Hi Keith,
and thanks for your kind words, it didnt take too long and I'm certainly no expert, you could have done the same with time and practice.

Please don't jump to the conclusion that everything I've found is definitely your line of ancestors:

Regarding your elderly relative's work, yes we often say how we wished we'd met people earlier, or asked questions of family members questions before it was too late, a shame but there it it. You say he used "search engine and roots", I thinks that refers to the old Rootsweb mailing lists that have been around for many years, but now largely superceded by the internet. Did he ever put his trees online, perhaps on one of the big subscription websites like Ancestry or FindMyPast ?. One advantage of those is some people share their researches, making their trees "public" so others can see and benefit.
Tracing trees pre 1800 is difficult as there were no national censuses until 1841 which recorded family groups, so before that as here we rely heavily on written family histories derived from family diaries, Bibles and such like, which public trees might benefit from. Other than that there's a fair degree of "educated" guesswork, as with my post yesterday, relying heavily on common surnames and places. This FoD FHT website is intended to cover just the Forest of Dean Glostershire, not Herefordshire as a county. Yes this site's database does include Much Marcle, Kempley etc, which is really useful, however it doesn't cover areas deeper into Herefordshire including places you mention your ancestors lived in, eg Bromyard to the west. And of course west is Wales, so we can expect an awful lot of families of the Davis/Davies surname, and as you know folk back then wern't overly original when it came to choosing first names, so it can get very confusing sorting thro all the numerous Williams, Elizabeths, Marys etc etc. So, in short, not an easy tree to be sure about pre 1800, much like my own Jones one which I had to give-up haha.

It's great that you've given us more background and names, but I'm now worried we may have the wrong family... first you mention William Davis born Sollers Hope in 1804. Do you have any idea what his parent's or his descendants did for a living ?. Any sign they were itinerant workers, maybe journeymen travellers, hawkers or gypsies, asking as they seem to have moved around a bit ??.

I don't currently have a subscription for any of the aforementioned big websites, instead I use FamilySearch which is very good indeed for a free resource, are you familiar with it ? Only last year they added over 600,000 Hfds records to their database.

I hope this link works for you, best opened in a separate window or tab.
I've asked for all records for William Davies born Sollers Hope, Herefordshire between 1800-1806, parents Peter and Elizabeth Mary. Hopefully you can see it gives several hits, showing just how common a name this was in the area.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?givenname=william&surname=davies...

None of these hits fit your information precisely, none mention Sollers Hope that I can see. The only record that mentions father Peter is this one, but exactly where is it ??.

England, Herefordshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1583-1898
Name: William Davis
Event Type: Baptism
Event Date: 26 Feb 1804
Event Place: Herefordshire, England, United Kingdom
Gender: Male
Father's Name: Peter Davis
Mother's Name: Elizabeth Davis

Moving on, you mention Ocle Pychard. Wow what a great name, I thought I knew the area but that's a new one on me. I see that again it's a few miles north of "our" area. I wonder if this explains why Peter was baptised quite late in life - that's of course assuming your 1773 birth record and my 1777 baptism record are both the same person ?.
I asked about his parents' background as if they were of fixed abode, maybe your typical agricultural workers on a farm, then I'd have guessed they were probably regular local church-goers and so he would have been baptised within a few weeks of being born ??. I think this was the norm in those days, altho happy to be proven wrong, I'm no expert on this ???
Of course they may have delayed for all sorts of good reasons, perhaps because they were not yet married, or whatever.

To get to know an area from a historical viewpoint I like to use the Genuki site.
https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/HEF/MuchMarcle

This helps me find that altho there are quite a few C of E churches in our likely search area, Yatton & Little Marcle wern't built until after Peter and William's baptisms. However those at Sollers Hope, Brockhampton, Much Marcle, Preston, Kempley etc are all much older suggesting substantial local populations in those days, and making it clear that the FoD Parish Registers database does not cover all the area that maybe we should be looking at. This map shows the Parishes it does cover.
https://forest-of-dean.net/joomla/index.php/the-forest-of-dean/forest-of-dean-parish-map

Ten years on this forum reminds me we are SO very fortunate having this excellent FoD resource, as good as any in the UK in my opinion. It also reminds me that similar records from deeper into Herefordshire are much less readily available online, altho I gather that situation is improving in the last year or so.
It might be Keith that you need to try one of the subscription sites, just in case they have better matches than we or FamilySearch has ?
Sadly I don't think Ancestry has much for Hfds, a shame as that site can be accessed free of charge at UK public libraries. However FindMyPast does have some records, it maybe worth taking out a free trial with them, or perhaps other members of this forum who are already subscribed can please help ?. It appears they've just "improved" their website, meaning I'm struggling to make sense of it haha, hope you have better luck
eg https://www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/world-records/full-list-of-united-kingdom-records...

Alternatively a visit to the new Hereford Archives may be worthwhile ??
https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/info/200164/herefordshire_archive_and_records_centre/9...

All for now, I'll have a go at the FamilySearch site later.
J

Hi Jeff, have been on family search, have found what my Bob Jones has put on there. William Davis Born 1804, Burley Gate, Herefordshire. Wife, Sarah Ryland. Parents, Peter Davis and Elizabeth Preece. Click on Peter Davis, brings up sources and confirms 1777 Nov 30th confirms Joseph and Elizabeth as parents. So that's the first time I've managed to see that or find that info thanks to Bob and yourself.Your much better than me at using or how to use indexes etc. I lose my patience after so long. I'm pretty sure we have the correct info. A big find, tying in Peters Siblings and Joseph. Looks like they were from Much Marcle. Gap in his birth and baptism, but not uncommon. Regards, Keith. P. S. So Bob has put info on Family Search.