C16th research in France

[Phoenix]

Please don't all laugh/groan!

"My" Shapleigh pedigree is shown here:

https://archive.org/stream/visitatio.../n277/mode/2up

I descend from Robert the second son.

I am quite content with this little tree: Robert senior mentions his son's wife Johane Englishe when he makes his will in 1590 and I can find this marriage on find my past in Totnes in 1580.

There was clearly a busy, long-standing, trade with France. The 1620 Visitation calls Joan "Anglois" suggesting that the families bounced to and fro.

The waters are only muddied by an American family, the descendants of Alexander Shapleigh.

There are innumerable trees out there, all slavishly copying each other and getting very muddled in the process.

One shows Robert Shapleigh senior marrying Marie Blabon on 18 November 1557 in St Omer, Normandy, France. If Marie were a widow, it would be perfectly feasible for her also to be the daughter of Simmonds of Totnes.

Precise dates are capable of being challenged. Does anyone know how to discover if this is garbage, or whether records exist?