I was forwarded a request to help match up a small tree to it’s parent, which was suspected to be the Dragons of Somerset. Her line stopped suddenly with a father son combo both by the name of Walter George Babb (1890-1947 & 1861-1928 Respectively). We had a vague undocumented reference to a father named George Babb, but no other info about him. The partial tree in the database was briefly known as Somerset Pedigree (Taunton 1861).

Common names make searching more difficult and George is no exception. To date we have 183 George Babbs in the UK trees alone. So, I set out very carefully.

First, I had to catch up the entries for the two Walter George Babbs and see what was out there. In doing so, I was able to trace the Father Walter George back to his Baptism in 1861, which confirmed his father’s name and it revealed the first name of his mother Eliza.

A quick look at the 1861 Census showed the new parents living with Thomas & Harriet Clark. They are families number 55 & 56. They are surrounded by other Babbs, but I didn’t notice this until later. This established an approximate date of birth for George (the father of the elder Walter George (1861-1928) who in this record is just listed as George @ 2 months of age) of approximately 1835.

Next I was able to locate the marriage record for George (1861-1928) and Eliza. They were married in 1858 and her maiden name was Clark and it validates the status of Thomas Clark as her father and landlord during the Census.

This only gave me two bits of information about his father. He was a Tinman and his name was John Babb.

Since John was still alive in 1861 for the birth of George I theorized that I might find George (b. 1835) in the 1841 Census, I looked and did. John Babb-TinPlater is listed with wife Mary and George at age 5.

Now armed with John’s wife’s name Mary, I repeated the process described above and located their Marriage Bann from 1835. I learned that her maiden name was Wright.

I then moved to John’s Baptism Record from 1808 and learned that he is the son of John & Sarah Babb.

John Babb & Sarah Bale, are already registered in the Dragons of Somerset lineage and cemented the connection to the tree.

So, let me present for the very first time the complete Ancestry of Walter George Babb (1890-1947).