleshed out otherwise rather thin histories.

It's been a good year.

What about 2018?

Hopefully I'll have a first draft narrative, possibly back to 4x great grandparents, to give to the boys. The emphasis is on the word "draft"!

I'd like to find Thomas and Caroline Bawden (or Bowden) elsewhere in the records. Is there anyone out there who knows anything?

I must scan more of the heaving piles of paperwork.

Will I be able to track down the early years of Elizabeth Susannah Evens (William James's wife)?

As ever, there's more data cleansing and verification to be done. I'm ashamed at the number of references that I have to other people's databases with no independent verification.

And all those "to be sorted" photographs need to be sorted.

There's a lot to do. Perhaps if I regularly force myself to post an update here I might inject a little discipline into my searches? Watch this space.