GATTERs OF SOMERSET AND LONDON.

Several other English Gatter families seem to be offsprings of the Devon Gatters. Genetic testing showed that the Gatter families of Somerset and London share identical DNA with the Devon Gatters (see Gatter DNA project). When these branches split off, we cannot say at this moment. More research in the Somerset and London parish srchives will be necessary.

 


Gatters of Somerset

The Gatters of Somerset originate from an area bordering Devonshire. It is not only the geographic proximity that makes it likely that this Gatter line shares a common ancestry with the Talaton line of Devon, but also the fact that descendants of both lines share an identical "genetic fingerprint" (see Gatter DNA project).

The first ancestor of this line found so far is John Gatter, who was born in about 1718, and died on 20. August 1786 in Bradford on Tone, Somerset. He married on 17. Feb. 1739/40 in Bradford on Tone Anstice Yewens (baptized 1719 in Bradford on Tone, died 1790). She was the daugther of John Yewens and Joan Nation.

 

Bradford on Tone

 

 

 


Gatters of London

 

In the London area we find Gatters already in the late 1500s. One Gatter family that can be traced back till about 1800 lived in the London suburbs of Shoreditch and later in Horsleydown.

The earliest known ancestor is William Gatter, a carpenter on Charlotte Street in Shoreditch. He married in 1828 Martha? Lucy Heales. Also this family shares despite the large distance the identical "genetic fingerprint" with the Gatters of Talaton, Devon. It is thus thought that these London Gatters are origination also from Devon. The descendants of this family live in England today.

 


Shoreditch, today part of London, was in the early days a parish outside of the city gates (here in the upper right, just above the name "London").

 


Southwark Bridge over the River Themse in London

 


Gatters of Devon/Cornwall (today in Ohio & Texas)

The Gatter families that live in Ohio and Texas (USA) today can be traced back to Devon. On 29th of April 1920 Arthur John Crewyze Gatter (1894-1980) came from Redruth, Cornwall (on the south-western most tip of England, surrounded by the sea from 3 sides) to the United States after having served in Her Majesty's Navy in WW I.

His father was Edwin Gatter, born ca. 1865 (a resident of Otterton in Devonshire, England), who married Evelyn Jane Crewys.

Edwin is likely to be the son of John Gatter, baptized 09 Aug 1845 at Otterton (in the 1881 Census listed as "John Gates", in 1901 Census mentioned as "Farm Labourer") and of his wife Emma, born ca. 1846. But we have no proof of this yet and still need to verify this in the parish registers.

 


The Devon village of Otterton

   

 

If Edwin Gatter were a son of this marriage, then he would be a descendant of the Talaton line and we could extend his family tree to around the year 1610. Another way of proving this connection would be by DNA testing, since several descendants of the Talaton line took part already and we know their "genetic fingerprint". If you are a descendant of this branch living today in the US you could help in establishing where Edwin came from. Read more about it in the section on the Gatter DNA project.  
The St. Paul on which the Gatters came to the US

 


Toledo, Ohio, in the late 1800s. It was here that Arthur John Crewyze Gatter settled in around 1920.

 

Ellis Island Records

Name: Arthur John Gatter
Ethnicity: Gt Brit
Place of Residence: Redruth, Eng
Date of Arrival: 29 Apr 1920
Age on Arrival: 35
Gender: M
Marital Status: M
Ship of Travel: St Paul
Port of Departure: Southampton, Southamptonshire, England, UK
Port of Arrival: New York, Ellis Island

 

 



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