Finding Mezey Cleve's Family

Rob and Melinda Bowers have done a great amount of research on the Bowers line. They are willing to share their findings on this blog. A big shout out to them for their dedication and hard work! Thanks for sharing!

Here is some information on finding Mezey Cleve's parents, and his extended family. I have attached three pictures to go with the story. Two are of Mezey's christening record, and one is from his older brother.

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Joseph Sansom Bowers (FamilySearch #LZLL-5Q4) is a key figure in our family history. Although Joseph died in 1823, many of his children joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1840s, and his sons James, John, and Shadrach emigrated from England to America with their families. These three men are the link for most Americans today who are related to Joseph Sansom Bowers.

Joseph's second wife – the mother of James, John, and Shadrach – was Isabella Hallden, who also joined the Church and also emigrated to America, by way of New Orleans. Isabella's parents were Francis Aulden and Catherine Sophia Clive. Catherine's parents were Mezey & Elizabeth Clive, who lived in Old Swinford in England.

In the parish christening records for his children, Mezey's name was spelled every conceivable way: Mesey, Massey, Moses, Mayzey, Morey, Mercy. The Old Swinford parish record says that Maisey Cleeve, age 65, was buried on 24 February 1782. Thanks to the parish priest, we had an approximate birth year of 1717.

For many years, Mezey Cleve (FamilySearch #KDBP-MSQ) was the brick wall at the end of that family line, with no one able to trace his parents.

The first step in finding a person is to look at his children. All of Mezey's children were born in Old Swinford, so we looked at the microfilms of the Old Swinford parish records. After searching through the Old Swinford parish records starting in 1621, it became apparent that the Cleeve family was not from Old Swinford. The surname just did not appear at all in the parish records until Mezey started having children christened at the church.

Operating on the assumption that Mezey was from elsewhere — and knowing his name was impossible for any priest to spell — we did a broad search on FamilySearch, Ancestry, FindMyPast, and MyHeritage for any Cleve, Cleeve, Cleave, or Clive born in England from 1710-1720. Wading through pages and pages of search returns, one entry stood out: for an M Cleeve christened in Clent, Staffordshire. It was a long shot, but we ordered the microfilm anyway. Clent was only 4 miles from Old Swinford, and after all, no one could spell Mezey anyway. The fact that no one could spell Mezey turned out to be very important. More on that later.

Of course the Clent Parish record film #1042160 was back ordered. When it finally arrived, we got our first look at the Clent Parish Records. Yikes! Old English handwriting, and very messy writing, too. Mindy just scanned the whole section and we took it home to analyze. We found the entry, translated the handwriting by comparing it to the other pages of abysmal writing, and determined that the record was probably for Mezey. The first four letters are fairly legible as "Mese", but the last letter is not recognizable. It may be an a or an h, or something else. Did the line over the last letter mean something? The priest sometimes used lines over letters to indicate double letters, or that he was abbreviating a name. Had he done so in Mezey's christening record?

We sent the page to a BYU professor who had written a book on old American handwriting. We had used the book to translate the letter forms in the parish records. He sent the page on to a specialist he knew in Old English handwriting. No one could read the last letter of the name, so it's a guess as to what the priest wrote. Fortunately there is enough of the name to determine that the person was Mezey, even without knowing for sure what the last letter in the name is.

Now we could identify the parents, of Mezey, and we quickly found 9 brothers and sisters for him in the records.

In the meantime, Rob was pursuing some more searches on Mezey. Remember that none of the priests could spell "Mezey." Unlike today, there were very few made-up names in England in the 1700s. The christening record started with "Mese" and then is illegible. Since Mezey had a brother named Zephaniah, we thought it might be a biblical name and tried to identify one that started with "Mese." There were several possibilities, but we were just guessing. So Rob kept on looking online. Mezey is a Hungarian surname, and an ancient Jewish first name, but that didn't appear to be helpful information.

On Ancestry.com, Rob found a discussion that asked if anyone knew the origins of the name "Mezey." The man had a relative from the 1800s whose name was Mezey Clive. Rob sent a short note saying we knew of at least 2 Mezeys in Old Swinford (Mezey had a grandson names after him). After some discussions back and forth about our distant relative, the contact very graciously gave us access to his family tree with many names, and very good research notes that helped us to extend the family line quite a bit. Our distant cousin had already made the connection for Mezey in Clent that we had barely discovered. We are in the process of tracking down and adding all the sources into FamilySearch. If you look online, you can find clips of the original parish records attached to all of Mezey's family under the "Memories" section of each individual.

By 1716 when he recorded Mesea? Cleeve's christening, the priest, who had very bad handwriting to start, is writing barely legible letters, though at least the record is not too badly faded. A new priest (with beautiful handwriting) takes over the records about 2 pages later in the parish records, so the records for Mezey's younger brothers are quite legible.

Have a look around the family tree starting with Mezey. Most of the Cleeves are from Clent. Can you find the marriage records for any of the Cleeves in surrounding parishes? Most of the marriage records are missing, with the christening records being the source of the wife's name.

For the Photos:

[Caption 1: The tall full-page record of p57] Near the bottom of this record is Mezey Clive's Christening record from 1716. Can you translate this record? Can you find Mezey's cousin Hanna on the page?

[Caption 2: The smaller closeup of Mezey's record also p57] Here is a closeup of the record for Mezey. Is this any more legible? Hint: the first four letters are M-e-s-e. Let me know if you can prove what the last letter is, please.

[Caption 3: The closeup of Cornelius Cleeve's record from page 53] This record is for Mezey's older brother Cornelius and is from 1707. The priest was nine years younger when he wrote this, and his handwriting is not nearly so bad. Can you read the last name? It really does say "Cleeve"

Caption 3: The closeup of Cornelius Cleeve's record from page 53] This record is for Mezey's older brother Cornelius and is from 1707. The priest was nine years younger when he wrote this, and his handwriting is not nearly so bad. Can you read the last name? It really does say "Cleeve"

Caption 2: The smaller closeup of Mezey's record also p57] Here is a closeup of the record for Mezey. Is this any more legible? Hint: the first four letters are M-e-s-e. Let me know if you can prove what the last letter is, please.

Caption 1: The tall full-page record of p57] Near the bottom of this record is Mezey Clive's Christening record from 1716. Can you translate this record? Can you find Mezey's cousin Hanna on the page?