Blaine, According to Phillimore's Atlas and Index of Parish Registers the registers for Yealmpton exist from 1600. They are held in the Devon Records Office in Exeter and are in the IGI, the forerunner of Familysearch, and so will be in Family Search, although there is a risk of transcription errors. Although it was possible to delay or avoid baptism it was difficult to marry without a baptism. The parish was also the civil authority and baptism was the equivalent of a US social security number and the basis for local taxes and parish relief. You use the word "Farmer". A farmer leased or owned the land he farmed and was considered minor gentry. It would be difficult to avoid baptism. They leave a trail of wills and land transaction which can often be found by searching http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/ , the national index of archives. More likely is he was an Agricultural Labourer. I have found that agricultural labourers moved around the local parishes following the work. This had the effect of replacing aging populations and mixing the gene pool. Many towns villages held annual hiring fairs. Start with the surrounding parishes. Try http://maps.familysearch.org with the Ordnance Survey maps. There was a book but this seems to be out of print. Cheers Paul -------------------------------------------------- From: "Blaine Sanders" <utvairs@yahoo.com> Sent: Friday, November 22, 2013 1:55 AM To: <devon@rootsweb.com> Subject: [DEV] Finding the impossible > My ggg-grandfather, Philip Sanders (b. 1769, m. Elizabeth Vaie/Vail, > resided in Yealmpton), has a father. Trouble is, my relatives have > been looking for him for decades. I'm still new at geneological > research. I've looked in all the available parish registers for that > area that I have access to, and I'm coming up with nothing. Then it > dawned on me this morning, "what if he was just a simple rural farmer > who didn't care much for religion and never went to church... or even to town for that matter?" > > If that were the case, and he wasn't a member of a parish, he probably > would have been buried on his farm without a headstone. > > My questions are thus: Is it known whether all the extent parish > registers for the Yealmton parish(s?) been transcribed/indexed and > searchable? If so, where can they be searched (besides > familysearch.org)? If not searchable, are there microfiches that can > be looked at? If not microfiches, are there people in the Yealmpton > area that are willing/allowed to search for family names in the actual registers? > > Most geneology resources I come across are far too expensive for me to > make use of. I'm somewhat at a loss as to how to proceed. Any help > would be appreciated. > > Thank you, > Blaine Sanders > ------------------------------------------ > The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( > http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS > (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at > http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2012.0.2247 / Virus Database: 3629/6355 - Release Date: 11/21/13 > > ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Thank you Paul, and everyone else who has so greatly enlightened me! Learning about not just my ancestors, but also the history and customs of the area in general has been so fascinating. Thank you all so much for your willingness to share your knowledge. Sincerely, Blaine On Friday, November 22, 2013 4:19 AM, Paul Hockie <paul.hockie@talk21.com> wrote: Blaine, According to Phillimore's Atlas and Index of Parish Registers the registers for Yealmpton exist from 1600. They are held in the Devon Records Office in Exeter and are in the IGI, the forerunner of Familysearch, and so will be in Family Search,  although there is a risk of transcription errors. Although it was possible to delay or avoid baptism it was difficult to marry without a baptism. The parish was also the civil authority and baptism was the equivalent of a US social security number and the basis for local taxes and parish relief. You use the word "Farmer". A farmer leased or owned the land he farmed and was considered minor gentry. It would be difficult to avoid baptism. They leave a trail of wills and land transaction which can often be found by searching http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/ , the national index of archives. More likely is he was an Agricultural Labourer. I have found that agricultural labourers moved around the local parishes following the work. This had the effect of replacing aging populations and mixing the gene pool. Many towns villages held annual hiring fairs. Start with the surrounding parishes. Try  http://maps.familysearch.org with the Ordnance Survey maps. There was a book but this seems to be out of print. Cheers Paul