Jels - where on earth is that?
The Guild of One-Name Studies has suggested the topic of "House and Home" for its April blog challenge. That prompted me to relate the story of my search for the home of my CLOSE ancestors in Swaledale, North Yorkshire. My 3g-grandfather James CLOSE married Ann HARKER at St Andrew, Grinton, on 5 April 1790. They settled in the Wigan, Lancashire, area, as evidenced by their children's christening records, of which those from All Saints, Wigan, helpfully name not only the mother's name but also the names of her parents, Simon and Ann (Nanny) HARKER. Unfortunately, James' burial record at St Wilfrid, Standish, does not give an age, which left me with several James CLOSEs from the Grinton area as a possible husband of Ann HARKER. Having eliminated some of the other James CLOSE baptisms which matched Grinton burials and/or memorial inscriptions with recorded ages, I became more and more convinced that the likeliest James was the one christened at Grinton on 15 Dece