As I'm relatively inexperienced, so I was just wondering if anybody had any tips about the best way to go about this.

I'm trying to find out if the William Asher who was baptised at St Margaret's, Leicester in 1788 (parents George & Jane Asher) was the same William Asher who was married to Elizabeth Barfield at Leicester, St Martin's in 1814.

There are a lot of William Ashers in the area, but what suggests that it might have been him is the fact that William & Elizabeth's first child was named George Thomas Barfield....these would have been the names of William's father & father in law. However, there only seems to have been one more child.....Samuel Lyon.....& neither of those names comes from the baptised William's family (as far as I can see). There are no clues in the names of the marriage witnesses.

The William Asher who married Elizabeth Barfield disappears after he is recorded as the father of their second child (baptised in Nottingham in 1818....their first child was baptised in Nottingham in 1815) I've trawled through the records, as have several experienced friends, but we've ruled out all the William Ashers we can find in the East Midlands....we can't find a death & we can't find him on any transportation/emigration records.

Elizabeth Barfield next turns up in Nottingham in 1820, when she has a child baptised (father Lyon Asher, born in Germany....no marriage found) They stay together until their deaths. Unfortunately, both of William Asher's sons left England before the census, so I can't find out if they were living with Lyon & Elizabeth, but it looks as though the older son maintained at least a business relationship with Lyon.

It is possible that William & Lyon were the same person, which I did think at one time,....but I'm tending more & more to the idea that they were 2 different people, although probably distantly related, being from different branches of the same family tht had emigrated to England at different times.

Is there any quicker way I can try & find out if the 2 Williams mentioned in my opening paragraph are the same person, or will I just have to plough through all the Leicestershire records (assuming the William baptised in 1788) stayed there & see what the Asher entries throw up ?