- The Hagbourne John Brooker, son of John and Ursula. Baptised 1723.
- An Oxford St Mary John Brooker, son of a John. Baptised 1723.
The agent for the Oxfordshire FHS search, did warn that he felt it a little unlikely that my John was the son of John and Ursula Brooker of Hagbourne. The reason being, that other than "John", there is little evidence of other family forenames such as Ursula or Elizabeth. However ... it looks as though Mary Gardiner herself was baptised in 1717 at East Hagbourne. If she hailed from there, then that provides a strong correlation. If I do eventually tie my John Brooker to the Hagbourne Brookers, then I have a fair chance of extending the line back to 1642.
Another interesting thought, is that Hagbourne if accepted, does take us in the right direction for a piece of DNA evidence. We know that in the 1740's, a Thomas Chandler lived at Basingstoke, Hampshire, that shared our Y-DNA. At some point, our Brooker line and that Chandler line must have had a common paternal ancestor. Hagbourne is taking us in that diection. Only 28 miles by road from Basingstoke. A massive assumption here. Chase our paternal Y-DNA line back further, we KNOW that it arrived in Southern England, from Asia, most likely during the Medieval period. Basingstoke is on a direct trajectory between Hagbourne and Southampton docks.
The search goes on.