Hi Simon, excellent advice, I'll try and follow it. Very many thanks for your help. Neil > Three pieces of advice given to me when I was starting out which have > consistently proved useful: > > 1) follow the paper trail. Assume that the baptism in 1766 is NOT your > man, then see if you can follow this other chap through marriage and > burial. If he disappears off the face of the earth after baptism, there > is a good chance he is your man after all. If you find someone else of > the same name being married and buried in south Suffolk around this > time, you'll need to think again. > > 2) remember that we are only baptised and buried once, and are unlikely > to marry more than a couple of times. But there are other people's life > events which may well shed light on us - if your man had children of his > own who were baptised or married, or if his parents had other children > who were baptised or married, it may enable you to pin him down to a > particular parish at a particular time. I have pinpointed a couple of my > ancestors simply because they witnessed other people's marriages (albeit > after 1837). If you go sideways, you may well be able to build up a > network which shows the geographical shape of the family, and you can > then follow the paper trail (see 1!) > > 3) apply Occam's Razor: 'the most sufficient explanation is most likely > to be the correct one'. This doesn't mean you should take the Whelnetham > baptism at face value, but rather as you build a plenitude of > sufficiency, so you will begin to see the validity or otherwise of your > assumptions. > > I would add a further thought that south Suffolk was a hotbed of > non-conformism in the 18th century. If you can find someone of the right > age who was baptised or received into a non-conformist community at the > right time it may well prove that the connection to Great Whelnetham is > erroneous. > > Simon > www.suffolkchurches.co.uk > > > > > > On 09/02/2011 20:32, neilrbowers@neilrbowers.plus.com wrote: >> Good day fellow researchers, >> I have a general question which I am looking for advice on. I have an >> ancestor who dies in Monks Eleigh in 1825 and is married in Monks Eleigh >> in 1786. There doesn't appear to be a baptism in Monks Eleigh at the >> correct tIme but there is a baptism in 1766 in Great Welnetham which >> other >> researchers have taken to be the correct one. >> >> My question is the obvious one, what corroborative evidence could be >> available for this assumption? >> >> Regards, >> >> Neil >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> SUFFOLK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >> quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SUFFOLK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >