Hello Celia There are options to your issue..... "...I am desperate to find his birth/baptism record. I can't trawl through the Baptisms records in Gloucestershire as I live in Lancashire...." Lancashire is only just up the road from Gloucestershire, I live in Australia with ancestry in Gloucestershire (thanks to the transportation of convicts). 20 years ago I ordered the Gloucestershire BDM's on mircrofilm at a local LDS Family History Centre (in Australia) and extracted all my POVEY and related entries. Those records opened lots of doors, then i moved to wills and managed to get the family structure back across 3 counties to the 1570s where I was stuck at a burial on the 1st page of the 1st register in 1576. I assume there are Family History Centres, libraries, record offices, etc in lancashire where you could do the same. You should be rewarded with a little burrowing into the old files... Regards Daryl Povey Ballarat, Australia At 07:19 AM 10/08/2011, you wrote: >From: Celia Bailey <celiabailey@sky.com> >To: GLOUCESTER-L@rootsweb.com >Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 21:51:17 +0100 >Subject: [GLS] My Brick Wall of 10 Years - John Smart > >Hi All > >Just thought I'd post this again in the hope that someone else may be >looking for the same man. I am desperate to find his birth/baptism >record. I can't trawl through the Baptisms records in Gloucestershire >as I live in Lancashire. > >The earliest record I have is just an IGI member submitted record John >Smart born about 1811 in Saul spouse Mary Holder. Also another IGI >with Stroud as his birthplace. I have his marriage record to Mary >Holder 3rd Nov 1836 in Rodborough with no parents recorded. I have >found him in all the census until his death in 1874 age 64 at Tipton >Staffs. In 1851 it states he was born Wotton under Edge. In 1861 & >1871 Stroud is his birthplace. He was a Boatman. I would be so >grateful for any help. > >Regards >Celia