Family Tree Success - another step added!

In the course of my Edwardson family tree research, I thought I had hit a dead-end. As detailed on the site, I had got my paternal line back to a William Edwardson, whom I know married at Aston-by-Sutton, near Runcorn, in 1716. But when I tried to find his birth records, I found that there were three William Edwardson's baptised between 1687 and 1697, all within the local area (south Lancashire). There was, apparently, no way to confirm which was my 8 x Great-Grandfather. We were back in to the murky world of the 17th century, with scarce records and, even where they existed, scant information.

So I thought that was it - dead-end. Road block. Cul-de-sac. I'd have to content myself with having got my line back to around 1700, and think myself lucky. But then, in the course of some idle research, I stumbled across a list of wills available online from the archives of Chester and Cheshire West council. They listed a will for a Joseph Edwardson, of Sutton, dated 1716. Sutton - could that be Aston-by-Sutton? And the timeframe was almost bang on too, the very year of William's first wedding. Could Joseph be a relative? Could the will give me some much needed further info?

Well, for the meagre sum of £6, I'd have been silly not to give it a shot! Of course, when the will arrived in my inbox, it was as a scan of the original document. Beautiful, but borderline illegible:

I'm no expert on cursive, but with some effort I managed to develop a reasonable transcription of the will.

Joseph was a butcher of modest means - and he lists his residence as 'Aston Juxtus Sutton' in the County of Chester, just as I was hoping! He mentions several relatives, mainly his father Richard and brother John, his executors. And he also mentions another brother - William.

Success! It is has to be almost certain that this is my 8 x Great-Grandfather. And we now know the name of his father, Richard. The other two candidates had fathers called Thomas. Ergo - I've identified my William as the one baptised in Farnworth, just north of Widnes, in 1687 - he is only candidate with a father called Richard. Beautifully, there are also baptsim records for Joseph and John with Richard listed as their father.

So there we go, another step back is confirmed!

It just goes to show - don't give up, keep digging for evidence, and take a chance when it appears!

That's my Edwardson line back to 1687, in Farnworth, then in the County of Lancashire. Of course, there's always further back to go. Richard is listed as 'Richard of Bould', on the baptism records of his children, indicating that he lived in, or came from, Bold (modern Bold Heath), also north of Widnes and north east of Farnworth. This is our first clue back to the previous generation - let's keep digging!