Which John Couzens?

In 2016, I posted several articles in a ‘my family’ blog. I recently discovered the blog had fallen victim to spammers, so I’m posting this here, and will retrieve these older articles and repost them here in the coming months. I’ll omit these personal genealogy posts from the main DNA Painter blog listing, but you’ll be able to look them up on the My Genealogy category page if you’re interested.

I was working on final preparations for my webinar last week when I got a shock. According to my research, I have a set of fourth-great-grandparents on my father’s grandmother’s side called John Couzens and Sarah Cutler, who married in Portsea, Hampshire, England, on October 27, 1794. But I found that there were two near-contemporaneous men called John Couzens:

• John Couzens of Havant (b. 1774; wife Sarah)
• John Couzens of Portsea (b. 1775; wife Sarah)

I suddenly felt less sure of which one was mine, particularly since the WikiTree researchers who kindly researched my direct line back in 2021 also seemed uncertain.

Over the years I have found several DNA matches on this Couzens-Cutler line. In fact, it’s one of very few English lines that I’ve had success with when it comes to DNA.

However, I was spooked, and wanted to know: Which John Couzens was my ancestor, and who were his children?

Background

• Havant and Portsea are just over 8 miles apart, close to Portsmouth in Hampshire on the south coast of England
• Many online trees say the parents of John Couzens b. 1774 were James Couzens and Mary Misham, but this seems to be wrong; no sources are ever given, and the only marriage between two people with these names occurred in 1796.

Trying to separate the Johns

The previous confusion may have arisen because the marriage of John Couzens to Sarah Cutler took place in Portsea. Previous researchers had identified this John as John Couzens b. 1775 in Portsea, and had subsequently found a John and Sarah in Portsea in the 1841 census to corroborate this.

However, it turns out there was another marriage in Portsea six years later between a John Couzens and Sarah Miller. Looking at the records for the two Johns, they seem to divide up quite neatly into the two people. The table below is a sorting exercise based on where the children were baptized. It doesn’t represent proven family groups, and unfortunately this was sufficiently long ago that we don’t have census records to corroborate these households.

	Portsea John	Havant John
Baptism date	5 Nov 1775 *	31 Jul 1774 *
Parents	John and Mary	James and Mary
1841 census	Living in Shepherd’s corner, Portsea with wife Sarah and the Lang family	Living in West St., Havant with wife Sarah, next door to daughter Mary Ann
Profession	Scavelman (1841 census)	Cordwainer (1814 child baptism); Church Clerk (1841 census)
Marriage	21 Oct 1800, Portsea	27 Oct 1794, Portsea
Spouse	Sarah Miller (widow)	Sarah Cutler
Children	John Edward (1801), Mary Ann (1807), Thomas James (1809) All baptised Portsea	John (1795 **) George (1797) James (1799) Henry (1801) Sarah (1806) Mary Ann (1808) Thomas (1810) Emily (1814) All baptised Havant
GRO death age	69	70
Burial date	30 June 1844 Residence: Montague Row, Portsea	11 Nov 1844 Age: 70
Burial place	Portsea	Havant

DNA

I am a descendant of Mary Ann (b. 1808) have DNA matches to descendants of George (b. 1797) and Emily (b. 1814). I also have DNA matches to descendants of siblings and other relatives of Sarah Cutler.

Unsurprisingly, at this distance, the amounts of DNA shared are not very large. So, while the division of records above seems sensible, there’s more work to be done.

An interesting will

The will of James Couzens, Blacksmith, proved in 1828 in Havant, looks interesting. He mentions
My children viz James, John, Thomas, Martha, George, and the children of my late daughter Mary

I can find baptisms for most of these children, and I believe that John may well be my Havant John b. 1774

Possible next steps

I can’t find a suitable marriage between a James Couzens and Mary in Havant in the years before 1774. There may not be a record, or Mary might have come from another parish, and they might have married there. Perhaps by analyzing my Couzens DNA matches I might get some clues as to Mary’s last name and any other possible locations.

It may also now be possible for me to trace these other children of James and Mary so I can look for possible links (both genetic and genealogical).

Finally, I will have a go at tidying up these records at WikiTree.

If you’re reading this, hello! I’m not expecting a huge audience for personal genealogy posts, but I think it’s important for me to write them. If you are related to any of these people, or have any comments, please do get in touch. Thanks…

Contact info: @dnapainter.bsky.social / jonny@dnapainter.com