Hi Listers, I am new to the list and seeking assistance with research on the above surnames. I live in northern New South Wales, Australia. The Somerset families I am descended from (DIGGINS, LAVER, LANCASTER, and SAWTELL) resided in Langport, Huish Episcopi, Wearne and adjacent areas in the early 1800's, and came to Australia as free settlers in the 1840's and 1850's. Any assistance with connection to associated English families would be much appreciated. I hope I have posted in the correct format. Kind regards, Warren Diggins

In addition to the other resources suggested try looking at http://www.freereg.org.uk/ to see if they have any of the parishes and dates you require already transcribed. And for contacting distant relatives and people researching the same as you, that's what http://www.genesreunited.co.uk was set up for. Cheers Steve On 26/07/2014 06:32, Warren Diggins via wrote: > Hi Listers, > > I am new to the list and seeking assistance with research on the above surnames. I live in northern New South Wales, Australia. The Somerset families I am descended from (DIGGINS, LAVER, LANCASTER, and SAWTELL) resided in Langport, Huish Episcopi, Wearne and adjacent areas in the early 1800's, and came to Australia as free settlers in the 1840's and 1850's. > > Any assistance with connection to associated English families would be much appreciated. I hope I have posted in the correct format. > > Kind regards, Warren Diggins > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-SOMERSET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > . >

Warren, You say that you're new to this list, which makes it sound like you've just discovered your Somerset Roots. Is this correct? I suspect you have a whole lot of data on the families after arrival in New South Wales. Were they actually free settlers who paid their own way, or Assisted Immigrants? Have you found shipping records? I'd like to see you list each family with ages as they arrived. Then we have a starting point for working backwards. This will cast a wider net. Consider the vast number of people who aren't related but might like to help If you're just looking for other people's trees, try Ancestry or their associate site Mundia which is free upon registering. Also try Rootsweb Family Trees. As you seem to be looking mainly pre 1837, you're after Parish records. Try the Archer Software site found via Google and look what records are available for Huish Episcopi. Then click on each batch number and search by surname. Peter in Sydney

Warren, Joshua Sawtell & Mary Laver figure in 116 trees on Ancestry. If you don't have a subscription, you might try Mundia first. Otherwise look around your local library or FHS centre which might provide free Ancestry access. There are also 8 trees on Rootsweb Family Trees. Just watch data from others. I always recommend checking it fully with available records. Peter