Who Married Mary Creber?

Its always fantastic when you find a distant cousin who has published their family history online, the thrill of seeing your own ancesters names in someone else's tree and the sense of connection. Usually there is also a sense of gratification as you get confirmation of the research you or others have done, but sometimes other peoples research can throw the cat amongst the pidgeons, raising doubts about the accuracy of your family tree. Carrying on the work of a previous generation is also both a blessing and a curse as so much has already been done, but what if someone else's research contradicts the work done by someone you know to be a meticulous researcher who looked at the original parish records?
Mary Creber was my great great great great great grandmother born in 1757 and baptised in Buckland Monochorum, Devon. She married a John Willcock in 1776 again at Buckland Monochorum. Who was this John Willcock? My mother found his baptism at Buckland Monochorum on 20th April 1752, the son of John Willcock and Mary Willcock who it seems were married in 1749 at Meavy just a few miles away. However researcher Lorna Henderson who has done extensive work from her home in New Zealand and has published her work online at http://lornahen.com has John Willcock the husband of Mary Creber as the son of Walter Willcock and Mary Morrell baptised in Meavy on 29th  April 1751. And she is not the only researcher who has Mary Crebers husband as the son of Walter and Mary. Chris and Linda Warren who's research is detailed at http://familyhistorydata.co.uk/fhd_willcock.html also have Mary Crebers husband as the son of Walter and Mary. They have identified the John Willcock who was baptised in Buckland Monochorum as the husband of Mary Reap and later Mary Austin, married in Sheepstor and Meavy. Why do they have the John born in Buckland Monochorum marrying in Sheepstor and Meavy and not as the one marrying Mary Creber in Buckland Monochorum? I wonder if any of these researchers have actually looked at the original parish records as my mother did. On the other hand both researchers seem to have done their work very thoroughly. The only solution I can see is to look once again at the original record of the marriages of John Willcock and Mary Creber in Buckland Monochorum, and the marriages of John Willcock and Mary Read in Sheepstor and Mary Austin in Meavy to see if these give any final clues as to who exactly was who.
John Willcock baptised in Meavy the son of Walter Willcock,who was the son of Walter Willcock the son of Simon Willcock. John Willcock baptised in Buckland Monochorum the son of John Willcock who's father is not known, and Mary Willcock the daughter of Walter Willcock and Thomasin Bowden. There seem to be some children and grandchildren of Simon Willcock who have not yet been identified and tied in to the whole Willcock tree, I feel sure the two Johns are closely related, and that all the Willcocks of the area are all descended from the same individual, but it would be nice to find out who exactly it was that married Mary Creber.

A Day out in Totnes

My four year old son is just getting into castles and he wanted to see a real one, so we decided to have a day out in the late summer sun that put in an appearance this weekend. I have never been to Totnes castle despite it being fairly easy to get to from here so it was our first choice, especially as the entry fee was published as just £3, and the return train is just £5. Its a steep climb up to the little motte and bailey castle but well worth the view when we got there. They were having some kind of reenactment day so we got in free of charge, but my son wasn't too impressed with the guys dressed up as tommies. We had our picnic in the sunny bailey and then wandered back down the high street looking at all the shops and the stalls in the market. The kids spotted some polished stones and insisted on buying one each...chips off the old block indeed it seems. It was still early afternoon by the time we got back to the train station so for something else to do we wandered along the path to the river and over the footbridge to the old steam train station. The kids loved the old carriages and engines and were delighted when one of the drivers invited them up onto the footplate to see the fire and all the dials. We looked at another engine which soon blew out masses of steam and chugged off down the track. On the other side of the rails is a lovely little petting farm with red squirrels, fat guinea pigs and some rather intimidating goats which ate all the food we were given and cheekily tried to get out of the pen with us. Back along the path to the main station we found some hazelnuts which my son, once I had explained to him were, cracked open with his teeth and munched down with much satisfaction. Kids are full of surprises.

Thornborough Henges

One of the big reasons I love researching family history is that I find out all sorts of other interesting things along the way. One afternoon I was GoogleEarthing a little farm in North Yorkshire which at one time belonged to my BOLTON ancestors who farmed there for at least five successive generations. I noticed not far away a prominent henge. In fact there is a formation of 3 massive henges known as the Thornborough Henges. They are aligned to Orion and are even older than the pyramids.

The University of Newcastle have done an excellent study of the site which can be found at
http://thornborough.ncl.ac.uk/project_design/project_design_contents.htm
but it still leaves so many questions open. I'd like to say I have time to investigate further but I don't.