These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Finding
Other named households and the wider sweep hold ~8% combined residual; Candidate B remains the sole survivor
None of the households surveyed here reproduces the colonial John's full family signature, and the naming-pattern check cuts both ways: no Gurney child anywhere in this sweep is named Francis, still the strongest single argument against Candidate B even though it is not on its own dispositive. Taken together with Candidates A, C, and D, the Earsham will and this sweep account for every other named same-name household the record searches have surfaced. The five households attested by only a single indexed event -- Ackworth, Hitcham, and the non-Mary Aylesbury/Amersham/Norwich grooms -- are not treated as hard eliminations, because a household attested by only one indexed event cannot itself rule out an unrecorded emigration the way a continuing English record can; the identity case file's probability model carries them at a combined ~8% residual, a figure held external-canonical to that file. Candidate B remains the only candidate the shared matching-criteria profile does not eliminate or reduce to a residual.
Why this conclusion
- Synthesizes Analysis The elimination scaffold: structural grounds, not a blanket same-surname suspicionApplies the shared elimination scaffold's residual-vs-eliminated distinction across this whole group of households.
- Synthesizes Evidence John Gurnell (freeman 1643) is a distinct surname, confirmed by an 1675 Dorchester death entryThe Gurnell false-friend resolution is part of clearing the field.
- Synthesizes Evidence Fourteen further Norfolk John-Gurney baptisms across six parishes, 1623-1643, none matching the full child setThe Norfolk density survey is part of the same clearing exercise.
- Synthesizes Negative result No English John Gurney household outside the named candidates carries a Richard, John Jr., Peter, or IsaacThe Richard/Isaac negative search is part of the same clearing exercise.
- Synthesizes Finding Earsham testator and his minor son are both the wrong generation to be the emigrantEarsham is one of the eliminations this synthesis draws together.
- Synthesizes Evidence English parish, probate, and muster comparators clearing the remaining same-name fieldThe wider English clearance sweep is the bulk of the evidence this synthesis draws together.
Sources
- Findmypast search-results bundle for John Gurney with surname variants (Gurney, Gurny, Gourney, Garney, Garnes, Garneys, Garrne, Gernne, Gerne, Girney, Girny, Guerne, Gourny, Gorme, Grune, Grone, Grine, Grene, Gurnoe), 1620-1680, across the following sets: England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975; England Deaths & Burials 1538-1991; England Marriages 1538-1973; National Burial Index for England & Wales; Bedfordshire Burials; Bedfordshire Baptisms; Bedfordshire Marriages; Buckinghamshire Burial Index; Buckinghamshire Baptism Index; Buckinghamshire Marriage Index; Berkshire Probate Index; Berkshire Baptisms Index; Britain Marriage Licences; Norfolk Burials; Norfolk Baptisms; Norfolk Monumental Inscriptions 1600-1900s Index; Norfolk Wills & Probate; Hertfordshire Banns & Marriages; Hertfordshire Probate Records Index; Yorkshire Burials; Westminster Burials; Northamptonshire And Rutland Probate Index; London Docklands and East End Baptisms., May 2026 supplementary same-name sweep; the surfaced field against which the wife-name and continuing-residence tests were run
Topic file location: Identity — Other Eliminations and Earsham
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000120 - Graph revision:
244 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000120.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.