William Dolman 1803 Cherhill

Dear Andrew I confirm that we have continued with your research as follows: 1) Baptisms check To make sure there were no entries in Cherhill, that the White Horse Index missed, we searched the following: CHERHILL Parish Baptisms Started search 1805 1805 Dec 25 - Edward, son of Isaac & Mary DOLMAN 1805 Dec 25 - John, son of Isaac & Mary DOLMAN Stopped search 1810 No further DOLMAN entries (taken from original registers on fiche) So this result appears to confirm the White Horse results, using confirmed sources. In case you didn't already have this, the following entry was spotted, which appears to be William's wife: CHERHILL Parish Baptism 1804 Nov 18 - Ann, dau of Uria and Sarah POTTOW. (taken from original registers on fiche) 2) Marriage entry We checked this marriage entry from 1823: DATE: 03 APR 1823 PLACE: Cherhill GROOM: DOLMAN William BRIDE: POTTOW Ann The details of this were correct, plus: Both were of this parish. Marriage by banns. He marked, she signed. Witnesses Samuel ROGERS and Jane POTTOW 3) Calne Baptisms We checked these IGI-found entries, which proved to be as follows: CALNE Parish Baptisms 1802 Sep 12 - William, son of William and Elizabeth DOLMAN, born 3 September. 1803 Dec 28 - William, son of Ann BUTTON, born 4 September, reputed father is Walter DOLMAN. (taken from original registers on fiche) So the second of these was illegitimate, not something the IGI mentioned! You probably only have to worry about the latter if he was later legitimised, or if they were in a long term relationship, causing the child to be brought up as DOLMAN. Walter however, appears as father to another woman's child too, in 1805. 4) Calne burials We did check the Calne burials up to the end of 1808, to see if any of these died in infancy. We came across a William BUTTON in 1804 but he appeared to be an adult (had an illegible occupation entered), and then found this burial: CALNE Parish Burials Started search 1802 1806 Oct 28 - Walter, son of Ann BUTTON, reputed father Walter DOLMAN Stopped search 1808 (taken from original registers on fiche) As this might have been a confusion over the child's name, and he might really have been William, we went back to the baptisms and found that there WAS in fact a son Walter born in 1805, so possibly Ann and Walter senior were in a long-term relationship after all, but it still looks more likely that their William remained as Button. There is a possibility though that Ann was sent away (to relatives in Cherhill?) to have the child, but brought the child back to Calne for baptism. 5) Conclusion So, whilst we have found some nearby baptisms for William DOLMAN (1802 & 1803, Calne), there is no certainty about whether either of these are your William. We can of course continue the search, looking for possible marriages or burials for these 2 people.