Baldock/Fagg/Small Family History

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 !!

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!