Do the Littlewood families of Retford and E. Markham have a traced common ancestor from the C16 or C17?

Question

I am trying to find the birthplace of John Littlewood who comes to Retford with Martha Jawitt (or Jowett, etc) and gets married in 1737 at Babworth nearby (Martha is pregnant). They have 6 traceable children, but all but the first, Sarah, die in infancy. Sarah dies unmarried in 1761.
I am also trying to trace the origin of another John Littlewood who apparently comes to Retford and marries Ann Moss in 1737 (this is the first reference to John). I am their decendant.
I want to find the origins of these two John Littlewoods and hopefully a connection between them. I have looked in all the usual places, Parish registers, LDS and so on. I really need info you might have or a really good idea.

C16 means Sixteenth Century, e.g. dates like 1501, 1583.
C17 means Seventeenth Century, e.g. dates like 1601, 1683.

The first Vital Record I got was the Marriage documentation for John Littlewood and Martha Jawitt at Babworth.
This is a Parish Register entry for 19/06/1737 (a C18 date).
It is written by the Curate and merely states: 'John Littelwood and Martha Jawitt
both of Ye parish of Babworth were married June Ye 19th'.
Spelling was not so important in those days.
The 'Y' letter represented the sound 'th' as in the word 'then.
Entries in these early Parish Registers contained little or no family information, and lots of detective work is required.
Thanks for reading my question.
Please don't answer my question unless you think you can really help with info. you possess or with a real insight which you think you might have on the problem.

If you don't understand the question, or parts of it, you can't really answer it, can you?
Once again, thanks for reading my question.

Answer 1

Hey CANAILLE,

The first Vital Record you should get is some form of Marriage documentation for John Littlewood and Martha Jawitt at Babworth. That should list their Birth Dates, and Birth Locations, and parents names. Then, you should be able to trace back to the Birth records for them at the locations given. You might try their Death records also.

For the sake of answering this question, where is Retford? and Babworth? Are they England, US, Canada? Also, what context is C16 and C17? Sorry, I really don't know.

The vital records will depend on where these places are, so here are some vital record sites. Try also Cindy's list, and look through surname postings on GENFORUM for the specific surnames. - hope this helps.

Answer 2

Nobody knows what you are talking about. Explain C16 and C17 please.

Answer 3

no