William TRIGG of Westbury-on-Severn

I'm getting tied up in knots with some of my TRIGG ancestors. I've spent a while reading through related discussion threads on here, but I haven't found any that tie in obviously/directly with my particular line. Here's what I know so far.

Margaret Trigg (1790-1852) was my 4x great-grandmother. She married Thomas Evans in Westbury in 1807 and I have their line going down and sideways absolutely fine. Baptism records show that Margaret was the daughter of William Trigg and Ann (Thomas), who were married in Westbury in 1788. In total, their children appear to have been (dates are all baptisms):

William 1790
Margaret 1790 (already mentioned)
Theodosia (1) 1792-1799 (burial record for her in Westbury aged 6)
Ann 1794
James 1796-1864
John 1799
Richard 1801
Theodoriz (Theodosia) (2) 1803

I'm working on Margaret's siblings: so far I have James marrying Mary Baylis in Westbury in 1818 and having four daughters. He was the innkeeper of the Red Lion in Westbury and a saddler by trade. Theodosia (2) appears to marry William Gough in 1817 in Ruardean; assuming she was baptised as an infant this would make her aged just 14!

Where I'm really stuck, however, is with Margaret's father William Trigg. His marriage register entry doesn't include his father's name so I've turned to baptisms. Looking at a suitable time-frame working back from a marriage in 1788 there are two, both baptised in Westbury in 1766! One is to Richard and Elizabeth, the other to William and Mary. While I'm inclined to William and Mary being the correct one on the basis of the first name being passed down from father to son, this is a dangerous assumption on its own.

Therefore, if there's anyone there with Trigg ancestors who has this particular branch in their tree, or someone who has researched this local surname, I'd be delighted to hear from you.

Many thanks, Jane

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I don't know if this helps, but I have a book entitled "GWR Steam - my personal encounter" published 1992 after his retirement (ISBN 0 906025 50 8, published by Pathfinder, Stag House, Gydynap Lane, Inchnap, Woodchester, Glos GL5 5EZ) by one Douglas A Trigg. He lived in a cottage near Oakle Street which you may know is not far from Westbury towards Gloucester. He gives his father's name as Arthur Thomas Trigg, but I don't recall reading the names of any other relatives except for an uncle, Tom Norton. So although a long shot it's possible that enquiries "on the hoof" in that neighbourhood would reveal a connection to the Triggs of Westbury.

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I think I've solved this one!

It always pays to look at records on more than one site, wherever possible. The transcription of baptism records on this site shows a William Trigg baptised 6 April 1766 to parents Richard and Elizabeth, and then another William Trigg baptised 4 May 1766 to parents William and Mary. Having looked at Ancestry and Familysearch I now see that the surname for the first of these baptisms is not for a William Trigg but for a William Ridon/Rider. Looking at the original it's clear that the only William Trigg baptism is 4 May ... and therefore his parents must be William and Mary.

Obviously I'd still love to hear from anyone else researching this family - there's lots still to unravel.

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Well spotted Janey !

Yes, it's always worth checking more than one source of reference, whatever subject you're researching, be it work or pleasure. These days my own go-to back-up site for FH is the LDS aka FamilySearch site, yet to be honest that's largely 'cos it's free and user-friendly, and because I'm not currently subscribing to any of the big sites. However it usually doesn't allow me to see the actual image so it's something of a gamble believing their transcriptions. I say this because when I first started-out on this FH hobby about 10 years ago, all the text books I read warned to be very wary of the LDS site due to it's inaccurate transcriptions. I was therefore a little surprised to find that some of the big subscription sites quote LDS-sourced records. Furthermore, when I started using Ancestry (as it was the cheapest subscription site, and free at the library), I soon found their transcriptions could sometimes be appallingly-bad too. I gather British subscription site's can be better in this respect, altho' when I asked on this forum some years ago the opinions were mixed. I was less-than-impressed that when I help Ancestry by submitting corrections, their site still seemed to give priority to the incorrect originals... I hope to be wrong, but all the signs I've seen from Ancestry over the last year or two is that they want to increase profits by pushing the DNA side of their business, and not worry too much about serious researchers...

I've just searched for William Trigg on Familysearch, and was pleasantly surprised to find what you did, that they have transcribed him correctly - I wasn't 100% sure from your post if this was perhaps one of their errors that I've read so much about yet have rarely actually seen.

Have you raised a Correction Form to get this site's transcription of this PR checked ?
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/index.php/help-faq/database-correction-request-form

Record_ID: 80307
Entry_Number: 492
Year: 1766
Month: Apr
Day: 6
Parents_Surname: TRIGG
Child_Forenames: William
Fathers_Forenames: Richard
Mothers_Forenames: Elizabeth
Mothers_Surname:
Residence:
Occupation:
Officiating_Minister: John Ridley Vicar
Event: Baptism
Memoranda: Son of
Notes:
Register_Reference: P 354 IN 1/3
Page_Number: 15
Parish_Chapel: Westbury on Severn
Soundex: T620

That said, it seems highly unlikely to me that such an error (Ridon->Trigg) was made on this transcription, altho' sometimes errors can occur of course, we're all human. It's almost always beneficial to use local reference cds or sites such as this FoD one, as the transcribers are unpaid volunteers who know their area and local names, places, etc; in stark contrast to most of the American convicts who I gather were used for many of the Ancestry transcriptions, and were probably working on piece-rate to boot !

I wonder if the above PR was somehow mixed-up with one or both of those below, perhaps during the process of uploading to the website, and surnames became interchanged or somesuch ?? I can find several TRIGG and RIDER PRs at W-o-S a few years either side of 1766, but these are the only RIDER/RIDONs for 1766.

Record_ID: 1004889
Entry_Number:
Year: 1766
Month: Oct
Day: 3
Surname: RIDER
Forenames: Solomon
Residence:
Age_at_death:
Officiating_Minister: Rev. Charles Bishop
Event: Burial
Cause_of_death:
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P276 IN 1/1
Page_No: 17
Parish_Chapel: Rudford
Soundex: R360

Record_ID: 58457
Entry_Number: 385
Year: 1766
Month: Jul
Day: 1
Surname: RIDER
Forenames: Ann
Residence:
Age_at_death:
Officiating_Minister: John Ridley Vicar
Event: Burial
Cause_of_death:
Memoranda: Wife of Benjamin
Notes:
Register_Reference: P 354 IN 1/3
Page_No: 110
Parish_Chapel: Westbury on Severn
Soundex: R360

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Having had a look at the image on Ancestry, I can say that the 6th April entry is definitely not Trigg, and does look like Ridon.

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Thank you for drawing our attention to this transcript error which has now been corrected
As mentioned by Jeff there is a facility for reporting possible errors. Go to:
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/index.php/help-faq/database-correction-request-form

All such items are checked against the original and responded to accordingly.

Admin

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Many thanks for this. I would have reported the error at the time, but my research was interrupted by my son coming home from rugby training - caked in mud from head to toe!

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