Parents of Ann James, baptised 21 November 1703, St Briavels (General)

by ElimaG, Wednesday, May 22, 2019, 19:12 (1773 days ago)

Hello - I'm new to this forum and would be very grateful for any help that more experienced researchers can give me.
One of my ancestors, Ann James, was baptised at St Briavels on 21 November 1703 and married Thomas Evans at English Bicknor in 1721. The record of Ann's baptism (which I found on Ancestry) is a transcription of the original records from St Briavels' Chapel - the transcriber says so at the top of the manuscript.
This 17th century transcription gives Ann's parents' names as 'James James and Cybell his wife'. NB in the parish records section on this website, the wife's name is given as 'Sybell', but the original manuscript definitely says 'Cybell'.
I wonder if Ann may actually have been the daughter of James James (born in 1677 at St Briavels, son of Richard James) and Elizabeth Jones (born 1679 in Newland) and that whoever transcribed the mother's name (all the way back in the 17th century) misread 'Elizabeth' as 'Cybell'. If you write the name by hand using old letter forms, it's easy to see how the scrawled name may have been misread. I've seen this sort of mistake in other old parish records. (I wonder if the original St Briavels Chapel records still exist?)
One researcher on Ancestry says that Ann's father was a different James James, baptised in St Briavels in 1670 (who is in the parish records - the son of Robert and Jane James) and that her mother was a Sibella Lloyd. She says this couple married in Chapel Hill, Monmouthshire in 1699. But I can't find any mention of them in Forest of Dean records. Also, she gives Sibella Lloyd's year of birth as 1650, which would make her 53 when Ann was born.
The date of Ann's birth, if she is the daughter of the James James born in 1677 and his wife Elizabeth, would fit her neatly into a gap between her siblings.
I also have some DNA evidence for this (through my DNA matches on Ancestry who are descended from James James (b. 1677) and Elizabeth Jones and don't seem to be related to me in any other way).
I'd very much appreciate your thoughts on this.
Best wishes
Elima


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