Miriam and William Sage married at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol SOM on 30 Nov 1818. I understand that many couples who wanted to get married quickly ran away to St Mary Redcliffe. I had a few letters from Michael Browning, years before his website was up and running and he advised me that there were "lots of Watts around Farrington Gurney and Paulton" and said I should check those two first. So, as I have been searching for Miriam (Meriel) for years, today ran across this in FreeRegUK: Place: Paulton, Church name: Holy Trinity, Baptism date: 16 Mar 1800, Person forename: Meria, Person sex: F, Father forename: John, Father surname: WATTS, Mother forename: Sarah The dates are good, as she would have been 18 at the time of marriage and William would have been 23 (1795 verified). I now second guess myself, as the PR's for Somerset have a death reg for her for 15 Nov 1849 stating she is 55. I think she should have been about 6 years younger. I am between a rock and a hard place with this, as she is on the 1841 census, but dies before this 1851 census. She and William had 10 children, the second child is my 2x g grandfather, Jesse and the last is Jane born 1838. Could someone please help me with Meria. TY, TY Wendy aka mrshuma
wendy there are a number o trees on Ancestry and all the puplic ones seem to have the death in 1849 as hers and some do have John & Sarah Watts as parents so guess they have all taken same leap of faith as you. there is actually a death cert for her 1849 died of cholera not confirmed but says wife of William Sage
Sometimes it is so difficult to prove whether a particular person is 'ours'. The informant on the death certificate may not have known Miriam's real age and just guessed. If you cannot find another death for her I would take take a shot in the dark that it is her. By the way I have someone who died in 1906 given age was 59 However they were born in 1841 and it is the right person they were a little bit older than 59 though
Was William a coal miner? this is what the death cert for 1849 says and it was and registered by a Susan Godfrey who was in attendance
