Bellamy and Coles Marriage 1740s

I have been looking for many years for a marriage of William Bellamy of Westbury to an Elizabeth circa 1740-43 without success until last week when I found via Family Search a mariage in Bitton Gloucestershire [which is 6 miles from Bristol] of a Willam Bellamy to Elizabeth Coles in September 1741. There are no Bellamys or Coles in the Bitton PR before and after but the record does not show any information on place of residence nor parents.
There are two births for Elizabeth Coles in Churcham in 1718-19. I cannot trace any local marriages or burials for either.

Can anyone advise if there is any connection between Westbury and the Bitton area that could help show this is the marriage I have been looking for for ages? I cannot accept it without some firm proof anyway.

Does anyone have either of these Coles in their familytree so I can eliminate one or more of them from mine?

Does anyone also have a birth for William Circa 1715 [from age of death on tombstone in 1802 of 88 ]? Only one in area within 10 years is in Churcham in 1718 but again acceptance needs some proof.

K Thomas

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Assume you are referring to baptisms at Westbury on Severn from 29 September 1745 'til 4 November 1759 - children of William BELLAMY and Elizabeth.

Bitton website
http://www.bittonfamilies.com/

Looking at the Gloucestershire Marriage Index - 1754 - 1799 - (which doesn't cover the FOD are) - there is only one BELLAMY marriage - Thomas of Barnwood, at Upton St Leonard - to Ether TAYLOR 7 November 1768.

My husband's x grandfather was christened in Bitton in 1835, and looking at the copy page of his baptism - the family came from 8 miles away, and other people's occupations were Gypsie, Smith,Farmer, Mason, Carpenter, Hatters - This was area for hat making.

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Hi Keith, welcome to the forum,
please confirm you are refering to Westbury on Severn (ie our FoD area) and not Westbury on Trym. As you probably know Westbury on Trym is not within the Dean area, it is much nearer Bitton and also within the north Bristol environs. Sorry if this sounds a silly question but I made this error when I started researching my Family History last year, so ...

That said I do see possibly related PRs on this site for "our" Westbury-on-Severn.
Actually I'm a little confused you only refer to Churcham PRs when this site also includes what (to me) appear very similar (date-wise) PRs at W-o-S, such as:

Record_ID: 221058
Entry_Number:
Year: 1709
Month: Jan
Day: 9
Parents_Surname: BELLAMY
Child_Forenames: William
Fathers_Forenames: John
Mothers_Forenames: Mary
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: [not stated]
Occupation:
Officiating_Minister:
Event: Baptism
Memoranda: Son of
Notes: Old style date 1708/09. Any abbreviated forenames have been expanded to the full name
Register_Reference: P 354 IN 1/2
Page_Number: 53
Parish_Chapel: Westbury on Severn
Soundex: B450

Record_ID: 221525
Entry_Number:
Year: 1723
Month: Nov
Day: 17
Parents_Surname: BELLAMY
Child_Forenames: William
Fathers_Forenames: James Bayse ye reputed father
Mothers_Forenames: Hannah
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: [not stated]
Occupation:
Officiating_Minister: Ric[ar]d Russell Vicar
Event: Baptism
Memoranda: Entry reads William ye son of Hannah Bellamy by W[illia]m Sansum ye reputed father
Notes:
Register_Reference: P 354 IN 1/2
Page_Number: 63
Parish_Chapel: Westbury on Severn
Soundex: B450

Record_ID: 221594
Entry_Number:
Year: 1726
Month: Mar
Day: 11
Parents_Surname: BELLAMY
Child_Forenames: William
Fathers_Forenames: W[illia]m
Mothers_Forenames: [not stated]
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: [not stated]
Occupation:
Officiating_Minister: Ric[ar]d Russell Vicar
Event: Baptism
Memoranda: Son of: Space left for mother's name but not completed
Notes: Old style date 1725/26
Register_Reference: P 354 IN 1/2
Page_Number: 65
Parish_Chapel: Westbury on Severn
Soundex: B450

etc..

Other towns on the Severn and as near if not nearer than Churcham also have Bellamy & Coles/Cowles PRs such as Awre, Longney, Alvington & Lydney. They may be worth consideration.
Note that COWLES appears to be the preferred spelling especially in W-o-S at that time. It's always worth ticking the Soundex box when searching, examples:

Record_ID: 290197
Entry_Number:
Year: 1721
Month: Aug
Day: 14
Parents_Surname: COWLES
Child_Forenames: Elizabeth
Fathers_Forenames: Charles
Mothers_Forenames: Ann
Mothers_Surname:
Residence:
Occupation:
Officiating_Minister: Tho[mas] Gwillim Vicar
Event: Baptism
Memoranda: Daughter
Notes:
Register_Reference: P209 IN 1/1
Page_Number: 46
Parish_Chapel: Lydney
Soundex: C420

Record_ID: 221509
Entry_Number:
Year: 1723
Month: Aug
Day: 4
Parents_Surname: COWLES
Child_Forenames: Elizabeth
Fathers_Forenames: Chris[topher]
Mothers_Forenames: Sarah
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: [not stated]
Occupation:
Officiating_Minister: Ric[ar]d Russell Vicar
Event: Baptism
Memoranda: Dau of
Notes:
Register_Reference: P 354 IN 1/2
Page_Number: 63
Parish_Chapel: Westbury on Severn
Soundex: C420

Record_ID: 221383
Entry_Number:
Year: 1719
Month: Jul
Day: 26
Parents_Surname: COLES
Child_Forenames: Elizabeth
Fathers_Forenames: Tho[mas]
Mothers_Forenames: Marg[are]t
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: [not stated]
Occupation:
Officiating_Minister: Ric[ar]d Russell Vicar
Event: Baptism
Memoranda: Dau of
Notes:
Register_Reference: P 354 IN 1/2
Page_Number: 60
Parish_Chapel: Westbury on Severn
Soundex: C420

These are just some of the possible PRs worth your consideration.

