Often in family history genealogists need to widen their search to find the ultimate goal, how to reach that one generation further back. This blog covers my processes in this task, a search which has been my mission on and off for many years. I ended my last roundup of the Nevill/Neville family with Thomas and Mary (previously Ward) who were married at St Marys, Henley on Thames on 25 August 1756 after Banns from 8 August that year.

Detectives gather facts to prove a particular point and genealogists quickly learn that in order to prove their lineage, they often need to search side-ways to round-up all available evidence.
First you need to ask yourself a question: What is my Goal?
The answer:  To determine where Thomas was born and who his parents were.

I began by asking my extended cousin to email scans of all the 1840s to 1860s correspondence that the children of James Nevill, (b1759 d1806) Thomas’ son and family had written to solicitors and parish clergy. One set of letters seemed to be relating to a Will endeavouring to establish a claim on the estate of William Neville who died on 12 March 1824. The Will mentioned William’s wife Jessica, her sister Mary, Ann Nevill widow of his late brother John Neville and John Neville Collingburn, his nephew. Of these I concentrated on Ann, widow of John Neville and John Neville Collingburn.

Letter from Woodbridge & Sons dated 1864 in response to a claim by Joseph O. Nevell on Estate of William Neville died 1824. Thanks to Alister Neville, holder of this image for permission to use.

My first mission was to find Ann Neville, William’s sister-in-law; probing found that Ann Cotton married John Nevill on 10 May 1783 in Hurst, Berkshire. John had been baptised on 26 March 1762 at St Mary’s Reading son of John Nevill & Mary Varndell who themselves had married at St Laurence, Reading in 1756.

Next looking into John Neville Collingburn, whose parents John Collingburn and Elizabeth Nevill had successively named three sons with this name or similar, and all three died in infancy having been baptised and buried in St Giles, Reading. It seems the 4th with that name survived and was born sometime between 1794 and 1820 although I am unable to find his baptism.

Pulling that Nevill family together I confirmed that John Nevill b abt 1729 and Mary had the following children:
1. Elizabeth (bapt 22 Aug 1756 Heckfield, Hants with baptism noted parents were ‘of St Laurence, Reading’,
2. Ann (bapt 26 Mar 1760 at St Mary, Reading),
3. John (bapt 26 Mar 1762 at St Mary, Reading),
4. William (bapt 3 Aug 1764 at St Mary, Reading) and lastly
5. Thomas (bapt 27 May 1767 at St Mary Reading). 

Family of William Nevill born 1764 died 1824 of Fleet St., London. Haberdasher

All the beneficiaries of William Nevill were directly related to John Nevill baptised 15 March 1728/29 and Mary Varndell.^[1] Additionally, the Neville family correspondence did seem to go to some lengths investigating the Varndell family at that time. Was this John a sibling to my Thomas born about 1730? Irregardless, as pointed out by the solicitor the Will referred to next of kin living at the time of testator’s death ie William the haberdasher, and the claimant writing on behalf of his deceased father, who had died in 1806, so the claim was discounted.

Moving onto other clues in the letters, several statements from the various children of my James Neville also mention a cousin of their father’s named John Neville who was a baker and had a connection with the Henley on Thames market. As John of Henley on Thames was a cousin, then it stands to reason that his father was a sibling of my ancestor, Thomas Nevill. Endeavouring to determine just who he was, would be my next quest and I refer to him as John the baker, and I feel he is the most promising lead.

John (the baker) initially appears in Wargrave, Berkshire registers marrying Elizabeth Sampson on 8 Feb 1783, where he is noted as ‘Of Henley on Thames parish’. This village is where their eight children were born and baptised in St Mary, Henley on Thames in the following 14 years and looking at their names, with the daughters at least, it is obvious that the couple did not follow the usual naming convention.^[2] His son Benjamin also became a baker and certified John’s death on 31 July 1837 noted as aged 84yrs, so if his age is correct, John would have been born circa 1753.

Death image of John Neville, Baker died in Henley on Thames 31 July 1837 aged 84yrs from General Register Office.

One family group eventuated as a high possibility for the parents of John the baker. They were John and Barbara Nevill (ms Brooks) from Wargrave, about 3 miles on the other side of the Thames River to Henley-on-Thames. A permanent bridge from Henley to Remenham had been built in 1786 so it is quite likely that some of the residents found employment on the other side of the Thames in due course.^[3] John and Barbara had five children at Wargrave; John in Sep.1752, Mary Mar.1754, Anne Apr.1756, Thomas Jan.1759 and William Oct.1760.

John (the baker) b1752, his possible parents and John & Elizabeth Sampson’s children.

Was that John the baby baptised on 15 Sept 1752 the man who became John the baker, and his father John born about 1728 or so a sibling to my Thomas Nevill?

I had watched several Rootstech 2024 sessions, and one on 1 March 2024 was by Crista Cowan, Janet Hovorka, Diahan Southard, titled ‘Brick wall ancestors need a search party’. As it happens, this session followed my process in this Neville stumbling block, another very telling statement by more than one speaker stated ‘The best way to know who your ancestor is, is to know who he or she isn’t in the records’.^[4] This speaker continued on to recommend building detailed timelines, so this has been my task on and off for many months noting every baptism of a Nevil/Neville/Novell etc for the period 1690 – 1760 and some burials & marriages also, to track families of those children. The timeline ended up with 200+ entries from the counties of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire, basically a circle around the parishes named in family connections. From that point I colour coded the families into groups, then notated them as ‘unrelated’ families in my Family Tree Maker program. This process indicated who weren’t possibilities in my quest.

Portion of Neville timeline

Notating all Neville etc entries primarily involved using transcriptions on FindMyPast for Berkshire & Buckinghamshire entries, along with the Oxfordshire registers on Ancestry with images attached thanks to the Oxfordshire Family History Society and Oxfordshire History Centre. I would not have found many of the entries I have on my timeline without going through the register the old-fashioned way ie page by page, and am very grateful to the Society & Ancestry for putting crisp, clear images online. My advice is to always use common sense when looking at images no matter where they are – if every single entry is described as ‘son of’ or ‘dau of‘ xxxx etc., for pages and pages then all is quite possibly not as it is indexed, in one instance as burials instead of baptisms.

The outcome of this long-standing brick-wall? I have many family groups established, but linking one to my known facts is non-conclusive and sadly this is sometimes / often the case. However, the quote by D. Joshua Taylor applies ‘Remember, every clue is a step towards the answer’ so I imagine this brick wall will remain niggling me for many years to come.^[5] 

Editors note: If you feel your family line may be related to the subject of this puzzle, then please do not hesitate to comment on this blog.

[1] Julian Calendar.
[2] Daughter Elizabeth born 16 Nov 1793 at Henley on Thames is the 5th girl born to the John (the baker) & Elizabeth.
[3] Source: https://www.remenhamparish.org.uk/    Remenham Farmhouse a History by Peter Bushell
[4] Rootstech2024. Presentation by D. Joshua Taylor ‘Who is my ancestor? Tracing ancestors with similar names’.
[5]  D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS, FUGA. President of the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society (NYG&B).