RootsChat.Com

For a fiver or so the BRO will do the look up for you - save the fare to London as well as the fare to Reading.

However, Maidenhead Library will quite possibly do it for nowt - have you tried them yet?

I'll certainly bear these other two possibilities in mind before deciding how to spend my hard earned euros.

Which ones, Bob? The Parish Registers or the Bishop's Transcripts? As I said I'm in Sardinia but I go to London 2 or 3 times a year seeing as that's where I come from, but I only manage to stay for a couple of days at a time usually at weekends, which has so far put paid to any idea of a trip to Reading. The SoG sounds a bit more promising, What do they require in exchange for access?

Thanks for the information, David. I think the original record does exist and it's in the Berkshire Records Office. It's just that the LDS appear only to have a few years of them.

Oxfordshire! That's even further than Berkshire, but thanks anyway for the information, Newburychap. I'm interested in a period before 1836 though, initially 1770-1807, and then, if I found out my Pains actually did come from Winkfield, from 1770 backwards.

Regards,

Chris

Okay Bob, thanks anyway.
I haven't made much progress regarding Joseph Pain since I first posted, though I'm more convinced than ever he was from Winkfield.
Regards,
Chris

My gt gt grandfather Willian Carpenter, who married, worked as an exciseman and died in Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, Wales, was born in Hereford in 1810 0r 1811, if the age given on the 1851 census is reliable. On his marriage certificate he states that his father was "William Carpenter, Schoolmaster".

On the 1841 and 1851 censuses there is a William Carpenter (1772-1858) who was a schoolmaster at the Blue Coat School, as were his sons Thomas and Robert Hobart. The IGI list 8 christenings between 1797 and 1809 for William Carpenter and his wife Mary, the first two at St John Baptist and the rest at All Saints, but my William is on the list. Neither is Emma who is living with William and Mary in 1841, aged 25 according to the census meaning she was born between 1811 and 1816, presumably another daughter.

There is a christening on the IGI for a William Carpenter in Hereford, 29 November 1812, but the parents are John and Susannah Carpenter

Is there anyone out there who has any further information about my William Carpenter's birth or any other information regarding the Carpenter family and their work at the Blue Coat School? Or could anyone willing to do look-ups in Hereford put me on their list?

One more thing worthy of note is that another son of William Carpenter Snr, James, named one of his daughters Olivia Tyrconnell Carpenter, which is interesting when you realise that the title of Earl of Tyrconnell was held between 1723 and 1812 by three successive George Carpenters. This could indicate a remote link between the humble schoolmasters of Blue Coat School and the Carpenters, Earls of Tyconnell, or, as is more likely, is a case of wishful thinking by James Carpenter, who, in 1841, gave  his occupation as "Writer", only to end up in 1881 as the more respectable-sounding "Clerk to Commissioner of Taxes".

Is there anyone who can elucidate?

Worldsender