The Drivers and the Sayers

Sometimes you have to think outside the box.  So that is what happened this week.

According to A Genealogical History of the Extinct Baronetcies of England by Burke, my 6x great grandmother, Mary Driver, was descended from the Moores of Kentwell Hall.

Basic research on the internet, however, had failed to substantiate this.  So I decided early one morning this week to try some experimental google searches.  I knew from parish records that Mary Driver had married George Cockrein in 1744 and came from Earl Stonham.  So I threw the key words into Google to see what would come up.

To my amazement, I found a family tree that showed Mary Driver baptised in Earl Stonham in 1721, the daughter of Thomas Driver and Pleasance Sayer of Ipswich.  How amazing!!!  And even more wonderful, this family tree stretches back several more generations.  I believe this link is correct because the dates and locations for Mary Driver work AND her mother is said to be Pleasance, and the name Pleasance carried down my family tree until the mid 1800s.  Coincidental, but enough for me to stake my family tree on it!!

I have got in touch with Peter Driver and started transcribing some wills. The first one is William Sayer, grocer of Ipswich, who died in 1681 and the father of Pleasance.  More on that in future blog posts.  I have also downloaded a will of Thomas Driver but I am not sure which one he is yet.  I will transcribe that one too, I am sure!

Happy Genie Dance as they like to say!!  None of my FTDNA matches have the name Sayer or Driver in their lists - but we shall see there, too!

And a footnote, it was my Mary Driver's niece (also called Mary Driver) who married the Moore of Kentwell Hall!  The Pesky Pogsons were talking up their connections again :-)