Thank you I tried to find the A.tree with John/Jeanne on it, without success, but A.fr offered a Jean Rumyer in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine. Rumyer could quite easily become Runnyer, I think. Only trouble is that I would have needed a world subscription, and then I expect I would have found he was born in 1850 or some such year - I'm lucky like that
Here's a bigger extract of the register, including the same entry as above but also taking in a heading a few lines down, which I have interpreted as Burialls A[nn]o 1586. To add to the confusion, the dates are given in Roman numerals, using an 'x' that looks like a funny 'p', and with 'j' doing duty for a terminal 'i'.
I am totally bemused that anyone can read that. I think I would give up before trying . Well done you lot
I don't think you would, Chimp, not if one of them was an ancestor of yours! And at least it's English; a lot of records that far back are in the dreaded Latin
I wondered about that; it seems totally daft when the year is written 1486. No consistency, some people, as well as a darned silly way to write capital 'B's. Further to that, have you noticed that only John seems to have a surname with a capital letter, if you stick with a 'B'; all the others are written with small letters: Margaret damarel and william/martin thromody, for example. If it's any consolation, I saw a television programme this week where a historian, a doctorate to her name, was looking up records of people who had lived in a particular house, and she found a marriage of the owner, way back, whom she said had married a Mary Miffe. Even from the fairly fleeting glance on the film, it was screamingly obvious than Mary's surname did not start with the same letter as her Christian name, and, in fact, her surname appeared to be Joliffe. Well, if someone educated in old documents is prepared to make a clanger like that in front of the television cameras, it doesn't hold out much hope for us, does it?! Have you tried looking for the same surname in the baptisms or marriages? it might suddenly jump out at you, and it'll be a eureka moment