How to find the parents of John Brown.
I found via FamilySearch (FS) three candidates baptized at All Saints, Wellington, Shropshire:
1. 23 Feb 1806, son of Benj Brown & Eliz. The image on Findmypast (FMP) shows this baptism. I think these were Benjamin Brown and Elizabeth Cholton, married 16 Apr 1798 at Eyton upon the Weald Moors. They also had a son named Benjamin, but there are no Benjamins in my Brown family. This could not be right.
2. 21 Jun 1807, son of John and Sarah Brown. Also FMP image. I think Sarah’s maiden name was Hazlewood; they were married 3 Nov 1825 at Shifnal. In an 1821 census (transcribed by angelfish via Rootschat) he was recorded with parents John and Sarah, also Hazlewood, and Margaret Hazlewood, aged 82. John senior was a carpenter. This could not be my family.
3. 29 Mar 1807, son of William and Elizabeth Brown. Also FMP image. In the local 1821 census William, coal miner, and Elizabeth appear with son William, born about 1810, and William appears in the 1841 census, with the younger William’s family. Although John was not recorded with them in 1821 there is enough evidence to conclude that this baptism was right. I think Elizabeth’s maiden name was Willcox and they married at Eyton on 28 Apr 1806.
So, my third great grandfather was William Brown, born about 1786, in Shropshire (probably in the Wellington area), a coal miner, who in 1841 lived at Red Lake, a mining district of Wellington Shropshire. His wife was Elizabeth Willcox, baptised 21 Dec 1785 at Wellington, mother’s name Ann, apparently unmarried. William died before the 1851 census and Elizabeth before 1841. There appears to be no prospect of pursuing this line further.
Andrew's Kindred 