underdog

Try searching the maps section of the National Library of Scotland site, https://maps.nls.uk/ 6 inch to the mile zoomable maps.

Something like that - Assuming this is right you've filled in a few blanks for me - Thanks.

@Dave - Blyton seems perfectly logical to me, the village of Fillingham is in the same general north Lincs area. I've since found out that the first Fillinghams to cross the Pennines were Thomas & his wife who were married in Blyton & had moved here sometime before 1650 when their son Henry was born in Prescot. Bang goes my theory. I should have some more detailed evidence but I've just got a new computer & haven't transferred all the files over yet (assuming I can find them). The above is mostly from memory.

It's OK, I've sorted it. I'm a Linux loser so Legacy isn't an ideal solution but I've installed Gramps & that seems to work fine. Just a matter of going through all the info & finding what's useful.

Thanks - I'll give them a look - once I work out the finer points of ged files.

Thanks for the extra info - I think I've gone as far back as I can without having to pay for it. I've come up with a theory as to how Thomas ended up in Prescot. As luck would have it, when I first discovered Thomas' records I was reading Peter Ackroyd's history of the civil war & had just read a mention of how north Lincs (where Blyton is) was a royalist area. If Thomas decided to join up (he wouild have been in his mid-20s), the main royalist army in the north was the Earl of Derby's. At the end of the war, he must have found himself in the Prescot area & settled down with a local lass. Pure speculation but it seems the most likely scenario. @ Kirsty - glad I could help, good luck with the rest of your search.

He was my 6xGrandfather - the Fillinghams went: Anthony - 1722 - 1766 Anthony - 1749 - 1822 Samuel - 1775 - 1827 Ellen - 1809 - 1881 (never married) Alice - 1846 - 1876 (she's the one who married the aforementioned John Willcock) The earliest Fillingham is actually Gulielmus' mother Elisabeta (given names tended to be recorded in a Latinized form but were probably William & Eilzabeth) born c. 1520 but AFAIK there's no record of her maiden name. Parish records weren't compulsory until later in the 16th century. I've knocked up a simplfied tree which might make things clearer - it includes maiden names of spouses where known on the last line, William Jones & Elizabeth Finlayson were my parents.