Elizabeth CORNELL (1767 - 1834)

[bedfordshire boy]

In the absence of a suitable baptism, I think I'd be looking for a marriage of a Mr Cornell to Elizabeth 1780-1810

[Peter Cornwell]

Thanks for your suggestion but I’ve already done that. Of the seventeen such marriages in the ancient county of Cambridgeshire, Isle of Ely, and Cambridge City I can confidently discount all but one. Intriguingly, she was Elizabeth TAYLOR the third wife of James CORNELL (1737-1827) of Swaffham Bulbeck. However, I have been unable to establish any family connection between him and John Symonds CORNELL. Their respective ages would suggest that he may have been an uncle but sharing your burial plot with the third wife of your (supposed) uncle when he is buried elsewhere in the same churchyard seems most unlikely. Also, there is an 1828 burial of ‘Elizabeth CORNELL aged 74 years’ in the churchyard that is more probably her.

Currently, I suspect that Elizabeth CORNELL (1767-1834) was an elder spinster sister of John Symonds CORNELL (1773-1856) but have found no evidence of it. Thanks again for your interest.

[Redroger]

Clearly one of ours Peter, will keep an eye out for her,
Roger

[Peter Cornwell]

Roger,

Thanks. Having exhausted all possibilities I posted here in the hope that somebody else may have stumbled across her but it seems not. Thanks again to all who tried to help.

[Redroger]

There is one thing that occurs to me. It is the strong Baptist connection amongst both the Ayres and Cornwell families who make up the bulk of my maternal ancestors. If they were Baptists then there would be no records of infant baptisms, only of adult Baptist rites; if the records have survived. I have the CD of the Baptist chapel from Lode, but from memory it only starts in 1833.