Hello Ron, Unfortunately your request isn't quite as simple as it may sound, mainly because the "village" of Dudley had a population of over 23,000 in 1831, and was a strongly non-conformist area with *many* different chapels for which no registers survive. AFAIK, the CofE registers of St Thomas have been fully extracted to the IGI as have those non-conformist chapels who surrendered their registers to the PRO after 1837 - and there are no hits on IGI. Perhaps your only hope here to narrow-down the search for his parents is to trace his marriage and buy the certificate to find out his father's name - although I can see distinct difficulties here, too. It would seem that he had split from his first wife [name unknown, but possibly Mary or Martha] and that his 'relationship' with Sarah looks to've been without the blessing of church or state... [Divorce in 1860 *was* possible for Ordinary Folk without the expense of obtaining an Act of Parliament, but it was still beyond the reach of a coal miner such as Andrew.] Gus ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Weeks" <rdweeks@bigpond.com> To: <ENG-WORCESTER@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 4:22 AM Subject: [WOR] Andrew Bridge > Hi, > > This is my first posting to this list and hope that sks will be able to > help > me. > > My wife's gr grandfather Andrew Bridge, according to census sheets, was > born > in Dudley, Worcestershire in approx. 1828. > > I can find quite a number of Bridge families for this area but none > mention > Andrew. If somebody has the parish registers for this village could they > possibly see if Andrew is mentioned and who his parents are please. I > have > looked in the LDS IGI with no success. > > There was an Andrew Bridge who married an Ann Turley in 1817 in Dudley and > wondered if they could be his parents. > > Regards > > Ron Weeks in Melbourne, Australia > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ENG-WORCESTER-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Ron, I think I've given you his grandparents. You might see if they were still living in 1841, although they'd be in their 60's. Remember to look in Lancashire. I'd also be asking how 1871 census shows a nine year old child when you say he married 1865. Have you tried for his marriage certificate which may show parents? You can apply online through GRO. Gus suggests an earlier marriage. While it may mean a separation, there should at least be an earlier marriage and possibly her death. I think there's still lots of areas for you to check. Peter