Robert Rayner - Dewsbury

[WPR]

Have previously posted baptism for Thomas son of Thomas in Dewsbury 26 Dec 1787
so Thomas could be brother of Robert snr - so Robert jnr and Daniel would be cousins

Suz

That would certainly be plausible Suz. I'm hoping we'll be able to confirm that Thomas (the elder) was indeed Robert's (the elder) father as the baptism records seem to suggest. I find it interesting that both Robert (the younger) and Daniel married Hemingway sisters, Betty and Mary respectively and that Robert and Betty had Daniel and Mary as lodgers in the 1851 census. It's no wonder this gets so confusing at times.

By the way, my father was absolutely delighted to learn of this new information. He had been working on the family history since the early 1960s. Coincidentally, he was stationed in Yorkshire during WWII and knew that the two branches of the family came from there but had no idea he was so close to some of the ancestral haunts. His mother's family (the Collisons and Pearsons) came from Lastingham and tracing them is my next assignment.

W. Paul Rayner

[WPR]

I've found some additional information on Robert (the elder) and Martha. According to the Birstall Marriage abstracts, Robert Rayner married Martha Wilson on 18 March 1811. If Robert was indeed baptized in 1790, this would make him 21 years of age at time of his marriage.

This also explains the name of their grandson, William Wilson Rayner. We've long wondered where the Wilson name came from, so it would appear that he was named for his paternal Grandmother's family.

I've also found out that Peace Hemingway, William Wilson's maternal Grandmother, is buried in the churchyard at St. Michael & All Angels in Thornhill, Dewsbury. His aunt, Mary Rayner (wife of Daniel) is also buried there. Peace died 15 December 1867 at age 62. Mary died 3 September 1870 at age 40.

Paul

[suzard]

Great - you are filling in the blanks

Well done - I bet dad is so pleased you are carrying on what he began

Suz

[WPR]

Yes, slowly but surely. Now I'm turning my attention to Robert (the elder's) possible father, Thomas. I'd like to find a birth registry for Robert (the elder) in addition to the Baptism record you found. If Thomas was indeed his father, then any additional reference to him would be great.

I have located several marriage references in the Birstall abstracts for various Thomas Rayners, but none of those seem to match up chronologically. They appear to be either too early or too late if we work backward from Robert's baptism date. I haven't yet found any in Dewsbury abstracts. I'll just continue digging...

Regards,

Paul

[gwrayner]

Hi All,

Are you interested in exploring your Rayner lineage using Y-DNA? If so then please consider joining the Rainer (and surname variants) Project at: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/rainer. Note that you need to be a male Rayner to take a FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA test. If you are not a male Rayner this does not prevent you from participating in the project but you will need to recruit a male Rayner, e.g. brother, father, uncle or cousin, to take a Y-DNA test for you.

Best Regards,

Gavin Rayner
Group Administrator: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/rainer

P.S. I descend from the Thomas Rayner bp. 1787 mentioned earlier in this thread.