Why do my offers of help seem to be rejected?

[coombs]

I tend to become too determined for a certain ancestor, trying to get back that bit further, but usually, as we know, FH gets harder the further back you go, especially before 1800.

I agree and feel the rise of Nonconformism in the 18th Century has made life difficult for me!

Regarding Wesleyan Methodists, Wilberforce Morrell said ... it did not occur to them to preserve any record of their efforts.

Wesleyans numbered 444 in just one Yorkshire W.R. circuit.

Until the early 19th Century when the Registrar General collected Registers c.1837.

The Selby, Yorkshire, Baptist / Unitarian Chapel began in 1690, but records didn't survive, until the late 1790s.

This list shows how extensive surviving Nonconformist records held in West Yorkshire Archives (WYAS), are ...

West Yorkshire, Non-Conformist Records, 1646-1985
https://search.ancestry.com/search/dbextra.aspx?dbid=2268

Mark

I feel this is the same for my Dorset and Essex lot, and for my Oxfordshire lot. Survival rates for NC records can be quite patchy, and this can explain the missing baptisms. However NC records can often be more informative than the standard PR's.

I should be grateful that I do not have 75% Irish ancestry past 1850. Getting back to the late 1700s in Ireland is often seen as an achievement due to the lack of surviving records.