I'm helping a friend out with this one, and not sure where to go next.
I have Thomas (b.1807) Byway who marries Rachael West (b.1803) on 12 May 1835, followed later that year by the birth of their daughter Martha Ann, and their son Thomas and another daughter Mary appear on the census records up to 1861 in Stoke Goldington. (This is probably Thomas' death record: BYAWAY, THOMAS (age) 62; GRO Reference: 1869 D Quarter in NEWPORT PAGNELL Volume 03A Page 362.)
Going up Thomas' line, the only birth which seems to tally with census age and birthdate seems to be a baptism on 22 Mary 1807 (birth 5 Feb), to
William and
Alice - variously transcribed Byaway and Byerway as well as Byway. There are also sisters Martha (30 Jan 1803) and Ann (01 Aug 1804).
These baptisms are all recorded at The Great Meeting Independent, Newport Pagnell. Currently having access to Ancestry, I have obtained Thomas' handwritten baptism entry, which looks more like Byerway than Byway (but the parents most likely illterate, it was no doubt up to the scribe to guess at the spelling).
I can't find anything further in indexed records for William or Alice. I the header for a record on FindMyPast from the Buckinghamshire Banns Index, location Newport Pagnell, for a William Byway in 1803 - but I think that this must relate to a William who married Elizabeth Sutton on 03 Jul 1803 (in FamilySearch).
FamilySearch seems to have various church records available for Bucks., but what church is this Independent one? Any ideas on how to find out more about William and Alice?
Possible red herrings:
- an Ancestry user tree has Thomas' parents as a couple who marry in Cranfield, Beds. in 1797, but this doesn't sound likely, as she (Alice Odell) was 26 and this William Byway would have been 19 - and then only have children 6+ years later in Bucks?
- There are some Byways in Shenley (a William around Thomas' age, I think), but last time I was looking could not find a relationship there.