March 1 – Favourite Female Ancestor
For this first post in the series March – Women’s History Month, we are asked if we have a favourite female ancestor. One we are drawn to or want to learn more about. We are asked to write down some key facts we have already learned or what more we would like to learn and any goals and potential sources we plan to check.
It has been very difficult to choose my favourite ancestor but I decided on Rachel Read (c 1707 – 1803) of Oxfordshire. Rachel is the sister of my 6 x great grandfather Cozens Read and it was because of her that I was able to find so many more ancestors and her and Cozens Read’s siblings.
As Rachel never married and had no children, she seemed to want to leave bequests to all her nephews and nieces so her Will gives so much information on names, married ladies with their husband’s names and even mentions her cousin Ann Cozens who lives with her, which helped confirm the parents of Rachel and Cozens Read and confirmed all the details I had for Cozens Read’s children. Just wonderful.
There is a little mystery with Rachel though as I have not been able to find where she and her brother William Read were born/baptised. I have searched a great deal and am continuing to do so, but I am thinking that their baptisms are lost in the gap years of some of the Parish Registers where for some reason they were not kept up. I’m hoping other Wills will provide some clue one day.
I hope to find out more about Rachel Read too, other than that she was unmarried, died of a seemingly very old age and lived at Brimstone House/Farm in Tiddington, Oxfordshire.
