These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Negative result
Negative: FamilySearch full-text sweep surfaces no new John Gurney colony document
A FamilySearch full-text search across the Massachusetts Bay colony-records films and the Massachusetts State Archives (Felt) colonial-period volumes surfaced no John Gurney document beyond the two already known (the 1641 gunpowder-fine calendar and the 1644 bill). The residual '+Braintree +meadowes' images resolve to the 1664 will of James Penniman and the 1689/90 will of Richard Brackett, neither naming a Gurney. Manuscript-level searching thus adds no record to the printed footprint.
Search scope
- Searched: FamilySearch Full-Text Search — Massachusetts Bay colony-records films and Massachusetts State Archives (Felt) colonial-period volumes; Suffolk probate and deed images
- Coverage window: 1636 to 1699
- Search: +Gurny/+Gurney/+Gurnie/+Girny variant probes with +Braintree/+Weymouth/+meadowes/+petition token anchors across the colony-records and Felt-volume films.
- Results reviewed: 0
- Limitations: 17th-century manuscript petition text does not OCR searchably; the 1646 Braintree petition's own text returns zero, so a null full-text result is a manuscript-index negative, not a full manuscript negative.; Felt volumes are reachable through calendar/index pages rather than searchable body text.
Why this conclusion
- Supports Finding Boston silence: every surviving Boston-era record class holds no John GurneyThe manuscript-level full-text sweep adds no Boston or colony document, reinforcing the printed silence.
Sources
- FamilySearch Full-Text Search, AI-transcribed manuscript image collections (deeds, probate, parish and borough records)., Mass Bay colony-records films + Mass Archives (Felt) colonial volumes; +Gurny/+Gurney/+Girny and +Braintree/+meadowes/+petition token-anchored probes
Topic file location: Colonial record coverage
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000182 - Graph revision:
244 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000182.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.