I have never been able to completely confirm the origin of two of my 3rd great-grandparents, Thomas Mayfield and Eleanor Tunstall, but I believe I am close.
No DNA test has yet provided a link to a present-day family – that is, other than for lines that married into the Mayfield family.
I am certain their life together began when they were married at St Clement Danes Church in Westminster, London, on 14 February 1804. While there is never any guarantee, the coincidence of names, dates and locations confirms these are most likely my ancestors.
Before they emigrated to the United States, they had two children, John William and Thomas Benjamin. Both were baptised in London, specifically at St James Church in Clerkenwell, Islington. Again, their names and ages on other documents found in US records confirm they were my 2nd great grand-uncles and the children of Thomas and Eleanor.
But who were the parents of Thomas and Eleanor, and where did they come from?
Ancestor mapping
To find out, I thought I might try a different tack. We all know that when you are tracing ancestors it can help to source information about close relatives, friends or neighbours to see whether they worked, attended church or moved to other places together.
In densely populated areas such as London, it is never easy to know for sure where people might have lived, how long they were there, what their occupation was, where they went to church or who their friends were. If both forenames and surnames are common, identifying individuals can be confusing. And, of course, if records are incomplete, the task becomes doubly difficult. I thought that looking at a variety of documents and, particularly, using maps to reference where events occurred and people lived, might help in narrowing down the searches for my family members.
In creating this summary, I put
