This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/3cDBAIB/7926 Message Board Post: I am researching my wifes family tree, and have come across a brick wall. My wifes Great-Great Grandfather was called John Robinson Todd, and from census records he was probably born in approximately 1856 at Bigges Main, NBL. However there is no record of a birth entry for John. I have him in the 1861 & 1871 census living in Dudley NBL with his grandparents (John Todd and Anna Todd). There is also another grandchild living there (Dorothy Todd born c.1854 at Bigges Main), and I can't find a birth entry for her either. In the earlier 1841 and 1851 Bigges Main census, John and Anna Todd have only 2 children (Thomas Todd (born c.1834) and Jane Todd (born c.1836)). Thomas married and moved to Cramlington, and he had a son also called John Todd (a different John to the one I am looking for), so I think that that rules him out as the father. Jane married a Stephen Sams in 1859. I have a copy of John Robinson Todds' marriage certificate from 1878, and this notes his name as John Robinson Todd, and his father's name as "THOMAS ROBINSON!" There is no mention of Todd for his father. I can't find records of John or Dorothy being born as Robinson either. Can anybody suggest what I can do next? The only suggestion that i can come up with now is that Jane had Dorothy and John out of wedlock to a Thomas Robinson, but how can I find this out. Would this be kept a secret, so would not be listed in documents? Regards, Darin, Newcastle.