Lastly Asterley

1714 … Robert ye son of Saml Groves & Sarah his wife was baptised Septembr 12.

This leads to:

Robert Groves tree, based on baptism.

Samuel Groves (6th great grandfather)

My first target was the marriage of Robert’s parents.

Ludlow 1710.  Jan 30th Marr. Sam: Groves of the parish of Ratlinghope & Sarah Asterly of Norbury.

This looks right.  Note that Samuel was of the parish of Ratlinghope, which is where son Robert was baptised.  Norbury is about 4 miles from Ratlinghope and 1 mile from Wentnor, so it part of that rural community.

On the whole the parish records for this general area, between Ludlow and Shrewsbury, seem complete, fully transcribed and searchable.  To find a baptism for Samuel I searched the Findmypast (FMP) data for 1690 ± 20 years within 5 miles of Ratlinghope.  This produced 8 results, but no baptisms, so I widened the search to 10 miles, and there were 16 results, including baptism in 1688 at St Chad’s, Shrewsbury.  This looks like the only possibility.

Under Baptisms 1688 March: Samuel ye son of Samuel Groves & Eliz his wife

Samuel’s burial.  From information I had to this point, Samuel must have lived at least to conceive Robert, who was baptised 12 September 1714.  Any later children would narrow the search.  I turned again to Familysearch for its search facility that allows more factors to be used:  surname Groves, father Samuel Groves, mother Sarah, birthplace Ratlinghope, years 1714-1770 (as a sort of backstop).  This returned: Mary 5 Jun 1726, Robert 12 Sep 1714, William 23 Feb 1723, Samuel 14 Jan 1716, Sammuell 20 Aug 1721 (the first Samuel probably died young, the parish register spells both father and son “Sammuell”).  These are only transcripts, so it is worth checking back with FMP’s facsimiles.

The key to this exercise was the latest, Mary baptised 5 Jun 1726, and this appears in the Ratlinghope parish register.  So, Samuel was alive at least into Autumn 1725.  The best fit I can find is:

Shelve: Samuel Groves was Buried September ye 1st 1767

Sarah Asterly (6th great grandmother)

Shelve: Sarah Groves was Buried October ye 15 1772

It would be nice if all records were this clear!

As though to emphasize the point, here is Sarah’s baptism.  From the register for Pontesbury, Shropshire, 1687, February:

Sarah ye daughter of Abraham Asterley & Mary his wife was baptiz’d ye 16th

It is squeezed between two other records, so here is some enlargement in sections.

I have tried to overlap so that you can see that it is the same line, but it is still not so easy to read.  Sarah ye daughter of Abr / Abraham Asterley & Mary his / Mary his wife was baptiz’d ye 16th

One thing that really is clear, though, towards the right of the middle section is “Mary”, the mother’s name.

From the England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. Mother: “Sarah”.

So, anyone who has mother Sarah in their tree has been misled.  To date, there seem to be none on Ancestry.

Asterley is a small settlement not 2 miles north west of Pontesbury and only a mile from Boycott, where my Andrews ancestors lived for some time, including grandparents of my great grandmother Emma Jones.

As Asterley is the place name it could be that Abraham and his forebears lived there for many generations, but it seems unlikely that further records will be available.

So, I’ve crept back to another set of seventh great grandparents (there should be 256 pairs or 512 individuals), scant though details are.  I suspect I have reached the end of this paper trail.

End of the paper trail.