Why is the IGI data misleading?
The IGI data is misleading for two reasons: • The parish registers are often indecipherable for these early years and sometimes start much later. For example, the earliest surviving registers for the parish of Ashburton date from 1603 so these records are not included above even though there were lots of WINDEATTs there and apparently the Churchwardens’ Accounts of 1479-1580 contain multiple mentions of the name. • The IGI covers only about half the Devon parishes There may be early records of WINDEATTs in many other parishes, for example Postles notes that in 1545 the surname WYNDYEAT accounted for 22% of the taxpayers in Buckland in the Moor, a parish which is not on the IGI. And there were taxpayers with the same surname in the same year in Manaton (also not on the IGI). There are also several records of the name in Walkhampton My very first search of the Internet revealed 13 male WINDEATTs (almost ten per cent of the total number of 136 men who signed it) recorded in the 1641 Prote
