I could do with another pair of eyes to sort out my family of 17century Johns.....

[askyourgran]

I'm trying to draw up my tree family tree but I'm having trouble working out who the several Johns in the family belong to. I've been looking over and over but i'm going in circles. I am willing to pay for the information. They are all called John Litherland.
I have John born 1670 married Margaret Alsop 1733 who had son John 1750 Appleby Magna, not found or can't match up any marriage or children.
John born in March 1720 in Appleby Magna Leicestershire. son of John and Sarah Mathew but I can't find who the son is married to, or if he had any children.
John born 6th Oct, 1739 married to Elizabeth ?Simpkins in Oct 1757 Appleby
John who married Ann Parker in Feb 1746, did they have a family who were His parents?
John who married Dorothy Cooper in May 1771 who were his parents?
John who married Elizabeth ?Stretton in July 1771 who were his parents?
John who married Sarah Taylor Dec 1793 (index M05971-1 film 585293)
John and Sarah ? of Prestwold had a son John in 1784. All the rest above were married/born in Appleby Magna.
What puzzles me which the parents are for: John and Elizabeth had a son John in april 1772.
John and Dorothy Cooper who had a son John in Nov 1772 and in March 1784
John and Elizabeth? had a son John in July 1773.
I don't seem to have enough Johns' to go round, I thought I had it sorted but realised the dates didn't fit. Can anyone break the circle? It's a tall order I would be grateful if you could help.

[Ann]

Thats a very tall order AYG - I do some family research for family and friends but going back this far is very difficult, I mainly use the census info back to 1841. I take it you have taken this info from Family Search site (Mormons site) it is good but lots of dates on there don't stack up. I think you would be best to go down the Parish Records route, I am interested to see your family came from Appleby Magna Leics (that's a coincidence as my maternal grandparents side came from there too!) Do you live in Leicestershire? If so, why not pay a visit to the Records Office at Wigston, Leicestershire, I have been and they are very helpful. If you want to ring them for advice the tel number and opening hours is on here
http://www.leics.gov.uk/recordoffice
They have church registers for Appleby Magna - see this page
http://www.leics.gov....ch_registers_list.htm
All the best in your research! :)

[Ann]

PS If you put this posting under "Genealology" topic - dotty or TheOtherHalf may be able to help, they are brilliant at family history.

[NOX]

Several things spring to mind with this ( and I don't mind helping you at all if I can) the first being to get a large piece of wallpaper and write / draw all the Johns in in different coloured felt pens on a timeline according to when they were born- this helps you seperate them in your head and sort them into some sort of order. Secondly what are your primary sources? Latter day saints have a great family search that's free as Ann has already said but as she also said their dates aren't alway the best. Let me know if you need any help and I'll have a bash at unravelling them for you, but often with our family the felt pen thing has seperated them sufficiently to be able to sort them out further. Just looking quickly at what you've posted though could not the John that married Ann Parker in 1746 be the son of Sarah and Matthew born in 1720? Age seems to be possible?

[dotty.]

you need to lin all the marriages to any possible deaths of first wives or even second wives. Use family Group sheet forms to attach the births to the coule using the usual 2 year between baptisms rule initially and chec for the use of maternal parents christian names in each group. Chec for deaths of infants and then another child with the same name surviving later, very common occurance.

[dotty.]

Also, when you use familysearch.org, always chec the source to see if it is an extract from an original transcribed register or whether it is an entry by an LDS church member that is listed to simply show the existance of an event that may not have been confirmed in a primary source. (a good clue to thiose is always the use of 'about' or a woman's married surname in a child's birth. The IGI uses baptisms, marriages and some burials, some other events are adult baptisms into the mormon faith which couyld be postumous or simply supposed events.

[atalanta]

It was common in those days for a name to be used again if the first one died as a baby. There could be three sons, all brothers, all called John, but with only one surviving to adulthood.

[askyourgran]

Hi thank you all for your replies, looking back at my OP I admit it looks confusing, it can be very frustrating doing this. I've racked my brains over them and on the verge of packing it all in. But my sister wants our maternal side looking up next. Hah!
Ann I live in Yorkshire, I have used a brilliant site at Appleby Magna - St Michael and All Angels Church records and some Bishops Transcripts which were most helpful, but they don't give all of the family or who belongs to who. I used familysearch as well but as you say the dates do differ and I haven't matched many deaths there. Thanks for the links.
NOX many thanks for your help, you are right about John and Ann Parker, John's parents are John and Sarah Mathew. I can't find out if John and Ann had any children though, (another John maybe to make up for the spare wives I have) I will certainly try your coloured pen method to try and unravel them. It is John's (b 1720) brother William and wife Elizabeth who had a son John born 1739ish married to Elizabeth ?Stretton where the confusion starts linking their childrens children and their respective wives. Back to the drawing board.
Dotty nice to hear from you, I use family search mainly but there aren't many deaths I could link up it's hard to know which one is being referred to. I wondered if there are some re-marriages or just plain cohabitations to account for them. My main ancestral line is nearly sorted out but these names are niggling me, I have a family line in Leeds in the 1800's that I can't find who they belonged to. And various living cousins whom I know of but can't find yet.