B - Betty

Betty Yeandle was my 4 x great grandmother. We have had her name in our tree for many years. Dad had begun researching but had been unable (in those pre-internet days of the 1970’s) to get back further than the immigrant couple. After writing to a selection of people in the right area of England with the right surname a collaboration with his 5^th and 4^th once removed cousins began. For them, we were the missing branch.

The Yeandle and Davys families had many connections across the generations. But how did you know if they were all part of the same family or just part of another family with the same name.

Just recently, I was able to connect Betty to a set of parents I already had in my tree. As yet I haven’t found her baptism, maybe it hasn’t survived, or maybe the book has but the ink on the page has deteriorated and can no longer be read.

This revelation came from a will. I had been transcribing the will of her husband’s father James Davys, in which he had left instruction that his watch be given to his grandson James (my 2 x great grandfather). I knew as well that my 3 x great grandmother was Mary Yeandle and that her brother John had married a sister of her husband James.

The next will I began to transcribe was John Yeandle’s. It confirmed which of James’ sisters he had married and then set to leaving instructions for his estate including naming the same grandchildren that his brother-in-law James had named.

What ?

But there it was, John had only had two children, and his daughter Betty had married her first cousin James. Their son James was gifted a watch from one grandfather and some ££ from the other.

Betty is rumoured to have left HER grandson James £600 in her will, which I am yet to read because it isn’t available online. It has been suggested that James used that money in part to fund his family’s emigration to New Zealand.

I have just requested a quote for a copy of another document which I think will detail the inheritance of my 2 x great grandfather and his brother after their father predeceased their grandfather. Betty is mentioned in the yet to be seen document too.

Maybe I will get an answer and be able to share the news later in the month. Meanwhile I will try not to get all the Yeandles and the James’ tangled up in my head !