i've taken the opportunity of a year of lockdown to review and revise the various family histories I have put together over the last twenty years and have finally got around to the Page family from Hail Weston (one of the first ones I did). Only to realise that in the ignorance and naivity that comes comes from inexperience, not only did I not note my sources but I also made what looks like some whopping assumptions not based on any recognisable facts except that I found it in the old family tree section of the IGI - and perpetuated ever since by loads of people on Ancestry! So I decided to do what I should have done years ago - throw out everything I can't prove and start looking at the evidence (or lack of it) to really try to work out who my ancestors are!
Which brings me to my request - does anyone have access to the parish records for St Neots (I believe it is St Mary's church)?
The person I am trying to find is George Page born c.1756/58. He married Ann Dawson in 1789 in Hail Weston and was buried there in 1743 aged 87. I can track him from his marriage onwards but cannot find his baptism/parents/siblings.
Various family trees on Ancestry etc have him born/baptised on 17 February 1758 in Hail Weston to Robert Page & Elizabeth Adams (who originated from Gamlingay and married there in 1743). Or he might be the son of Robert's brother, Thomas (born 1756, Gamlingay) except that I have disproved that one categorically from the parish records. The probem is - there are no Pages in the Hail Weston parish registers (whether b/m or d) prior to George's marriage in 1789 so I am pretty certain he was not baptised there. There are no suitable baptism records for him, either, in Gamlingay.
However, some people have him listed on their family trees as baptised St Neots - hence my request, in the living hope that the Pages might appear there!
Any help would be very gratefully received.
Ursula
