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It is most annoying! It's the first half of the alphabet that I find problematic, as if they scanned them first, then someone went "Hang about, I can barely read these!" so they changed the way they scanned them for the parishes later in the alphabet.

Great Clacton is quite a challenge!

Hello all,

Does anyone have access to Washbrook baptisms pre-1754?

I've got SFHS burials on CD which goes back before then for Washbrook, but Findmypast Suffolk baptisms and marriages don't go back any earlier for them. Neither does the SFHS when I contacted them to ask.

I have an ancestor called Elizabeth Day, whose 1771 marriage licence allegation and bond (she wed in Elmstead, north-east Essex) says she was 20 and the daughter of Abraham Day. I've transcribed loads of records for that part of Essex, without finding her baptism.

But the other day, I transcribed a marriage in Lawford, about 5 miles from Elmstead, and found a marriage in 1716 between Abraham Day of Washbrook, Suffolk (about 10 miles from Lawford), and Mary Burrell of Little Bromley. This led me to look at Washbrook as a possible location for Elizabeth Day and her dad on the marriage licence, but I'm stuck because I don't have access to the baptisms!

If any of you have Washbrook microfiche and wouldn't mind having a look for the baptism of an Elizabeth, daughter of Abraham Day sometime around 1751 I would be very, very grateful!

I may have to approach SRO myself, but I thought I would ask on here first.

Thanks,
Helen.

I've recently discovered that my 5 x gt-grandfather was a farrier in the Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons or North British). I've had lots of helpful info from the curator at the Scots Greys' museum, and I've been matching up info here and there (FindMyPast, Ancestry, FreeREG) and following up clues. Putting this altogether chronologically:

William Jones was baptised in Warblington, Hampshire in 1787 (or possibly 1786). Note: his Chelsea Pensioner records give his birthplace as Westbourne "near Havant, Hampshire." Westbourne is in Sussex, but it's right on Hampshire border, next to Warblington. There's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing of people between the two parishes.

1805: He enlists as a private in the Scots Greys, as a farrier, while the regiment is at Colchester (as per his Chelsea Pensioner records).
1813: He and his wife Isabella baptise their daughter Susan in Peterborough (Susan is my 4 x gt-grandmother - it was finding this baptism which has a note specifying that William was a farrier in the Scots Greys which has led to all this research!)
1821: He and his wife Isabella baptise another daughter, Jane, at St Martin's in Birmingham (we know that the Scots Greys were in Birmingham at the time, and it specifies that William is a private in the 2nd Dragoons)
1827: Chelsea Pensioner record says that he was discharged due to ill health following 22 years of service.

He disappears!

Isabella is on the 1841 census in Warblington (Emsworth, a village in the parish) with Benjamin Jones. It gives her birthplace as Scotland and tracing her in the 1861 census specifies that she was born in Glasgow (yes, living on the south coast of England so as far as she could get from Glasgae without falling into the sea).

She is also with Jane, which led me to tracing that Birmingham baptism. Isabella's death certificate (1870) says she was the widow of Benjamin Jones "Master blacksmith", so she must've married him following William's death (I haven't found the marriage yet, or William's burial). There is a baptism for Benjamin in Westbourne, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's William's cousin (of some stripe, whether 1st or removed I don't know).

There is a marriage in Warblington in the 1830s for an Isabella Jones to a John Payne. On the censuses, she lives next door to Jane and near the older Isabella, and it shows that she was born in about 1810. The birthplace for this younger Isabella is Ireland. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this Isabella is another child of William and Isabella.

I've found out from the helpful chap at the Scots Greys museum that the regiment were in Ireland from 1808 until 1810. So it seems possible that Isabella could've been born in Ireland because her father was stationed there at the time.

I've search Findmypast in a vague way for Irish records, but I know very little about them. I have other Army family born in Ireland later in the 19th C and found their birth records on Ancestry, but I'm not having any luck with the Joneses.

I wouldn't be surprised if Isabella was a camp follower - that she had gone to Ireland from Scotland with her first husband and that he died and she married William Jones. But that's hypothetical! (she's about 3 or 4 years older than William).

My question is, what's the best way to search for British soldiers in Irish records? The Joneses weren't Catholic, so how do I search Protestant records? What churches did the non-Catholic soldiers attend in while they were posted to Ireland?

I wasn't sure whether to post this in the Ireland section of the forum or here in the Military section. I was hoping that by posting in the Military section I might find someone else who had had a similar family connundrum to solve!

I do know where in Ireland various troops were stationed and when, which should help... hopefully.

(I'm sure there's more children as there's that gap between 1813-21! I'm going to use the info on where the regiment was to target the appropriate county PRs. And I'd love it if my ancestor had a sibling born in Belgium while their dad was shoeing horses at Waterloo!)

Thanks,
Helen.

Hello,

I've found a reference in a will, written in August 1827, to a William Nunn, coal seller of the City of London. I'm not sure if they literally mean "the City of London" or if they mean just "London" generally.

Does any kind soul have access to a Directory from around that time, which would help me pinpoint him? An address (street or parish) would be really useful! I've tried looking online but I don't think any have been digitised for London for that period.

William had married in Suffolk and had children there between 1806 and 1815, baptised at the Wesleyan Chapel in Ipswich. I knew that three of his children had moved to London, but this will is the first piece of evidence I have that William had moved there himself.

His son Joshua was married at Hoxton in 1833, as did his daughter Mary King Nunn in 1835. His daughter Sarah Ann married Shoreditch in 1836. However, I think William had died by 1836 - there is an insurance document at the LMA for property inherited by Joshua's wife from her father, and the trustees are "George Clarke and David Nunn, Shoreditch", and two men who are uncles of Joshua's wife (Joshua's wife had died by this point).

I have a David Nunn of Shoreditch in my family tree (b abt 1786, died 1841) who is a brickwall, and I am researching this angle as I'm wondering if William could be David's brother.

Note: I have just this second found the baptism of a child who I think must be another son of William's, at the City Road Wesleyan Chapel in 1818. The child was born in Shoreditch in 1817. And another child born in Shoreditch in 1822 - so I think that might be the area to look!

So... that's narrowed the search somewhat. Could someone look at Shoreditch, please?

Thanks!
Helen.

Hello,

I'm trying to trace the career of someone who was, according to certain sources, a captain in the East India Company, from about 1800 to I suppose 1834 when the EIC folded. I picked up a copy of Richard Morgan's FIBIS guide, An introduction to British Ships in Indian Waters, and he recommended Farrington's A Biographical Index of East India Company Maritime Service Officers 1600-1834.

I couldn't find them in Farrington's book, so now I'm wondering - does that mean they weren't a captain in the EIC at all, or is Farrington's book not exhaustive? Or could it mean that he was a captain on a Country ship instead - is that a "Free Mariner"? I know that by 1840 he was a merchant.

Does anyone know?

Thanks,
Helen.