Hi,
I'm new to family history research, so please bear with me.

When looking at Thomas Knight May 31st 1805 Ruardean, who I think is a forbear of mine, I ran into a problem with his parents, William and Sophia Knight.

It turns out there were two couples with these names having children in Ruardean for overlapping periods. Examples are Priscilla 25th February 1798 and Charlotte 1st April 1798 - also Kezia 3rd February 1805 and Thomas 31st May 1805.

I believe the couples are William Knight/Sophia Meek, married 19th Sep 1779 Ruardean; and William Knight and Sophia Walding married 6th May 1793 in Walford, though I can't prove that they are the parents of all the children.

Sophiah Meek was baptised 3rd October 1762 and Sophia Walding on the 6th May 1770.

I've found 3 children born before 1793, Margaret 9th April 1780, Sophia 27th January 1782 and William 3rd January 1790, whose mother was obviously Sophia Meek - there may be others.

For any children born after the end of 1793, it could be very difficult to work out which of the two couples were the parents, WK & SM or WK & SW.

Of course, there are also 2 William Knights to identify.

All the best

Nick

I have found the following 17 children:

9 APRIL 1780 MARGARET dau of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
27 JANUARY 1782 SOPHIA dau of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
married SAMUEL BLANCH 26 February 1805
8 AUGUST 1784 LIDIA dau of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
11 MARCH 1787 HANAH dau of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
buried 29 March 1807
3 JANUARY 1790 WILLIAM dau of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
buried 2 January 1848
16 SEPTEMBER 1792 RICHARD son of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
buried 11 March 1793
16 NOVEMBER 1794 RICHARD son of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
1 FEBRUARY 1796 SOPHIA dau of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
25 FEBRUARY 1798 PRISCILLA dau of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
1 APRIL 1798 CHARLOTTE dau of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
25 JULY 1802 GEORGE son of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
6 MARCH 1803 ABSALOM son of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
buried 10 March 1804
3 FEBRUARY 1805 KEZIA dau of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
buried 10 March 1805
31 MAY 1805 THOMAS son of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
buried 14 October 1878
15 JUNE 1806 WILLIAM son of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
buried 16 June 1808
30 OCTOBER 1808 ABSALOM son of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
buried 23 February 1870
10 MAY 1812 WILLIAM son of WILLIAM/SOPHIA KNIGHT
buried 8 May 1883

but as they are not on my tree I have tried to allocate them!!

Incidentally my wife`s grandmother was Florence Duberley daughter of Miles & Ellen Harper.

Hi Graham,
Lots of room for confusion, I think. Except for the first 3 births I mentioned before and probably the last one you dug up, it looks like a v tricky if not impossible job to allocate the other children to the right couple.

Us Duberleys need to stick together - getting fewer and further between these days :-) I'm guessing I'm related to your wife via John and Mary Duberley.

All the best, Nick

Well I have the same 17 children assigned for better or worse to Sophia (1762) and William (1760) though there's clearly a lot of scope for confusion or errors in this.

My link is to Sophia Meek who is a g-5-aunt of mine.

Regards

-Colin

Hi Colin,
Unless I'm wrong, I don't think there were 17 children born to 1 couple with these names - it looks to me that what we have is around 17 children born to 2 couples with exactly the same names. It didn't matter at the time, of course because they'd have all known one another and known which family was which. Almost 250 years later, with not much to go on, it's a problem.

Unless your link to Sophia is via one of the first 3 children I named or one of the much later ones, it's going to be v difficult to tell which Sophia, M or W, was the mother of your ancestor. Plus, there is the ticklish job of folding a second William Knight into family trees.

I'm hoping someone who knows a lot more about ancestry than me (wouldn't be difficult) is going to come along and provide some extra insights.

Cheers

Nick

Hi
Just found this posting.
I also have a Sophia Knight nee Meek in my tree. She is my 7 x direct desendants Aunt.
Still a bit of a novice with regards to family research. In my tree I have
William Knight B-1760 -1829
Sophia b-1762 -1839
Their children I have are
Magaret b-1780
Sophia b-1782
Lidia b-1784
Hannah b-1787
William b 1790
Richard b-1792.
I could be wrong with regards to the info I have, as this is still a work in progress!
Regards
Pam