William Denman, So Many With The Same Name – 52 Ancestors # 25

I have alluded to this particular problem in the past, and I know many other family tree climbers encounter the same problem.  In my database for the Denman family line I have at least 9 William Denmans, with no middle name or initial to help distinguish one from the other.  There are three in my database who are William with a middle name, which helps.   Of the nine with no middle name, 5 of them are my emigrant ancestor and various sons and grandsons of his.  The three with middle names are also grandson of his.

The remaining four William Denmans in my database don’t actually necessarily belong there.  As I have written about before, I have no solid evidence to support who the parents of my migrant ancestor William were.  There is some possibility that his parents were the William Denman married to Ann Marten and living in the Ditchling, Sussex area and members of the General Baptist community there.  My William passed down the information that he was born in Ditchling in 1763, although I also have nothing beyond the date and place passed down from one descendant to the next, no family Bible, no parish record of baptism, no nothing.  Part of the evidence problem is due to the General Baptists being nonconformists and not registering events such as births or baptisms with the parish church.  They did keep records separately (and privately), but the particular record book that would have the record of “my” William’s baptism, which would not have happened until he was an adult (at least age 18), has been lost.  That book might have helped establish who the members were when he was baptized.  There is an abstracted report that gives his admission to the Ditchling General Baptist congregation as 1782, which fits with his having been born in 1763.  In looking for records in the Ditchling and Sussex county (or even Surrey county) areas, there are at least several William Denmans in Sussex in what is likely to have been the generation before my William.  So if his father was also a William there are candidates.

Just looking at the 5 Williams who started with my emigrant ancestor William, keeping them sorted out for looking at records is somewhat tricky.  The first William settled in New York state and a couple of his sons stayed in the same area.  William1’s son William2 was one who stayed (and did not name a son William).  The other son, Henry, who stayed also did not name a son William.    Both William2 and Henry had grandsons named William however, William2 had two William grandsons, although Henry’s grandson had a middlename.  My direct ancestor, John Denman who was the first son of William1 named a son William (so another grandson of William1).  Given some tendency to stay in the same area, there are often records (censuses or even births or marriages) for multiple William Denmans that have to be carefully sorted out for just which William is being recorded.