Is there a way for me to know what set of parents are correct?

[ReesyJ]

I'm a little stuck and was wondering if anyone could help me.

George Randall married Sarah Meare in 1804 in Shipley Sussex

I have found a lot of children who have parents George and Sarah in this area, but there is another George Randall and Sarah that married in 1798 in the same area. And on the children's baptisms, it doesn't state the mother's maiden name.
How can I figure out which set of parents these children belong to?

If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.
Thank you.

[Albufera32]

In general terms, if you are looking for absolute 100% irrefutable proof, in general terms the answer is no (unless you are very lucky).

If you are willing to settle for enough evidence that the balance of probabilities suggests you can be reasonably certain in your own mind that you are right, there are various options you can try.

Start by looking at the extended family of both couples - parents, children, even grandparents and grandchildren. What you are looking for are clues such as an unusual family name or references to eg grandchildren on a census. Look also for recurring place names.

Further confidence can be provided by dna testing, if that is something you have done or are willing to. Particularly helpful is a dna link through a sibling of either of the two George Randalls or Sarah.

Where it becomes very difficult is when both couples name their children with similar names, especially when they are born in the same year, but even there, looking at the extended family can help.

[chris_49]

I sympathise. I am descended from Thomas and Catherine Morris of Llangynog, Mont - both born around 1890. But there are two such couples born at almost the same time there, and because none of them are definitely found on the 1851 all I know is that they were born in county and 50-55 on the 1841, when both families' children had left home.

My best guess is that I'm descended from the ones who were from Llangynog village, rather than the pair in Pennant Melangell in the same parish, but I probably won't ever know for certain.

[chris_49]

I meant to add: any addresses on the baptisms that might help separate the two families?
 

[BumbleB]

Have you seen the actual parish registers for these baptisms and marriages?  As chris_49 has suggested, addresses may help.  Are any occupations given, either for the marriage entries or the baptisms?

[brigidmac]

Sometimes baptisms give father's profession

Can you start by grouping the children according to which church they were baptised in .also look at witnesses named

Maybe follow the children to marriage and see fathers occupation and addresses .

Have you seen marriage banns for either of the george + sarah couples
Again the church used may give clues to their identity
Good luck


 

[mlrfn448]

You can never really be sure, but the obvious ones are dates (if both sets of parents married around the same time, then the children are likely to have been born around every 2 years)
The church baptised, father's occupation have already been mentioned.
Naming conventions - look for grandparents and the wider family.
Finally wills - and here I do not only mean wills of the direct ancestors, but often wills of siblings, aunts and uncles, especially if they had no children of their own.
In my own research, an obscure will from a distant relative who died way out of the area, detailed all her nephews and nieces, including all the nieces' married names. Doesn't always happen like that, but always worth checking.

[iluleah]

Many of us have exactly the same issue apart from researching each and every real record( not just a transcription) so you find every single clue like age, occupation, address etc and looking at naming patterns of children so adding to what has already been said

I had a grandchild living with gran and two of her unmarried daughters one Eliza, one Elizabeth however they seemed to use either or name in different records, I knew one was the mother but not which one.....so I followed them both, both worked as servants in the same nearby town only two years difference in their ages, both married had children, lived in the same area and granchild contiued to live with gran apart from searching the poor law records and finding more information I still couldn't really distingush which daughter was the mother..until I searched the parish chest and found the parish diary in the back pages the vicar had taken a 'village census' inbetween the normal census years and gran had given information about all her children, who they married, where they lived, all her grandchildren and who they belonged to, so not just who was in the house at that time and so I was able to know which daughter was the mother but without that parish diary I would not have ever really known....... as the parish diary is written in as the first 'booking' for day to day appointments/visits and often gives lots of additional information that never is written in the parish record book or BT copies of the PR...it is worth trying to see if the parish still has it tucked away... if you don't live near the parish then you will need to contact the vicar and/or a local hstory group and see if they will search for it and look if it is not still in the parish chest then maybe it was sent to the local records office  I have found a couple of parish diaries in records offices normally documented as 'parish chest package'

[omega 1]

Some bits to mull over

The following Burials at Shipley

George Randall
Aged 74
11 Feb 1835
From Nuthurst

Sarah Randall
Aged 42
6 Jan 1837
From Horsham
Died of decline

Sarah Randall
8 Feb 1803
Wife of George,but which George

Maybe worth you joining Sussex Family History Group
Members get online access to Baptisums and Burials

omega