Sadly I'm still unable to find a Bellamy/Coles marriage on this site regardless of the spelling used(there are a few Belamy PRs too in W-o-S around your timeframe). The best method is using Advanced Search, but although there are several marriages of WB's to Eliza's either side of your 1740ish timeframe frustratingly none inside it that I can find.
Hope this helps a little.

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Yes I did mean Westbury on Severn. I have only just found that the Forest of Dean covered Westbury, I had overlooked this and have now been trawling through the data to see if I can get any further. I had noted the birth of William in 1709 but it has the same problem as the on in 1719, it is just as far away from 1715. The one in 1723 is too late I think even if the information on the MI is incorrect by a few years. I didn't have this one in my notes though and it didn't come up on a search perhaps because I restricted the years to 1710s. I had hoped that finding the missing marriage would give me a more accurate estimate of his date of birth, unfortunately it hasn't [assuming I now have the right one].
However I have been unable to find any family descendants for either of these Williams so it remains possible that one of them is the one I have traced back too. Without any proof one way or the other my work is still stalled so if anyone has a tree with either of these on it it would help considerably.
The link with Churcham is because the William of 1719 is from there not Westbury although his father Samuel was a Westbury Bellamy.
My research on the Bellamy and Wintle families was done mainly in the late 1980s when one had to visit the record offices and trawl through the information, some of which was still on original records. I have a mass of data on wills and deeds to the mid 1700s but this missing link prevents making the right connections to earlier people.
I am revisiting my old work in retirement and finding so much information on line that I wonder how I managed to get as far with pencil and paper.

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3907 views

Thanks Keith, sorry for perhaps teaching you to suck the proverbial eggs as clearly you're an old hand at this !. The tricky bit with the forum (like email generally) is trying to read between the lines sometimes and judge the poster's background knowledge/experience, we get all sorts. Also as you say sometimes parts of the website database can be overlooked. I've only been doing my research for the last 18months and all on line, its amazing how much is on there. We're so fortunate to have this website, one of the best nationwide I've come across and unlike some subscription sites more accurate transcriptions too !. I'm glad you mention "trawling"; when using the database I suggest you start by not trying to filter too much at all, keep an open mind as twere wrt locations particularly and also names (entering "EL" for example with give you "Eliza, elizabeth etc"). Tick the helpful (but not infallible) Soundex box and also try to think of your own possible spelling variations of a name, the transcriptions are correct from the original documents and not corrected for "modern" spelling. The "advanced search" facility is great too!, especially when searching "baptisms" for family groups.
Also please look at the rest of the website particualry the Documents, Wills & Inquests, etc. You never know what gems you may find. Finally this Forum can be searched too in case someone else has already researched your line.

Re the importance of Westbury I can understand your thinking, although I've driven thro' it thousands of times since my childhood it was just another small village to me, yet I've learnt that in the really old days it was a major Severn port and the most important Glostershire town wrt the Forest, being the official "admin centre" as it were. In more recent times wrt the Census's etc Monmouth is also important for western Dean(on my occasional forays into the free Ancestry site I still have to remind myself to look into the Wales Census' etc for my ancestors in Lydbrook & Coleford); as a lad from Cinderford who tended to travel east rather than west this is also an eyeopener. This sites is great for learning about areas and towns

http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/westbury%20on%20severn.html

I do envy you doing this in your retirement !. You say you have many old papers, wills etc; perhaps you would please consider donating scans to the owners of this great website so others could benefit too ?.

Anyhow good luck with your continued success, and wrt your searching for the elusive Bellamys and Coles, maybe think yourself lucky you're not in my shoes and trying to find the correct line of William JONES in the Lydbrook (aka miners from S.Wales) area !!. There's an awful lot of em !!

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3906 views

Thanks for info. The Bellamy's in Westbury on Severn were tanners and farmars, I wondered if there was a trade link and your information on local trades was useful

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3857 views

Hi Keith,
have you tried searching the Trade Directories ?.

having said that a quick look for "Bellamy" in the
"Hunt & Co.'s Directory for Gloucester, Bristol & Welsh towns, 1750-1849"

on this site "only" gives an Eliza Bellamy, Straw Hat Maker, in Bedminster which may possibly be of interest. (Unfortunately contrary to the heading this is from an 1849 Directory)

http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/index.asp

NB if you've not used this site before, don't enter too much info at once into the search engine for each directory, like many sites it sometime just gives up, it safer to be patient and filter thro all the "Bellamy" hits.

I'm pleased to have just found some more, older, Glos Directories on the ever usefull ParishMouse site.
http://parishmouse.co.uk/category/gloucestershire/gloucestershire-universal-british-dir...

There are also a host of FoD Trade Directories already transcribed on this Ancestry page, the Westbury on Severn ones (1870ish) both list an Eliza Bellamy from Elton, clearly a successful name !
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cbennett/

Not forgetting of course our own site !!
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/?Kellys_Directory_1879

Forest of Dean FHT Forum

Bellamy and Coles Marriage 1740s (General)