Counties of interest: where my ancestors were

This quick post shows the counties my ancestors occupied.

Somerset, Cornwall, Glamorganshire, Lancashire, Norfolk, Derbyshire, and Westmorland are the main counties from the last 150 years. Going back to 3xgreat-grandparents, we need to include Kent (birthplace of Maria and the place where her parents later lived), Pembrokeshire and Monmouthshire (birthplaces of my Welsh forebear's parents), Northumberland (birthplace of John), County Durham (home of John and Jane).

Going further back we find Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Cheshire (haunts of my 5xgreat-grandfather Nathaniel), Cumberland (4xgreat-grandmother Jane and husband), Wiltshire (ancestor born there 1660s).

And then there are ancilliary counties of Nottinghamshire (home of James Fox of Gotham widower of Esther), London (where two grandparents are born), (South) Yorkshire, Devon and Suffolk (where ancestral couples marry), Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire (seemingly where two ancestors originate), Carmarthenshire (home of my Mortons), and arguably Breconshire (where another ancestral couple marries) - but that is now part of Powys which I would be uncomfortable shading in given that we're talking just across the border from Glamorgan.

If we take out County Durham, Suffolk, London and Kent (all somewhat questionable as long-term places of origin), it's been pointed out that I'm remarkably "western half of the UK", with Norfolk very much the outlier.

Nottinghamshire was a capricious inclusion: not only did Esther Fox never live here (she also never lived at Bollington near Macclesfield), but a distant uncle John Barton (1770) was publican at the Warren Arms, Stapleford in the county and succeeded there by his son. I don't have much about Esther-not-in-Notts: she has been well blogged but mostly concerning her time not-in-Cheshire here, here and here.

If I was allowed unlimited collateral connections, then Dorset would feature (uncles William Porch Creed married here in 1828 at Melcombe Regis Weymouth and William Speed the same in 1758 at Dorchester).  

Coming from the other direction, the Huttons and the Dibben sisters take care of many/most English counties, while Isabella Kroll's unexpected marriage in Keswick in 1907 knocks out 13 countries in Europe and beyond with surprisingly little effort.

A good place to end this blog post.