Nikki Chapman (tikki_nik2 @t yahoo.co.uk) of : Sidford, Sidmouth, Devon writes My greatx3 grandfather James Chapman of Buckinghamshire (either Wendover or Aston Clinton) married a Charlotte, born about 1806 of Tring, Herts. I am trying to find out more about Charlotte, and also track their marriage and births of their children. They are listed in the 1841 census in Wendover with two sons, Joseph, aged 10 and William, aged 1. Of course these ages will have been rounded up or down. [No - children's ages were supposed to be correct - for rules see 1841 census.] It states that Joseph and William were not born in Bucks, I assume they were born in Herts like their mother. Also I have searched endlessly for a marriage for the pair in Bucks and this too seems non existent, so I think they were married in Charlotte's home town of Tring sometime after 1830. My greatx2 grandfather George was born in Wendover in 1842 and his birth certificate states Charlotte's maiden name as Law or Saw (it is hard to work out the first letter).

I can only give advice relating to the Hertfordshire part of this question. There is no sign of any Tring born Joseph Chapman (born circa 1831) or William Chapman (born circa 1840)  in any of the censuses between 1851 and 1901 (Ancestry) and they may have died, or Joseph may have emigrated, by 1851. For this reason I will concentrate on Charlotte Law or Saw. 

In theory there should be a birth certificate for William - which would give his place of birth, but in the early years of the certificate not all children were registered - although you say his brother George was registered in 1842.

If you cannot read Charlotte's maiden name for certain from George's birth certificate it should also be recorded on William's birth certificate - or that of George's younger sister, Sarah Ann (aged 2 in 1851 census). 

If you look at the 1851 census for Tring you will find two agricultural labourer Saw households living at Little Tring - and no-one called Law was listed. The census is available online and you may want to look up details.

In one household there was William Saw - a 67 year old agricultural labourer  born at Tring - who is old enough to be Charlotte's father. In the other household was 34 year old John Saw, a carter also born in Tring, with his wife and a daughter. John could be Charlotte's brother.

Something that you might miss is that a 67 year old Mary Saw was buried in Tring on 18th December 1850 (Herts Burial Index). She could well have been William's wife (you may be able to check on the 1841 census).

From the 1851 census we have William Saw (67), Charlotte Saw (45 - now Chapman) and John Saw (34) - all born in Tring and no sign of a Church of England baptism for any of them. You appear to have a problem which unfortunately you share with many other people researching their Hertfordshire ancestors - See Where is my ancestor's baptism before 1837?. You should therefore not be surprised if your search for the births/baptisms for this family before 1837 is negative.

August 2012

Alan Hart (parisahart @t yahoo.fr) writes from Paris, France: I came across your site whilst researching mu family history, which includes the Saw family in Tring. I do not have a question, but I can clarify a couple of points for you regarding some of the information on the appropriate discussion thread.

You mention William Saw living in Tring in the 1841 & 1851 censuses, and also Mary Saw buried in Tring. I can confirm that they were husband and wife. They had at least one son, James Saw, of whom so far very little is known. He had a son, Thomas Saw, who was brought up by William & Mary, and eventually married Elizabeth Delderfield of Aldbury. One of Thomas & Elizabeth's daughters, Elizabeth, married Charles Finch of Tring, my gt grandfather. The Finches subsequently lived in Aldbury.

As regards John Saw and Charlotte Saw: I suspect from looking at the 1841 census that John was another son of William & Mary as he lived two doors down in the 1841 census. He married twice, and his second wife was a certain Charlotte (maiden name as yet unknown). John & Charlotte eventually took over the (defunct) Red Lion pub in Frogmore St, which Charlotte briefly ran on her own when John died in 1881. John Saw had a daughter by his first marriage, but she moved to London then Essex.

I am continuing to investigate the Saw family in the Vale of Aylesbury to try and establish various links. There was another John Saw with his family Ivinghoe, although he originally came from Haddenham in Bucks. One of his daughters married in Aldbury, so I am trying to establish if the Tring & Haddenham/Ivinghoe Saw families were related. If I manage to make any headway, I will let you know.

If you can add to the information given above tell me.