The wrong Sarah Ayers

When I discovered that Sarah Ayres or Ayers, wife of John Jackman was included in a number of Ancestral Files on FamilySearch (e.g. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:1:M7RD-MH2) I was delighted.¹ In this file Sarah is Sarah Ayers, daughter of John Ayers and Jedidah nee Chamberlain, baptised 28th October 1764 in St Margaret’s Church, Lowestoft. Since the first baptism for a child of John Jackman and Sarah nee Ayres was in 1784 and there is no marriage in the Lowestoft records this seemed reasonable.²

St Margaret's Church, Lowestoft. Photographed by the author 6th July 2018

Following up, the first thing I did was “kill off the relatives” using the Suffolk Burial Index to find all the Ayers/Ayres burials in Lowestoft.³ There aren’t many that early, but among them is the burial of Sarah Ayres, 7th February 1769, age 4. There is only one person this could be. I was sad to lose Jedidah as an ancestress, but accuracy before wishful thinking.

There is another Sarah Ayers in the Lowestoft area, Sarah daughter of Jonathan Ayers and Alice nee Pashly, baptised at All Saints, Pakefield 8th December 1754.⁴ Jonathan was the brother of John Ayers, so the two Sarahs were cousins. What supporting evidence could there be for the Pakefield Sarah being the wife of John Jackman. I decided to hunt for her burial. She was not buried in Lowestoft, despite she and John baptising all their children there. From research I had found that all of the Jackman offspring had moved to Great Yarmouth.

The thatched church of All Saints & St Margaret, Pakefield. Photographed by the author, 6th July 2018

The Great Yarmouth registers had not been indexed, but Norfolk Record Office allowed the LDS to digitise all the films, so I was able to search through all the burial registers page by page. I found a burial for John Jackman M.M. age 55 on 12th February 1805.⁵ Sarah Jackman died 14 years after her husband age 64 and was buried on 7th November 1819. This gives a birth date around 1755, close to the age of the Pakefield Sarah.⁶

Minster Church of St Nicholas, Great Yarmouth. Photographed by the author, 5th July 2018

Final confirmation comes from the entry for the 1769 burial on the Find A Grave website (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142656017).⁷ Sarah is buried in her father’s grave. The headstone reads:

“Here resteth the body of John Ayers, the husband of Jedidah Ayers, who departed this life Sept the 23rd 1767 aged 43

also 1 child, an infant

and also Sarah, their daughter, who died Feb 1st 1769 aged 4 years

also Jedidah, his beloved wife who died Nov the 7th 1775 aged 49 years”

Unfortunately there is no way to correct the record in Ancestral Files, and every relative I have come into contact with has the wrong Sarah in their tree. How do you start the conversation - “Hello, sorry to mention it but your tree is wrong...”?

Sources

1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Ancestral File," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:1:M7RD-MH2 : accessed 8 March 2020), entry for Sarah AYERS (2T2Z-PL); submitted by cpchamberlain618958.
2. St Margaret (Lowestoft, Suffolk, England), Parish Registers, "Norfolk Record Office PD589/2, General Register 1650-1786,"  baptism of William Jackman, 1 Feb 1784; digital images, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ : accessed 6 Mar 2010).
3. Suffolk Family History Society, Suffolk Burial Index, CD-ROM (Ipswich, England: Suffolk Family History Society, 2005).
4. All Saints & St Margaret (Pakefield, Suffolk, England), Parish Registers, "Norfolk Record Office PD 551/2, General Register 1748-1812,"  baptism of Sarah Ayres, 8 Dec 1754; digital images, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ : accessed 6 Mar 2010).
5. St Nicholas (Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England), Parish Registers, "Norfolk Record Office D 28/136, Register of Burials 1801-1806,"  burial of John Jackman, 12 Feb 1805; digital images, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 3 Mar 2010).
6. St Nicholas (Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England), Parish Registers, "Norfolk Record Office PD 28/138, Register of Burials 18 June 1819 - 1 November 1825,"  page 19, burial of Sarah Jackman, 7 Nov 1819; digital images, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 3 Mar 2010)
7. Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 08 March 2020), memorial page for Sarah Ayers (unknown–1 Feb 1769), Find A Grave Memorial no. 142656017, citing St Margaret Churchyard, Lowestoft, Waveney District, Suffolk, England ; Maintained by Our Family History (contributor 47719401)