These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Negative result
Negative: Boston town, notarial, deed, and vital record classes hold no John-era Gurney
The printed Boston-era civil record classes hold no Gurney of John Gurney's generation: the Book of Possessions and Boston town records, the Aspinwall notarial register of 1644-1651, Thomas Lechford's note-book of 1638-1641, the earliest Suffolk Deeds (Libers I-III, 1640-1660), and the Boston vital records 1630-1699 are each silent. The single Gurney in the Boston vital records is the 26 October 1693 marriage of Samuel Gurney and Sarah Shapley - probably John's grandson, an identification tested (not asserted) in the family Mendon-descendants unit - married thirty years after John's death, so no Boston civil record touches the emigrant himself.
Search scope
- Searched: Boston Record Commissioners (printed Boston town, notarial, and vital records) and Suffolk Deeds (printed registry transcriptions) — Book of Possessions and Boston town records 1634-1660; Aspinwall notarial records 1644-1651; Lechford note-book 1638-1641; Suffolk Deeds Libers I-III 1640-1660; Boston vital records 1630-1699
- Coverage window: 1634 to 1699
- Search: Broad Gurney-variant sweeps (body and printed indexes) of each printed Boston-era civil, notarial, deed, and vital record class.
- Results reviewed: 1
- Limitations: The Aspinwall notarial register and Lechford's note-book were swept in the full-text campaign but are not yet registered sources (carried at Internet Archive identifier level: volumerelatingto32bost, notebookkeptbyth00lech).; The single out-of-window Boston-VR hit (Samuel Gurney x Sarah Shapley, 1693) is a descendant record whose fuller treatment belongs to the Mendon family unit.; Transcript-level reads of printed editions, not image reads of the underlying manuscript books.
Why this conclusion
- Supports Finding Boston silence: every surviving Boston-era record class holds no John GurneyThe Boston town, notarial, deed, and vital record-class silence supports the Boston-silence finding.
Qualifications and conflicts
- Qualified by Open question Is the 1693 Samuel Gurney John Jr. and Ruth's Mendon-born son?Softens the record-coverage unit's flat 'John's grandson' phrasing to a probable, not proven, identification.
Sources
- A Volume Relating to the Early History of Boston Containing the Aspinwall Notarial Records from 1644 to 1651 [32nd Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston]. Boston: Municipal Printing Office, 1903., Aspinwall Notarial Records 1644-1651 (BRC 32nd Report, IA volumerelatingto32bost): full-text Gurney-variant sweep, negative
- A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630-1699 [Ninth Report]. 2nd ed. Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, 1883., Ninth Report (1883): Boston births, baptisms, marriages, deaths 1630-1699, p. 210
- Second Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston: Boston Town Records, 1634-1660, and the Book of Possessions. 2nd ed. Boston, 1881., Second Report of the Record Commissioners (1881): Boston Town Records 1634-1660 and the Book of Possessions
- Thomas Lechford, Note-Book Kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq., Lawyer, in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, from June 27, 1638, to July 29, 1641. Ed. Edward Everett Hale. Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1885., Lechford Note-Book Jun 1638-Jul 1641 (IA notebookkeptbyth00lech): full-text Gurney-variant sweep of the exact arrival window, negative
- Suffolk Deeds. Liber I. Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, 1880., Suffolk Deeds Liber I (1640-1653), body and index; Libers II-III likewise
Topic file location: Colonial record coverage
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000181 - Graph revision:
244 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000181.json
This is one research item from the John Gurney research graph; the fuller narrative treatment is in the linked topic above and the research library.