[Merry]

To save reading back....!

I've been trying to establish the parentage of my 2xg-grandmother Elizabeth Saunders b 1830 since at least 2008. All I really had was that her parents were John and Ann Saunders from somewhere around the Bristol area and that she very likely had two siblings, George and Mary Ann. There is a moderate chance John and Ann were both dead by 1841. I've spent a lot of time trying to eliminate various people, so decided to tackle the problem by picking the most likely couple and extending their trees to see if anything jumps out to help me.

Walter Stephens (Stevens) b abt 1761 married Ann Anstee (Anst(e)y etc) b abt 1761 in 1794 at Dyrham and Hinton, Gloucestershire. They had three surviving children one of whom was Ann Stephens, b 1798. Some of the past stuff on this thread attempts to address the question of whether this Ann Stephens is the same person who married John Saunders in Bristol in 1826 and whether this is also the couple who are parents to my Elizabeth Saunders.

Looking at this again yesterday, I realised last time round (post #95 above) I had missed a big clue! Find A Grave has photos of the graves of Walter and Ann Stephens and if I had bothered to read the whole of the inscription for Walter's stone I would have seen the part that says, "Also to the Memory of Ann Wife of John Saunders and Daughter of the said Walter and Ann Stephens who departed his life September 14th 1831 aged 33 years".

So, now I can be sure the dau of Walter and Ann Stephens did marry a John Saunders. It's very likely her husband is the John Saunders buried at Dyrham and Hinton in 1733 aged 35, despite apparently dying in Bristol (PR entry).

I haven't yet proved John and Ann are the people who married in 1826 or that the three children, including my Elizabeth, are the children of this couple and not another random John and Ann Sa(u)nders. The closest I've got is that my Elizabeth Saunders' sister, Mary Ann, married Walter Sparrow who happened to be a nephew of Ann Stephens/Saunders. So if Ann is my ancestor that's a first cousin marriage rather than just a random one.

Now I've just seen that Ann Anstee b 1761 had a sister named Martha Anstee b 1751. Martha didn't marry and had a long life, being bur at Dyrham and Hinton in 1833. She also wrote a will! I'm hoping the beneficiaries of her will will include the descendants of her siblings. She had outlived her niece, Ann Stephens/Saunders by two years. I don't know who was caring for Ann's children after her death, but I'm wondering if there's any chance of them getting any sort of mention in Martha's will? Only one way to find out!!