Hi List I am new to this list and need some help and advice from SKS please. I have just started researching my husband's family. His grandparents, William GARDNER and Maria MONK were married on 8th December 1915, and their marriage certificate states that William was a canal boatman, residing at Stockton at the time of his marriage. His father was Charles GARDNER, occupation a former canal boatman. Maria MONK is shown on the certificate as the daughter of Henry MONK, also a canal boatman, although her address was Sanders Street, Warwick i.e. land-based. I understand that William GARDNER ran tar boats on the canals for Fellows and Moreton. His birth was never registered, but his christening was, although he always told family members that he remembered walking to his christening in Long Itchington church. His father Charles Gardner apparently came from the Birmingham area, and was born of a canal boat family. Supposedly, so too was Henry Monk. What I want to know is how to go backwards from here. As William had no birth certificate, and his father was also a canal boatman, I don't quite know where to start. Do I use the conventional records, or is there somewhere else I should search for canal boat peoples records? Any help and advice would be very much appreciated. Sorry if I'm being thick! Ann Gardner