This page contains the lineage charts of Dot and Alf’s ancestors, and also “person briefs”, each of which outlines the evidence that verifies the particular person’s place in the family tree, as well as the evidence supporting any details given of that ancestor’s birth, baptism, marriage, death or burial.
A high standard of proof is demanded for any conclusion drawn in a person brief. Essentially, the evidence must compellingly substantiate the conclusion.
So far, only a few genealogical lines have been traced back as far as possible. Further genealogical lines will be added to this website as they are completed.
Lineage Charts
Alfred Shields Lineage
Walker Lineage Line
A note on research methodology
Finding locational and temporal nexuses is obviously key to tracing genealogical lines. A link between two life events with matched names can often be inferred with sufficient certainty where they occur in the same locality, their timing in relation to each other is apposite, and there are no other disqualifying factors.
Most of our ancestors lived in small rural villages in England and Ireland, and such persons tended not to relocate, even after the onset of the Industrial Revolution from about 1760. That factor has assisted the tracing task.
These are examples of the application of the methodology.
- Jane Gibbes was baptised in Stretton-on-Fosse in 1677. She married William Miles there in 1699, and baptised 10 children there between 1700 and 1720. Various genealogical searches returned only one Jane Miles burial in Stretton-on-Fosse or its vicinity between 1720 and 1780. It occurred in 1768. The location and timing of this burial is a match for Jane.
- James Maycock married by licence in Southam in 1776. The licence recorded that he was aged 24. James baptised 9 children in Southam between 1777 and 1796, and he was buried there in 1837 aged 88. Various genealogical searches for a James Maycock/Meacock/Macock baptism between 1740 and 1760 returned none in Southam, two in Fenny Compton 6 miles away (in 1749 and 1759), and no others anywhere in Warwickshire. The 1759 baptisee was likely too young to marry in 1776, and would not then have been mistaken for 24. Conversely, an 1837 burial at age 88 exactly matches a 1749 baptism. The location and timing of the 1749 baptism is the best match for James.
- William Wilkins baptised children in Marton in 1801 and 1805. He was still living there, and in the same household as his daughter Mary, at the time of the 1841 census, when his age was recorded as 75. No William Wilkins was listed in Mary’s household in the 1851 census. Searches for a William Wilkins burial in Marton between 1841 and 1851 returned only one record, a burial in 1847 at age 81. The burial location is a match for Mary’s father, and so is the age at burial: if William was 75 in 1841, he would have been 81 six years later in 1847.
