Deaths of John and Mary Dawson

[TheSeafarer]

Morning all,

I've hit a bit of a brick wall looking for two death records on the Parish Registers. Not sure if this is down to migration, not looking in the right places, or insufficient records / poor transcription, but hoping someone might be able to suggest a few things to help.

I have John Dawson, born in Walton-on-Thames in 1755, and Mary Jones, born in Chertsey in 1757. They marry in Chertsey in 1778, and then have a number of children there: Thomas (1779), John (born and died 1781), William (1782), James (1784), John (born and died 1787), then they move to Woking, where Mary is born 1790, and Richard in 1792.

I then see Thomas (born 1779) becoming an apprentice in Woking in 1794, and that's it.

I can't see the death of either John or Mary in Woking, or Surrey in my searches, and when widening out to surrounding counties, there are too many possibles. Their children drift towards Epsom and London, but this doesn't narrow anything down.

Does anyone have any suggestions, or are there known gaps in the Parish Records that have been digitised that mean I might need to go to the hard records to search?

[maddys52]

Do you know what was John's occupation? It certainly is tricky with a common name.

I'm assuming neither of the parents turn up with or near children in the 1841 census?

[TheSeafarer]

Thanks maddys52 - sadly, no idea of occupation. His son is apprenticed to a tailor, and another becomes a linen draper, so that may point towards him being linked to those trades, but another son becomes a plater/guilder and so it could be co-incidence that two are involved in the tailoring/cloth trade.

I've checked the census and they are not with the children in 1841 as far as I can see - but the children scatter, and can't find all of them. With birth dates of 1755 & 1757, I imagine they die before the 1841 census.

The other problem is they are so close to London, there are a lot of John Dawson's around and I'm at a loss for ways to narrow it down!