Yesterday we received an e-mail from Patricia & Bob Chown, who we have been corresponding with for some time regarding the Washingborough Pasks.
Patricia wrote:
At the beginning of June my husband and I spent a week from Monday morning to Friday lunchtime looking at the records at Lincoln Archives. Bob, my husband spent from Monday afternoon to Friday lunchtime reading and transcribing Washingborough CMBs from the original register.
He checked at least twice every Pask entry from the start of the register in about 1562 to 1665 - sometimes beyond.
Our objectives in doing this were threefold.
1. To confirm and check all Pask entries by Mrs [Brenda] Webster and see if there were any others.
2. To follow up on the marriage of a John Pask to a Margaret Cock/Cork in 1570.
3. To check again the Thomas Pask who appeared to marry in 1676 at the age of 55 and died in 1691 a year after William Pask, my ancestor, was born.
Some general points about the Parish Register for this period. It is pigskin parchment that does not photograph well but was usually straightforward to read. Entries were in Latin, sometimes poor Latin, until at least 1665. The christenings register only mentioned the father before 1640. The period 1564 to 1600 was all in one hand so must have been transcribed from loose sheets or skins as guidelines suggest. The year change for some reason was written in the lefthand margin opposite October up until 1600 and the years were not always clear. IGI seems to have been taken from the BT film and has large gaps where this film was hard to read.
We sought advice from the archivists on the names and they felt that, whatever the Curate/Rector/Scribe wrote, the folk used English names, Johannes was John, Maria was Mary, Anna was Ann or Anne, etc. when addressing one another.
The information provided by Patricia & Bob has been included in the database, and will be included in the next website update. Sincere thanks for their dedication to transcribing the parish registers so thoroughly, and for sharing the information.
