X00349 Sorting out Nathaniel D'Eye d. 1773 Part 2

I posed a few weeks ago about X00349 and the discrepancy with Nathaniel D'Eye's birth year.

I have since found in the parish records for Eye in 1737 a baptism record and a burial record for a Nathaniel D'Eye, son of Nathaniel D'Eye. The baptism was dated 25 July 1737 and the burial was 23 October 1737

So, it would appear that there was a child named Nathaniel D'Eye who was born and died in 1737 as per the Find-a-Grave reference. It would appear to be the same one, as they are both listed as the son of Nathaniel D'Eye and the burial record wouldn't have likely said "son of Nathaniel D'Eye" if he was older.

So, what does that now mean for Nathaniel D'Eye who died 1773? Well, I went back to what my original source, which was the Visitation of Norfolk 1664. Sure enough, I did find the mention of Nathaniel D'Eye buried 13 January 1773, son of Nathaniel D'Eye and Mary Cullum. That one is definitely my ancestor, as he married Ann Rust in 1770.

But then I also found a Nathaniel D'Eye, son of Francis D'Eye and Mary Stebbing who died 6 January 1773.

So now this is interesting. If the information in the Visitation is correct, then these two Nathaniel D'Eyes would be first cousins and would have died around the same few days as each other. It seems quite unlikely that that would be the case; unless there was some disaster or plague that happened. On the other hand, if the Visitation is wrong and they are the same person, which set of parents is the correct one? Looks like this investigation just got a whole lot more complicated.

X00349 Sorting out Nathaniel D'Eye d. 1773

I have a number of direct ancestors in my tree named Nathaniel D'Eye and a good number of them were members of the clergy. One in particular that I am looking at is my fifth great grandfather, Nathaniel D'Eye who died in 1773.

I had his year of birth down as 1737. But recently, I found another Nathaniel D'Eye listed on Find A Grave from the same parents who was supposedly born and died in 1737. There is no photo of the gravestone or inscription on Find A Grave so it hasn't been verified. But it has my thinking if I have the right year of birth or not. It's very unlikely that the parents could have had two children by the same name in the same year.

So, I went back to check my sources for the year of birth and found that it was "Ancestral File" and must have gone back to my early days of genealogy research when I wasn't so thorough with my research, and took the Ancestral File as a valid source. I suspect what likely happened is that someone found the 1737 baptism record for the Nathaniel who died young and took it as the baptism record for the Nathaniel who died in 1773. So, now it's time to start checking for the original records. More to come....