William Gomer RAYER born in Awre

I am having trouble tracing the birth of William Gomer Rayer who was born in Awre, Glos he was baptised in Cardiff on 31/12/1854. His parents are John & Harriet Rayer (she was nee Smith) They both state they are from Berkeley. Can anyone help me trace the rest of the family please

Do you know when John was born? This baptism on IGI Gloucester:

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JOHN RAYER Pedigree
Male

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Event(s):
Birth:
Christening: 09 JUN 1833 Berkeley, Gloucester, England

Death:
Burial:

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Parents:
Father: JOHN RAYER Family
Mother: ELIZABETH

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Messages:
Extracted birth or christening record for the locality listed in the record. The source records are usually arranged chronologically by the birth or christening date.

A little bit more info on Scribe's Alcove:

NAME: John Rayer BAPTISED: 9 Jun 1833 at Berkeley

FATHER: John MOTHER: Elizabeth
OCCUPATION: Labourer ABODE: Lynch

Also on Scribe's Alcove:

NAME: John Rayer BURIED: 2 Apr 1843 at Berkeley
AGE: 55 years
ABODE: The Linch

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Harriet? There are also earlier ones!

HARRIET SMITH Pedigree
Female

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Event(s):
Birth:
Christening: 03 JUN 1835 Berkeley, Gloucester, England

Death:
Burial:

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Parents:
Father: RICHARD SMITH Family
Mother: ANN

Fantastically quick response, thank you so much. John Rayer was born (according to my info) in 1788. I have no details of his wife other than the name Elizabeth. There were 4 children Ann b 1826: Samuel b 1825: William b 1831 and My Great Great Grandad John b 1833 (dated believed to be 4/6/1833) Any info on John b 1788 & his wife would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Rayer

for Starters

1841 Census Berkeley

Address: Lynch

RAYER

John - 55 - all born in County - Ag. Lab
Elizabeth - 36
John - 8 **
Rachel RAYER - 75
Ann - 15
Samuel - 13 - Shoe M
William - 10

** christened 9 June 1833 (Berkeley St Mary The Virgin - parents John (labourer) & Elizabeth (only one baptism for John & Elizabeth RAYER) - the only RAYER from 1813 onwards)

Burials at Berkeley

John RAYER - 2 April 1843 age 55 - address: The Lynch

Elizabeth RAYER POOLE - 17 March 1828 - age 5 weeks - christened 9 March 1828 - mother Charlotte (labourer)

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Baptisms of Harriet SMITH - Berkeley

Harriet - 21 June 1817 - parents James & Sarah : address Breadstone

Harriet - 7 September 1819 - Daniel (blacksmith) & Harriet - address Newport

Harriet - 30 April 1823 - John (Yoeman) & Elizabeth - address Hinton

Harriet Merrett SMITH - 17 February 1824 - parents Rebecca

Thank you so much for your response. I am now hoping that Rachal Rayer b 1766 is Johns mother and may enable me to take my search further. The info on Elizabeth Rayer Poole who was buried at age 5 weeks was all new to me, a bit sad, but great to have such good feedback, Thank you

Elizabeth was the daughter of Charlotte, a Labourer.

PS Ship's Niate should be Ship's Mate!

On IGI Gloucester:

JOHN RAYER Pedigree
Male

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Event(s):
Birth:
Christening: 10 SEP 1788 Saint Mary De Crypt, Gloucester, Gloucester, England

Death:
Burial:

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Parents:
Father: WILLM. RAYER Family
Mother: BETTY

Also these two:

JOHN RAYER Pedigree
Male

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Event(s):
Birth:
Christening: 16 AUG 1790 Cutsdean, Gloucester, England

Death:
Burial:

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Parents:
Father: WILLIAM RAYER Family
Mother: MARY

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JOHN RAYER Pedigree
Male

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Event(s):
Birth:
Christening: 29 MAY 1791 Standish, Gloucester, England

Death:
Burial:

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Parents:
Father: WILLIAM RAYER Family
Mother: DINAH

Standish is closest to Berkeley (about 11 miles?)

