These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Evidence
Bury St James registers: only Gurney household is Thomas x Lidda Broddish (m. c.1633-35), too late
A Gurney-variant sweep of the Bury St Edmunds St James parish registers (FamilySearch full-text image group DGS 007413310, 1561-1800) finds no John Gurney household capable of fathering the emigrant. The only Bury Gurney family is Thomas Gurney x Lidda (Lydia) Broddish, married about 1633-35 - far too late - whose children were Juda (bap. c.1633/4), a John 'son to Thomas' registered c.1653/4 after the register reopened, and a Thomas (c.1661/2); a separate John Gurney x Elizabeth baptized a William in 1665. Earlier Bury Gurneys are unconnected fragments (William Gurney's daughter Bridgett, 1588; a Mary Gurny in a 1620-24 communicant list).
Why this conclusion
- Supports Negative result Bury St Edmunds cleared as the emigrant's birthplace - no natal Gurney household in its registersThe St James sweep is one leg of the cleared-birthplace negative.
Sources
- Bury St Edmunds, St James, Suffolk, England. Parish Registers, 1561–1800. FamilySearch image group DGS 007413310., FamilySearch full-text DGS 007413310; Gurn* sweep 2026-06-13, 20 result cards; machine-transcript level
Topic file location: Origin — Bury connections
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000094 - Graph revision:
244 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000094.json
This is one research item from the John Gurney research graph; the fuller narrative treatment is in the linked topic above and the research library.