OK, by rights they’re relatives, not direct ancestors.

I have discovered that my gt-gt-gt-uncle, John BALDOCK (b. 1850, Womenswold, Kent) arrived in Australia in 1873, married there in 1880 and started a family. Thanks to Coral for this confirmation.

I have yet to determine the reason why he went, and have yet to expand this new branch.

Watch this space!

Thanks to great help from historian Suzannah (you know who you are!), I have a lot more info on more up-to-date Thanet BALDOCK relatives, from the early to mid-20th century. With the help of certificates, I should be able to get closer to meeting a living distant cousin!

This has so far resulted in my first World War II casualty, Albert Arthur BALDOCK, died 1943, buried in Sri Lanka.

After trying so desperately to locate the family of my dad’s uncle Walter BALDOCK, I may have hit on something …

I had been searching Kent records (particularly Thanet, where they had lived) for marriage records, with no luck. I knew his wife was known as Jessie, but this could have come from anywhere. Nevertheless, I finally gained the patience to search systematically through Ancestry and FindMyPast.

And there I found it! Uncle Wally and Aunt Jessie were married in Norfolk  - Erpingham district, to be precise! Walter A BALDOCK married Jessie I ABRAM !

Now armed with a maiden name, I also found six daughters; we already knew the names of some, but this confirmed things, along with birth quarter-dates, a marriage and two grandsons. Of course, all this has yet to be verified.

I now hope to get the marriage certificate, and plan to further investigate the children to seek out possible marriages, further grandchildren, and maybe locate a family member living somewhere.

The Norfolk marriage is spooky, given my belief that the BALDOCK family may have some ancestry there. Maybe Jessie was from Norfolk? Or perhaps she was a Cromer seaside holiday romance?  The certificate will help …

Last week I managed to get to the Centre for Kentish Studies archive at Maidstone. I located a couple of (very old) wills, which I duplicated and brought away for deciphering (anyone up for transcribing them for me?). I also continued with some Pluckley, Charing and Lenham Parish Record research.

The CKS has books and resources which are not available at Canterbury Cathedral Archives, namely previously undertaken and bound books of parish record transcriptions. This was invaluable to me, having found an early book of transcriptions of records dating back to the 1500s which may not otherwise have been determinable. Well worth the visit!  Whether I can now better determine relationships of these early ancestors, only time will tell!

In addition I ordered (and very quickly received; just before the postal strike here in the UK!) some certificates, including a marriage certificate for one of my mother’s aunts (to a BALDOCK, no less!) and her birth certificate, which should allow more progress in other areas.

Information Overload !!

I’m on vacation next week for two weeks – and looking forward to it!

I plan to visit the Centre for Kentish Studies archive centre at Maidstone during this period, hoping to view/copy some Wills and probate records of BALDOCK ancestors from the late 1500s / early 1600s. In particular, those living in the Charing and Lenham areas. This may help me determine some currently unknown relationships between namesakes, and possibly join up a couple of research lines.

I will also hope to view relevant parish records, too.

Did a search of the Mary Wigan Transcripts (from KFHS CD 12) for BALDOCK(E), BALDICK, BALDUCK, BOLDOCK, BOLDUCK …. found lots of events to check out …. anything but Pluckley, which is not covered by these transcripts!

I have been researching a BALDOCK line which, although from Pluckley, does not yet link to my direct line.

However, one of the descendants was a Walter BALDOCK, baptised 6 January 1852, the illegitimate son of Margaret BALDOCK (born ~1834), the daughter of George BALDOCK and Sarah JOHNSON of Pluckley.

It turns out that, after marrying and hopping to Norfolk for a period, he ended up in St Mary-in-the-Castle, Hastings in 1891 and St Leonards-on-Sea nearby in 1901 – both places a stone’s throw from where I now live!

I work in Eastbourne and keep getting asked if I am related to the BALDOCK families of Hastings or Eastbourne, despite originating from Kent. If I can make a link from Walter to my line, then I may well be!

Well, I went to the Society of Genealogists yesterday to look at the pedigree roll – it was a very comprehensive family tree, but did not provide matches to anything I already have. It covered BALDOCKs predominantly from the Elham and Petham areas of Kent.

OK, so I guess that’s also good. It gives me other names to research and hope for a join somewhere!

Due to confusion resulting from some newly found BALDOCKs on IGI, I am unlinking Robert BALDOCKE (b. 1612) from the previously assigned parents – there may be more than one Nicholas BALDOCK(E) around this period !

I need to verify Charing parish records ….

Following the discovery of a BALDOCK pedigree back to c1600 on the International Genealogical Index (IGI), I believe I have now confirmed the authenticity of the data. This was achieved on my visit to Canterbury Cathedral Archives last Thursday to inspect copies of parish records and bishop transcripts. It has also filled in the names of some spouses.

This now takes the tree back eleven generations!!

In researching the data, it also brought to light a few surname variations – BOLDOCK, BOLDUCKE, BALDOCKE, BALDUCKE … Entering some of these in ancestry.co.uk has already raised some new avenues for investigation.

The next step will probably be to focus on these parishes to determine children & siblings.

A tree update with data additions determined from this visit will be announced soon …