George Amos’ parents

Ordinarily I wouldn’t describe myself as someone who has trouble focusing, but lately—since the end of summer, in fact—I have felt like I have genealogical attention deficit disorder (ADD). My approach has been remarkably scattered. I might spend a few hours on the Howard branch, and then hop over to the Robinaults. After a few hours with them, I might return to the Howards, but get distracted by the allied Filby family. Then, for no apparent reason, I might turn to the Brosius and Wade lines, followed by a leap to the Stroesser family.

At length, the second annual WikiTree Source-a-Thon arrived, and I volunteered. For those of you who don’t know, the Source-a-Thon was a weekend-long event in which volunteers sought sources for unsourced profiles on the WikiTree site. This was tailor-made for my temporary genealogical ADD, as I researched unrelated individuals from many and varied locales. After three days of arbitrary source-finding, I was finally ready to settle down.

George Amos

The branch of my family which finally engaged me, for whatever reason, was that of George Amos. Yes, George Amos of the Creeksea Ferry, the subject of my very first blog post. There has been some question about his parentage for a while: namely, whether his parents are Edward Amos and Sarah Constable or Abraham Amos and Isabella Cock. Both couples have a son named George Amos born in Kent during the correct time frame, but after some deliberation I have fallen firmly in the Abraham and Isabella camp.

(Unfortunately, I have some fears that I may have inadvertently begun the Edward and Sarah fallacy by tentatively placing them on my Ancestry tree without publicly stating that the placement was only tentative.)

The argument for Edward Amos and Sarah Constable is based entirely on census records, for which Abraham Amos and Isabella Cock have an equal claim. But the marriage record of George Amos and Elizabeth Filby bears some pretty strong evidence, in that it specifically states that Abraham Amos is the groom’s father. If that is not enough, the 1911 census records our George Amos’ birthplace as “Martin, Kent.” The son of Edward Amos and Sarah Constable was baptized in Buckland, Kent, but the son of Abraham Amos and Isabella Cock was baptized at St. Martin, Guston, Kent.

St. Martin of Tours church, Guston, Kent
By John Vigar (http://www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Guston) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

(Incidentally, you will sometimes see our George Amos recorded on online trees as George Hammond Amos. That was the baptismal name of the son of Edward Amos and Sarah Constable. There is no evidence to support a middle name of Hammond for this George Amos.)

Accepting that Abraham Amos and Isabella Cock are George Amos’ parents, George had at least three siblings. The eldest, likely a half-sibling, was born illegitimately to Isabella Cock in about 1840. He was baptized William Cock on 15 March 1840 at Tilmanstone, Kent, his mother’s home parish.

Abraham and Isabella married seven years later, on 25 May 1847 at Eythorne, Kent. Their first child as a married couple (and quite possibly as a couple at all, depending on the paternity of William) was Thomas, who was born on 31 October 1947. Note that he was born only five months after his parents’ marriage. He was baptized a few months later, on 23 January 1848, at Eythorne. Next came John Abraham, baptized 14 September 1851 at St. Martin, Guston, Kent; and last of their known children was George himself, baptized 22 May 1853, also at St. Martin, Guston, Kent.

Sources:

1911 census of England, Essex, 27 St. Thomas Road, South Fambridge, Essex, household of George Amos; digital images, Ancestry, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Sep 2012); citing RG 78, RG 14 PN 10108, enumeration district (ED) 14, schedule number (SN) 91.

Christ Church (Southwark, Surrey, England), London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921, “1875 (Register of marriages, P92/CTC, Item 037),” George Amos and Elizabeth Filby marriage record, p. 106; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 Feb 2016).

“England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,” database, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 24 Sep 2012), entry for George Amos' 1853 christening; citing Guston, Kent, England, reference p35 rn279; FHL microfilm 1,886,151.

“England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,” database, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 30 Dec 2014, George Hammond Amos, ), entry for George Hammond Amos’ 1852 christening; citing Buckland (near Dover), Kent, England, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,886,085.

“England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,” database, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 23 Sep 2017), entry for John Abraham Amos' 1851 christening; citing St. Martin, Guston, Kent, England, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,886,151.

“England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,” database, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 24 Sep 2012), entry for Thomas Amos' 1847 birth; citing reference item 9-12, FHL microfilm 1866545.

“England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,” database, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 22 Sep 2017), entry for William Cock's 1840 baptism; citing Tilmanstone, Kent, England, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,835,794.

“England Marriages, 1538–1973,” database, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 22 Sep 2017), entry for Abraham Amos and Isabella Cook's 25 May 1847 marriage; citing Eythorn, Kent, England, reference p22, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,866,546.