Worth a try? Bath Abbey

[jillruss]

This is my very first post on the Somerset Board and probably totally off the wall!! 

I have a really solid brickwall in trying to find the marriage of my greatx8 grandparents George Russell and Susannah (unknown) in 1650s-60s.

Having traced the family this far back, they've always lived in either Berkshire or Buckinghamshire. With the help of FHS name searches, CDs etc, I've traced the baptism of their son Joseph in 1670 in Hughenden, Bucks. The only other child ascribed to both George & Susannah Russell is John (Johannes) in 1664 in Hughenden. Before that, there are a few children with father's name only (George) who could also be theirs - although, I know from the PRs for Hughenden that there was a 'posh' George Russell family living there at the same time. Mine - obviously! - were poor!

On the IGI, I've found 3 baptisms of children to a George and Susannah Russell in Bath Abbey: Olive in 1654, Susannah in 1656 & William in 1663 which sort of dovetail with my Bucks baptisms. The IGI for William also adds that he was buried in 1675 - not sure where.

Does anyone have the Bath Abbey PRs? I suppose, if William's burial in 1675 took place in Bath, that effectively means that his parents aren't the ones I'm looking for - as they'd be in Bucks by then.

Can anyone help? Realistically, I know that this is highly unlikely - the 2 places are about 100 miles apart - but stranger things have happened!!

There's no sign on the IGI of the George Russell/Susannah marriage in Bath either, so, if someone can locate it, it might help - one way or the other. Help!?

Jill

[jillruss]

7 years later - and I'm none the wiser!

I thought I'd ressurect this thread and see if anyone can help now!

Jill

[DRH123]

The Bath Abbey registers were transcribed and published by the Harleian Society in 1900. There are two volumes, both available online, at

https://archive.org/details/registersofabbey27abbe

https://archive.org/details/registersofabbey28abbe

The same transcripts are also incorporated into the FreeREG database, which you can search here

http://www.freereg.org.uk/cgi/Search.pl

I expect the IGI entries are also based on the Harleian transcriptions, but they do not always include all details.

Unfortunately, in this case there are no extra details for the three baptisms. Nor is there a matching marriage for George Russell at the Abbey or anywhere in Somerset that's covered by FreeREG. (FreeREG has complete coverage of the Bath area for that period, in the sense that it contains transcriptions of all known surviving parish registers, but there are several parishes where the relevant registers have not survived or are only partially legible.)

David

PS  There was indeed a William Russell buried at the Abbey in 1675, son of George. There was also a George Russell buried in 1674 and a widow Sussanna Russell in 1675. Unless your family moved back to Bath after 1670 it looks likely that they are a different lot.

[jillruss]

Thanks, David. I'm so pleased I tried this thread again.

My George and Susannah were definitely buried in Hughenden, Bucks so I can finally reject the Bath Abbey Russells. Quite a coincidence, but that's all it was! Thanks so much for clearing that up for me once and for all.

I shall have to keep looking for my George and Susannah's marriage nearer to Hughenden, though I'm beginning to think it may have been lost as I've more or less exhausted Bucks, Berks and Oxon. Perhaps I should try London.

Jill