On 21/01/15 09:30, Michael Wright wrote: > Hi all, for a long time now I have been trying to find my 4th great grandfathers birth certificate or any info on his parents. You won't find a birth certificate as these are documents introduced with civil registration in mid-1837. What you need to look for is a baptism. %>< > The only information I have is as follows:12/03/1777 marriage between Philip Wright from Burwash married Ann Hasler at Rumboldswhyke Parish Church, the witnesses were John Habin and Sarah Francies. > I cannot find his Birth Certificate so I assume he was born in Burwash. East Sussex A quick search on Familysearch produces no Philip Wrights in Sussex in the period 1740 - 1760. Other search engines might be more successful. There are a few alternative approaches here. The first is to extend to neighbouring counties. There was a Philip Wright baptised in Ewell, Surrey in 1741. Could this be him? There don't seem to be any Philip Wrights in other neighbouring counties. Another approach would be to look for Wright baptisms in Sussex. Familysearch has 69 hits although there are duplicates in these. You could try to organise these into families based on locality and parents names. Typically one sees children born to a family every couple of years, maybe becoming more widely spaced in later years. What do these families look like? Are there any with gaps where a baptism might have been missed? If so can you find any information on the state of baptismal records of the relevant parish such as missing pages? Parents often reuse family names; how do the parents and other children's names compare with Philip's children's names? Yet another would be to consider what the career of a verger would entail. Would he have been ordained? If so there should be ecclesiastical records & maybe University records for him. This is an area where I have no experience but others might tell you where to look. Is it a career which might have brought him from some other part of the country? If so there are a number of baptisms elsewhere. A church career might imply the same on the part of his parents. Research the names of vicars of Burwash in the 1770s; it's possible his father held office there. -- Ian The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang at austonley org uk