RootsChat.Com

The sources you are using seem to be good ones. Freereg is particularly good. The compilers in general do a brilliant job but bear in mind errors can occasionally occur both in the transcription to Freereg and in the actual Parish records themselves. You may have noticed the very high proportion of the baptisms at St Andrews (which was the main C of E Church in Halstead until the mid 1800's) are in March or April which makes me wonder if that was the time they were transcribed into the Parish Register from other books or even scraps of paper or whether that particular time was set aside for baptisms.                                                                                                              The Wicker family is one I have been researching and I too have a few uncertainties so perhaps you could send me a personal message to see if we can be of mutual assistance.
I would add that Rayner is probably the most common name in Halstead

Sue,
Yes we must be cousins - a number of times removed. If you have any other brick walls you would like to bounce off me let me know. I have not moved many miles from our shared origins.

Mike

Sue,
Not on Ancestry now. Just GRU.
Think our common line may be Edward c1752 ?
Mike

Not that I can help much but I too have been researching the Salmon and Byford families in the Gestingthorpe area. I also have been unable to locate the birth place and parentage of Philip Salmon.
Many of the descendants moved to the Maplesteads.
George Byford is mentioned - a marriage to Tabitha Cranfield 10/04/1778 in Little Yeldham seems likely and George himself may have been born c1739 in Belchamp St Paul being an adjacent village.
All a bit circumstantial.

Mike