Hi Chris,

You are a source of such good info my John was christened 10/09/1788 at St Mary de Crypt, Gloucester. I now believe his parents are William & Elizabeth

As I live in France I have found great difficulty in tracing my family but you have been an amazing help, thank you so much

1861 Census, Glamorgan, Cardiff St Mary
South William Street

RAGER - transcribed as

John - 28 - Ship Niate - born Berkeley
Harriett - 28 - born Berkeley
William - 6 - born Glos. Awre
Elizabeth - 3 - born Glam. Cardiff
Jayne - 9 months, born Cardiff

CDLS

another son Rowland RAYER - c 19 February 1857 - died 28 February 1857

1841 Census Awre

Ann SMITH 47 - born in County
Harriet SMITH - 8 - born in County

1851 Census, Glos. Awre

Woodend House.

Ann SMITH - 54 - Mariners wife, born Glos. Uley
Hannah SMITH - age 22 - married daughter, born Berkeley **
Harriot SMITH - age 18 - unmarried daughter - born Berkeley
Henry SMITH - Grandson, age 13 - born. Glam. Cardiff

*** Hannah SMITH married another Sailor, Rueben DAY - 30 December 1851 - one witness was Harriet SMITH

???

this is questionable (but odd)

Marriage at Awre 5 July 1852

John MAYO - full age, Bachelor, Sailor,father : Thomas MAYO Farmer

Married

Hannah SMITH - Minor, Spinster, residence Wood End (is this Hannah's first marriage?)

father: Richard SMITH - Sailor, by banns

mark of Daniel Freeman MEEK/Hannah DAY

Perhaps not so questionable!

Births Jun 1854
MAYO William Coleman Rayer Westbury S 6a 194

The birth certificate should be 'interesting' - with accents possible misunderstanding of middle name?

BERKELEY Marriages

Richard SMITH married Ann FRENCH - 16 August 1812

Children christened at Berkeley

John - 20 April 1814 - Richard (labourer) & Ann - address Wanswell

Henry William - 9 August 1818 - Richard & Ann- address Berkeley

George - 21 May 1821 - Richard (labourer) & Ann ***

Mary Anne - 11 March 1824 - Richard (labourer) & Ann

Hannah Davinna - 17 February 1829 - Richard (Mariner) & Ann

Harriet - 3 June 1835 - Richard (Waterman) & Ann

***

Marriage at Awre - 9 October 1844

George SMITH of full age, Bachelor, Mariner, address: Wood End
father: Richard SMITH, Mariner

married

Elizabeth WERTHEY - Minor, Spinster, address: Wood End

father: Henry WERTHEY, Jeweller -

by banns

witnesses: John SMITH & Thomas CADOGAN

That is weird. Hannah Day is also a Witness (so she could have been the one married to Rueben Day 30/12/1851) Although she is referred to as a Spinster she could possibly be a Widow and remarrying on 5.7.1852 John Mayo - not a lot of time mourning though!
Living in France I have found it hard to search but you are an excellent source of information, thank you so much

Would someone be kind enough to help me trace details of William Rayer who married Bridget Wells on 19/09/1731. It is Williams details I am searching for, I would like to trace his dob, & parents. I already know that Bridget was baptised 15/10/1703 and was buried 21/05/1798; also that her parents were John & Anne (nee White) Wells & his parents were John & Elinor Wells.

Any info on the Rayer family would be very much appreciated

I note on the IGI that there is a William Rayer baptised 9 April 1704 at Winchcombe, Glos son of Robert & Ann, this could be your man.

