C The Smith Family Line.          Home Page  Family History  Smith Family Start  16 April 2007 

The quick discovery, that Nan’s GreatGrandfather, Grandfather and Father all had the unique name Robert Willetts Smith made the discovery of their wives names relatively simple.  Unfortunately, living in a large town with a mobile population meant that it was time-consuming and difficult finding the families in the census returns because when I started, there were few if any indexes (and certainly none computerized).

The origins of the Smith family can be traced three generations before the family moved to Stafford.  Nan’s earliest known ancestor, Robert Smith, was a soldier based at Newcastle under Lyme.  Whilst living there, he had a son, also named Robert, christened on June 20th 1739.  At the age of twenty the younger Robert married Ann Bagnall on the 22nd April 1759 at Whitmore parish church.  The couple are only known to have had one child - a son called Richard, christened on January 5th 1764.

On the basis of their marriage certificate, neither Richard nor his bride Hannah Coclough could sign their names.  Richard was 28 years old when they married on October 21st 1792, at Norton Le Moors:

Figure 3          Marriage Record of Richard Smith & Hannah Coclough 1792

Note:Wm.Steele regularly acted as a witness for the marriages. 

If  William CoClough was Hannah’s father, then Hannah would have been 17 years old and been raised at Stoke upon Trent.

 Home Page      Family History    Smith Family Start          Top of Page       Next Page