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I was always told that my maternal grandmother claimed that her grandmother was Welsh. As a Welsh girl - born here, living and speaking the language it does irk me that I can't actually find any Welsh blood in my tree, just English plus a lump of German.

All I know about said Welsh great x2 grandmother is that she was small, dark and liked to cook Christmas puddings all year round... None of which really helps identify which grandmother could possibly be the Welsh one.

I have researched this branch of my tree fairly thoroughly and there are no Welsh birth places or residences in it no matter how far I go back
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One greatx2 grandmother has a maiden name of Smith and born in Birmingham. Her father had a middle name of Griffin but I can't work out where he acquired the middle name from but it gets used quite frequently for boys in the family. Can't take his line back too far because of Smith in Birmingham but his maternal grandmother was born in Bass Church, Shropshire which is as close to the Welsh border as the tree gets.

The other greatx2 grandmother was born in London with a maiden name of Weatherill. (Her mother in law has a maiden name of Jones but born Essex) . Her mother however had a  maiden name of Roberts, born London. The Roberts family, as far as I can trace them are Londoners but again common surname, large city so a reliable trail goes cold. Its possible my grandmother would have known this grandmother a little better but not necessarily.

So... what I'm trying to ask is could the Welsh link  be 4+ generations back? Would someone call themselves Welsh on the strength of the original link being that far back? Or should I just accept it's a mangled family tale with no truth to it and I should give up on a Welsh link? Does anyone think there's any clues here except plain old clutching at straws?

I have a 1681 will with bequests to children and grandchildren but I'm not sure if the manner in which the estate has been distributed is usual or a bit odd.

The oldest son (and my ancestor) gets a table, that's it. 2nd son gets house and grounds and to pass on to his son and heirs.

One daughter is to be paid a rent twice yearly and if the rent is unpaid to her then she can claim the house bequested to the second son as her own. She might be a  widow.

One son gets a shilling.

Another son gets an assortment of furniture.

One son is the sole executor of the will but gets nothing. His two children get bequests - beds to the boy and kitchenware for the girl - both aged 10 or under at the time of the will.

Does this all seem fairly standard - I've seen the bequeathing one shilling one in wills before but a executor related this closely getting nothing an the eldest son getting just furniture?? Mind you when the eldest son dies he is describes as a sojourner so maybe his father thought him not the best recipient of the house.

I have an Alice Fountayne and William Brewer marrying in Cheddington in 1634. If anyone has access to Cheddington baptisms (or any neighbouring villages) I would be grateful for a look up. I'm guessing they would have been baptised circa 1610  - they had children 1635-1652 and both died in the 1660s. William died a few years before Alice so I'm guessing he could have been slightly older than her.

Hi
I'm a primary school teacher that's taking part in a community project to research with my pupils in my classroom the names on our local war memorial. Fortunately the war memorial gives addresses for the fallen so I've been able to narrow down the names to the 6 that lived in the village of our school. I need to do most of the research on the soldiers myself so I can get the children in the classroom to 'find' the information themselves online. I don't want to send them off on a wild goose chase looking for information that's not there.

I can find deaths for 4 of them using the cwgc site and I will sign up for a free trial with ancestry or find my past to get census entries for them in 1911. However I feel like I 'm looking for a needle in a haystack as the surnames of the 2 that are missing are Jones and Roberts. There are a sobering amounts of possible deaths for both of them  but either with an initial only or no home address/next of kin so hard to know if I have found the right one.

I don't want to post the names and the village as I don't want the children to come across the post when searching online for information.

The only specific information I'm trying to find on the men is date of death, regiment, medals and the usual info that you find on a census (dob etc). Apart from tracking them down on a census (which is my next step) has anyone got any pointers for finding records for soldiers  with very  common names and very little information. 

I have 6 children taking part in the community project so 6 soldiers to research would be great. 
Any help appreciated!!

I am trying to follow the Hill ancestors of James Henry Hill (1852-1925) - usually known as just Henry, born Tibshelf. All the Hill men were miners.
Parents were James Hill (1821-1897) and Maria Wass. James occasionally called himself William James - born Tibshelf.
James claimed on his marriage that his father was James. In 1881 James was living with his nephew Thomas. Thomas married widow Jane Wilson - he noted his father as John Hill. So in theory there should be a James and John Hill  born in Tibshelf in the 1820s with the same parents. No John and James with father James but a John baptised 1819 and a James baptised 1822 - both in Tibshelf to a Millicent Hill, no father listed.

In 1851 James had two brothers in law (both unmarried) living with him called John b 1828 and George Parker b 1825 - both born Tibshelf. Millicent Hill married a Samuel Parker in Tibshelf in 1834.

So my conclusion is James made up a father for his marriage cert and is the illegitimate son of Millicent. Millicent married Samuel and the Parker boys (who were born before the marriage are either Samuel's from a first marriage - but he was a batchelor when he married Millicent - or they are Millicent and Samuel's sons born before the marriage. I can find a baptism for Millicent but am having trouble tracking her after the marriage.

I could really do with finding Millicent and Samuel in censuses or burials for them or baptisms for the Parker boys. Also I don't have James in the 1841 census either or a baptism for Thomas, son of John. I would normally take out a month's sub to a census site but I'm due to give birth in about a week so I'm trying to work this out through free sites and if I take out a sub I'm bound to give birth and not get the use out of it!

Can anyone help fill in some gaps?