Brian Kenyon (bs2009 @t windowslive.com) of New Zealand wrote: Have traced some lines back to Tring, though hit a blank wall late 1700. A suggestion is that they were non-conformist, though marriages of some appear at Tring Parish Church anything else nothing so far. Would love to tramp around Akeman Street Cemetery.

As it happened I visited the Akeman Street Baptist Church and Cemetery a few months ago and took the following pictures. It should be noted that virtually all the tombstones seen in these pictures are 19th century. Your relatives undoubtedly were married at the parish church because the law before 1837 gave them no option. Some non-conformists felt so strongly about the matter that they would arrange to marry in a different parish  rather than enter the Church of England church in a parish where they would be known.

	Views of the Akeman Street Baptist Church and graveyard in the Snow, January 2010

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The Akeman Street Baptist Church web site currently contains no historical information but the history is covered by the book The Akeman Street Story.

For information on other non-conformist churches and chapels see Tring Nonconformity.

March 2010		Page created