Dear All, I seem to have hit the proverbially brick wall that I see others have when I read the emails on this site. I have the marriage certificate for James Bartlett who married Elizabeth Williams on the 11th May 1845 at the Parish Church, presumably St Mary's, Portsmouth. He is shown as being a seaman, and I believe he could have served on HMS Victory or the Royal Yacht Osborne (or Victoria and Albert) My brick wall is the father of James, who is shown on the certificate as Wm. Bartlett, occupation Shoemaker. The son's marriage would put Wm.'s date of birth around 1795 to 1800. There are a number of William's who married around 1820 in Portsmouth, and I originally believed that he married a Jane Sprake on the 6th Sept. 1819. This couple subsequently had a son named James William Robert Bartlett baptised on the 14th August 1820 at St Mary's. However there is another William Bartlett, also a shoemaker who married a Hannah Kerby at Alverstoke in 1816, and he continued to trade as a shoemaker from Queen Street, Portsmouth, until 1866 when he died, as I have the death certificate, believing this to be the other William who married Jane!!!! James Bartlett does not appear to have used his second and third christian names, which may not of course be unusual when joining the Navy, and I cannot find any record of a birth of a James to William and Hannah. I would be most grateful to anyone out there who is researching Bartlett's in Portsmouth, who might be able to solve this problem, or to anyone else who might have some helpful suggestions on which direction I should now be taking. Regards Michael