Hello Graham,

Thank you for taking the time to look up this information for me, it is very much appreciated. I do not know the area well and dont know if Winchcombe is close to Berkeley or not. I will now start to try to trace Robert & Ann thanks for providing me with this new info

Jan

Hi Jan,
Winchcombe isn't part of the Forest of Dean although it is in Gloucestershire but situated northeast of Gloucester & even Cheltenham so rather outside the scope of this website.

http://www.winchcombe.co.uk/about/local-history

It's an ancient Cotswolds town which I believe owes a lot of its growth in more recent times to that area's woollen industry. Anyone trading wool from there towards say the seaports of Bristol or into the Forest & South Wales via Lydney would undoubtedly have visited the enroute town of Berkeley, historically an important town with castle etc.

Berkeley is situated east of the Forest just a mile or so across the Severn immediately opposite Lydney, this flatter area called the Vale is far less populated than the Forest side with no modern industry to speak of, being largely agricultural based. I have agricultural working ancestors in Taynton nr Longhope just within the northern Forest boundary, some of those originate from Berkeley presumably due to this ag-lab similarity. Generally though the Berkeley side of the river has remained largely unchanged since long before and after the Industrial Revolution that so influenced the Forest's sharp population growth. I think this explains why there has been so much "transfer" of families across the River into the Forest in the last few hundred years, especially thro the port of Sharpness, very near Berkeley and the highest navigable point of the Severn for larger ships in those more recent times, and also Frampton upstream across to Awre & Newnham.

This 1904 Ordance Survey map shows this area well, if you look at the bottom lefthand corner you can zoom into it, it's a fantastic site for anyone like myself with an interest in old maps. That said, even a basic road atlas is in my opinion essential when researching family history, to get a good grasp of the area your ancestors lived in. I thought I knew the FoD area pretty well, but in fact I've learnt so much more since I started researching these last few months, especially the area north towards Herefordshire, what nowadays seem insignifcant little villages were important Parish centres only a century or two ago.

http://visionofbritain.org.uk/cgi-bin/iipsrv.fcgi?FIF=/maps/vips/os_medium_1904/1125_14...

Not forgetting of course this (FoD FH) site's own superb FoD maps kindly provided by Slowhands, I think people forget theres so much more wonderful and relevant information available on this website than "just" the PRs & Forum.

http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/the-forest-of-dean/maps-of-the-forest

Look at the "Forest East c1906" map, a good closeup of the Awre/Berkeley area. Note the railway bridge at Sharpness which would undoubtedly have helped make cross-Severn traffic a much more routine event. That said there were of course many ferry boats at say Newnham etc.

Hello Jeff, That was a very informative response and I really do appreciate the fact that you have taken the time to respond to me, thank you. I recently started our Family Tree as my brother was terminally ill with cancer. We were informed that he died in the early hours of this morning - in a way it was a release as he suffered dreadfully. When I feel more positive I will take up the cause again and hopefully continue finding more members of our family. Your notes I am sure will prove very useful. I am hoping to travel over from France for the funeral but do not think this a good time to visit the Archives. Perhaps next year when I will be feeling more positive. Thank you once again for making so much effort on my behalf.

Jan

Hello Jan,
you are most welcome to the help with your enquiries, but thanks all the same for making the effort to write such kind words, I'm sure I speak for all the regular contributors to this fine forum that such a post is really appreciated.

May I also thank you for posting at what must be such a difficult time for you and your family, we are all very sorry to hear of your loss and you all have our deepest sympathies. Perhaps irrelevant at this moment, but my father, my uncle and father in law all succumbed to that dreadful disease, as I'm sure it touched the lives of too many of this forum. Slowly but surely we've managed to move our lives on, so must you however difficult it seems now. We can only hope the tremendous efforts of those seeking a cure are eventually rewarded, and possibly support them if possible.

As and when you feel able we look forward to helping you again on the Forum, or if you prefer send one of us an email and we'll do our best in whatever way I can. I've often considered moving to France myself as we've holidayed there dozens of times, so I think I can fully understand why you're based in such a beautiful and historic country.

Thanks again and take care.

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