[Nell]

I have two unknown fathers on my tree, so when I fill in those ancestral charts there's a long line of blanks stretching back into the past! One is my Norfolk gt grandmother Ruth Barnes's father and the other is father of a Warwickshire gt x 2 grandmother, Eliza Nash.

Ruth's baptism and marriage cert name her mother as Susanna Barnes and Ruth was brought up in Susanna's parents' house (Susanna died when Ruth was 5). I've got quite a bit of info about Susanna but none about Ruth's father.

Eliza Nash's parentage is more of a mystery. I know all about Eliza from her marriage in 1827 onwards. But her baptism in 1808 in Whichford, Warks, doesn't say she is illegitimate, though it doesn't give a father, just a mother, Ann Nash.

There's an Ann Nash marriage in 1811 in Whichford to a Richard Braine, but I can't find any trace of either of them afterwards. There's also a Henry Nash, baptised 1802 in Whichford with parents Ann & Richard. I've surmised that Henry could be Eliza's father and her mother is in reality a widow, but of course I can't find a burial for Richard Nash!

There are several Nash events in the parish registers and various Nashes living in and around Whichford on the census but I can't join them up to my Eliza!