Genealogy Chat

Some very kind people on here helped me the other day (in spite of my misleading them!) with information about the first marriage of Mary Ann Lott in Reading. It was a great help.

I am now looking for
a) her birth (c1822), in Reading according to the 1851 census
b) the FIRST marriage of her father, Thomas Ewell Lott (born c1800 also in Berkshire). Sometimes he called himself Ewell Lott. He later remarried to Dinah Cole in 1836, in Somerset, and then lived in Devizes, Wilts. I have information about his family and the Cole family, going further back, but his 1st marriage has so far eluded me.

I have so far drawn a blank on these, and haven't been able to find out who Mary Ann's mother was. I can't find anything at all on IGI. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hi there - it would be beneficial to use your first posting rather than start another

EWELL LOTT Pedigree
Male
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Event(s):
Birth:
Christening: 20 MAR 1799 Saint Mary, Reading, Berkshire, England

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Parents:
Father: THOMAS LOTT Family
Mother: ELIZABETH
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Messages:
Extracted birth or christening record for locality listed in the record. The source records are usually arranged chronologically by the birth or christening date.

EWELL LOTT Pedigree
Male Family
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Marriages:
Spouse: CHARLOTTE PETREE Family
Marriage: 22 OCT 1788 Saint Mary, Reading, Berkshire, England
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Messages:
Extracted marriage record for locality listed in the record. The source records are usually arranged chronologically by the marriage date.

Dinah Lot Pedigree
Female
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Event(s):
Birth:
Christening: 02 JAN 1746 Long Ashton, Somerset, England
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Parents:
Father: Richard Lot Family
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Messages:
Extracted birth or christening record for the locality listed in the record. The source records are usually arranged chronologically by the birth or christening date.

Hello Ann

I did think about doing that, but as it was mainly about Mary Ann's 1st marriage to George Faulkner, and his death, I thought it may confuse the issue. That was a detour I was taking at the time!

If you think I should, though, I will delete this one and continue that one?

Hello again! You have been busy in the meantime!

The 1799 record for Ewell Lott is certainly the right one. I think the 1788 marriage is his uncle. He seems to have used Ewell at some points in his life and Thomas at others (I have 2 marriage certs for his daughter).
He is recorded somewhere in gunmaker's records as Ewell Lott, too.

Sorry, had to go and do something boring.

Ann of GG, I have just had a look at Thomas Lott's antecedents. I am not sure about Dinah and Richard Lot of Somerset - the earliest I can be sure of is Thomas Ewell Lott's father, also Thomas c1768? and he and his wife's family seem to be firmly rooted in Berkshire (Wokingham/Hurst/Reading area).

HARRIETT LOTT Pedigree
Female Family
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Marriages:
Spouse: CHARLES EVANS Family
Marriage: 31 JUL 1816 Saint Giles, Reading, Berkshire, England
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Messages:
Extracted marriage record for locality listed in the record. The source records are usually arranged chronologically by the marriage date.

Could well be the same family. Thomas Ewell had sisters Elizabeth, Mary, Sophia and Eliza, but maybe this is another one?

Found them! I saw a reference to a Familysearch prototype site - tried it and there they were! They weren't on the usual IGI site at all.

Ewell Lott married Jane Toress 2 Oct 1820 at Shinfield, Berks
Mary Ann Lott baptised 24 Aug 1821 at St Lawrence, Reading, Berks

I really apreciate you efforts on my behalf - thank you!

my pleasure!! and well done you!!!

Updated update, and opinions requested!:

I have been looking further at the Familysearch protoype site - I like this!
I already knew that Thomas Ewell Lott's father was named Thomas, and married Elizabeth Billinghurst Russell in Reading in 1785, but I had not been able to find a birth for Thomas Snr.

Assuming that Thomas Ewell Lott was possibly named after an uncle (there was a Ewell Lott married in Reading in 1788), I have now searched for a birth for the possible uncle. The only Ewell Lott I can find anywhere, was baptised 02 Dec 1767 in St Mary-Bredman Church [sic], Canterbury, Kent. Son of Thomas Lott and Susannah.

That Ewell Lott had a brother, Thomas, baptised 21 June 1765 also at Canterbury.
(There was another possible for Thomas, at West Putford Devon, 3 April 1767, but read on!)

I then found a burial for Ewell and Thomas's mother, Susannah Ewell Lott, daughter of William Ewell. Burial Place Herne, Kent. 21 July 1784.

If these are the right Lotts, Susannah Lott would have been Thomas Ewell's grandmother, and he named his first daughter Maria Susannah. I also searched for Toress (Thomas Ewell's 1st wife: Jane Toress). There are lots of Torres - mainly in Bedford and Durham - but I only found 4 spelt Toress (other than the marriage for Jane), one was in Dudley, one was in Dorset and, interestingly, two of them were in Sevenoaks, Kent.

I would be interested to hear anyone's opinion on whether I can safely "claim" these Lotts from Kent as my own. Another "genealogist" in the family has said, yes but I can't prove it. In the absence of certificates and census records that far back, can anyone be absolutely certain about anything?

n

No Christine, you cannot be certain about anything from IGI records, and probably not even from Parish Records (though they are worth looking at just in case).

We all have to make do with some guesswork when we are going so far back, and my own feeling is that it doesn't matter so long as your records explain that these people are "believed to be" your ancestors, and you don't do as I did and decided that they were descended from somebody really famous, and investigated that family to the hilt, only to find a tiny bit of logic was flawed.

I would suggest you now look at grave records. Starting with Susannah Ewell Lott perhaps. My husband had a rellie born about 1780. We couldn't determine his parents, so I abandoned it. I then found his marriage and death, and asked the local church if they had a record of his burial. They did. And a headstone. And his parents and grandparents were buried there too. Sorted.

Thanks for the reassurance, Madmeg. That's an interesting one about them possibly being buried in the same grave - I'll try and follow that up.

I was sure that they must have moved from another area - no trace in Berkshire earlier - and when I found only one Ewell Lott, I felt irresistably drawn to him! It didn't take much of a put-down to shake my convictions though!