Dear Barry,

My Nan was a RANN and her mother a BAKER, both with large families in the Edmonton area. It was Elizabeth SAPSFORD (daughter of John SAPSFORD and Elizabeth SAPSFORD (yes, that was her maiden name!!)) who married Henry BAKER in 1867 in Whitechapel.

At the time of Elizabeths parents marriage there were 14 SAPSFORD family groups in Great Hallingbury, whose population at the time was only 650!! So even though only a small area, its a real mess as all the families intermarried and the name pool was very small!!

I'm currently collating all the census' for Great Hallingbury and I just downloaded all the BDM for Great Hallingbury from FamilySearch. Now I'm going to try and work out all the SAPSFORDS to find out which one is my direct line.

As part of that I will also be working out where they married into the other families such as the SALTMARSH and THURLEY families.

Cheers,
Michelle