Hi Gem,
Thanks for your very very kind offer. I would be so grateful if you could look up a marriage and two baptisms for me please. I notice you have the name COLEMAN amongst your list of names and wonder if you have anything relating to our COLEMAN family. The information I have is:-
JOHN COLEMAN b. 1849 Aylesford Kent (m) Bridget GIBBONS in about 1874/5/6 ish possibly in India. John Coleman was in the Royal Artillery and served in India/Burma & Arabia.
Oral family history is that he met Bridget Gibbons in India where she was a school teacher. But, as I found on the Census their first child was born in Burma this may not be the case.
We know little about Bridget other than she was possibly born at Brompton, Chatham, Kent, where her father may have been in the Royal Engineers (believe the 43rd Battn. Royal Engineers). However, I have not been able to find a birth cert. or baptism for her. Therefore, I don't know the name of her parents. John & Bridget returned to England in 1881 and John was posted to Pennar, Pembrokeshire; and later lived in Barry, Cardiff. According to the 1881 Census for Bleasby, Northants, they had two children overseas:
Annie Coleman born in about 1876 in Burma
Emily Rose Coleman born in about 1880 in Arabia
Re Annie, I came across the name Toungoo mentioned as her place of birth on a later census and I think this is a town somewhere between Rangoon and Mandalay, Burma.
I have not been able to find out where or when John Coleman married Bridget Gibbons nor where the two daughters were baptised.
I would be so grateful if you could have a look and see if you can find their marriage and any baptisms for me.
With thanks. June