This is a simple brick wall; no list of names and complex relationships, just: ‘Who are the parents of William Russell (1743-1819), clay tobacco-pipe maker of Wapping?’.
Thanks to docklands parish records, trade directories, masonic and other records, I have a good body of knowledge about William, and, as you might imagine, that was a necessary precursor to the solution.
I built the Russell tree up as far as William 15 years or more ago, and then got stuck. I’d re-visited several times, but with no progress, and no clues. This time I succeeded – by persistence, a new approach and striking lucky.
The first eureka! Casting for clues online
I started with a general search on the Web. I soon found a usefullooking paper on the topic of clay tobacco pipes from an archaeological perspective. This paper from the mid-1970s focussed on tobacco pipes made in London. Unfortunately, I couldn’t access the whole work online, but the table of known makers could be downloaded. Some of the data presented was problematic, and I found that one or two entries concerning tobacco-pipe makers
