Samuel ANSELL & Susannah TAYLOR - Marriage: 30 June 1759

[swa]

I am looking for some advice...

I am very keen to find out the parents of my great great great great grandfather, Samuel ANSELL.

I have no date or place of birth for him, just his marriage details...

Samuel ANSELL married Susannah TAYLOR on 30 June 1759 in Ware, Hertfordshire.

Can anyone advise how I should proceed?

Kind Regards,
Sarah WALKER (m.s. HALL)
Australia

[Rick]

The first step would be to check the marriage in the original records.  At this date, you will glean the couple's marital status, 2 marriage witnesses and most importantly whether or not they were "of the parish."

Being "of the parish" does not necessarily guarantee that they were born within the parish, as parish rights could be aquired in other ways, but I have checked the Herts Settlement Records, and there are no records for ANSELLS/variants requesting settlement in Ware, so the likelihood is that Samuel was born there.  TAYLOR, not being an uncommon name, makes checking this more difficult.

The next step would be to search the Ware parish films to find a burial for Samuel, which will give you some idea of his date of birth, and then a  baptism.  If there is only one couple of that surname baptizing children in that parish at the relevant time, then the likelihood is, that they are that person's parents, but.........I'm afraid that it might be dangerous to assume that they are!

All of the surviving Parish Records for Hertfordshire are held at HALS.  If you cannot visit in person, they offer a research service.

Other than this, you may get lucky and someone who is visiting HALS anyway may check for you.  You can also hire the films for viewing at your nearest LDS Family History Centre in Oz.

http://www.hertsdirect.org/libsleisure/heritage1/HALS/halsremote/halsresearch

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp

Rick