These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Evidence
Sixteen Gurney-variant burials at Great Berkhamsted, 1579-1643, five of them in eighteen months
Great Berkhamsted's burial register survives, is transcribed, and holds sixteen Gurney-variant burials between 1579 and 1643: Jhone Gernnye 1579; Isabell Gourney 1601; Henry Gourney 1607; Jhon Gourney 1612; Jhon Gourney 1620; Thomas Gorne 1620; Joane Gurney 7 November 1637; Richard Gurney 28 June 1638; William Gurney 1 October 1638; Elizabeth Gurney 21 February 1638/9; Francis Gurney 9 March 1638/9; Thomas Gurney 1639 (two rows); Margaret Gurney 1643; and Thomas Gurney 1643. Five fall between November 1637 and March 1638/9. Two of those five - Elizabeth, baptised 2 August 1629, and Francis, baptised 1 March 1636/7 - match to the day the death dates independently recorded for two children of the younger John Gurney, on two providers and two record classes. The parish is distinct from Little Berkhamstead twenty miles east, which the same place keyword also matches and which carries no Gurney entry in this window.
Why this conclusion
- Required by Finding C(ii)'s household stopped because his children were dying, not because he leftThe mortality reading is built on the burial roster's five entries of November 1637 to March 1638/9.
Qualifications and conflicts
- Qualified by Analysis Two compounding query defects produced the false Berkhamsted zero, and the project's own registry already held the answerThe roster exists only because the stem and place-token defects were identified and corrected.
Sources
- Hertfordshire Burials, parish-register burial records and images, Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies; served via Findmypast. Great Berkhamsted, 28 June 1638 burial entry on viewer page 165 of 175, record GBPRS/HERT/007567815/00277., datasetname=hertfordshire+burials&sid=103&keywords=berkhamstead run across the stems gurn*, gourn*, gorn*, garn*, gern*, girn* and hurn*; authenticated session 28 July 2026
- England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. FamilySearch indexed records., Elyzabeth Gurnie, christening 2 August 1629 and death 21 February 1639, St Peter, Hertfordshire, parents John Gurnie; Francis Gurney, christening 1 March 1637 and death 9 March 1639, same parish
Appears in
- John Gurney identity case file — Section 8.2 states that Great Berkhamsted's burial register holds sixteen Gurney-variant burials between 1579 and 1643, five of them between November 1637 and March 1638/9.
Topic file location: Identity — Berkhamsted: Candidates C(i) and C(ii)
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000212 - Graph revision:
381 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000212.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.