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| St. Mary Magdalene Church, Taunton |
Here, I have posted all of the information and research that I have been able to complete to-date regarding my paternal family, going back (I think) to an Isabella Rowswell living in Shepton Beauchamp, near Taunton, Somerset, England in the early-1500s.
Along the way my ancestors married into many other families, including: Moor, Parsons, Lovell, Read, Forward, Batholomew, Muncey, and Hobson. Their descendants can be found throughout England, Canada and Australia -- and perhaps elsewhere as well. Of these, I have included additional detail about selected families where it was available.
The GENERATIONS INDEX tab, above, will provide you with an overview of the individuals covered by this research, and their relationships to each other. Where an individual has an independent entry, his or her name will be hyperlinked to that entry from the GENERATIONS INDEX page.
The INDIVIDUALS tab, above, will take you to the separate entries I have made for selected persons where there is sufficiant information. Where possible, I have posted copies of offical documents, such as original birth, marriage and death certificates; church baptisms and burials; census records; and any other supporting materials that I have been able to obtain regarding each person along the way. I hope to obtain more information over time and, ultimately, expand the number of individual entries. Individuals' pages will be accesible by hyperlinks if those persons appear in another entry, for easier navigation.
INDIVIDUALS can also be searched separately, by surname, in the SURNAME INDEX along the right-hand column of the web page. Surnames appear in the index if they appear in an entry, even if the entry is primarily about another person.
The ROWSELL LISTS tab will take you to tables of marriage, baptism and burial information gathered over the years about other Rowsells (and people with related surnames), as an aide to people doing similar research.
The GENETIC ARCHAEOLOGY tab will take you to a page identifying the haplogroup and subclade for this family (on the male line).
Lastly, the LINKS tab, above, will take you to a selection of helpful web resources relating to these particular individuals and associated genealogical research.
(For privacy reasons, I have not included personal details or identitites of the most-recent generations even where it was available.)
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| The Taunton region, in Somerset |
The people profiled in these pages are not famous or exalted. They are ordinary folks of their time: stonemasons, tailors, carpenters, dressmakers, butchers and gardeners. But they are special because they are family -- and the Internet now allows us to recognize them, honour them, and mark their lives in some small way through websites such as these.
I also hope the information in this website can be of service to anyone else who is undertaking research that is connected to these families. Of course, there will be gaps and mistakes, as well as some guesses made along the way which may be wrong, and for that I sincerely apologize.
A note on terminology and sources. I have consistently used the term "marriage" when describing a couple with several children, even if I have not been able to secure evidence of a wedding ceremony. This is perhaps an anachronistic usage of the term, and no moral judgment of the individuals is implied. Further, some of the information in these pages (particularly pre-1750) have been gathered from online sources of sometimes-dubious authenticity. (I have been correcting errors where I find them - but that is an ongoing project.) So please approach all of the data in these pages with caution.
If you recognize any ancestors mentioned in these pages, and if you have any questions, corrections, or additional information you can offer about them or their families, then please contact me at: TorontoDerek007@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you!
In particular, any additional information about Rowsells or Rowswells living in or near Taunton, Somerset in or prior to the 1500s, that would be very much appreciated. Further, it would be wonderful if anyone knows of a well-written history of the Taunton area, particularly about the village of Shepton Beauchamp, which might shed some light on why the Rowswells are clustered there in the 1500s, and where they might have come from before that.
Thank you, again. And happy hunting.
Derek Rowsell
Toronto, Ontario
