Part 435m – Smith Robertson Genealogy – 1841 GGG-Grandfather William Merrifield Search Continues

Good Afternoon,

And the search for the genealogy of ggg-grandfather William Merrifield is into full swing. Thank you Helen and Steve for your help and participation in the search.

After I posted Part 434m on Wednesday my PC took a dive. It was the new terabyte harddrive. Had to be replaced and the transfer was seamless. I still have the Google problem on my PC, but I’ll deal with that later.

After I began the search for ggg-grandfather William Merrifield, it appears that the cogs and the wheels began a-churning. Almost simultaneously from England, Wales, and Florida, we stumbled upon a certain number of revealing factors online about ggg-grandfather William Merrifeld that should prove most helpful in our ancestry search.

My thought process was first to try a search for a “Beer House Keeper”, per the 1841 England Census for Clifton. Google Search offered me 829 possible results for the phrase – “1841 Beer house keeper Clifton, Gloucestershire". I added “William Merrifield” which resulted in one outcome, and that was my posting Part 434m. Eliminating the name “William”, nine results were produced. No immediate connection was made.

I changed my search criteria to “1841 Merrifield Pub Clifton”. The sixth hit of 19,000 returned the find “Bristol Pubs 12”. It is a site entitled “Bristol’s Lost Pubs”. The information provided is “Hope & Anchor Mardyke, Hotwell Road – 1841-51. William Merryfield / 1853-54. Ann Merryfield / 1855-57. Henry Couzens".

Another search produced a link to Bristol Information – List All Pubs. Data provided is “Hope and Anchor, Mardyke – Some landlord(s) as listed in directories, etc: William Merrifield 1844 + 49 + 52”. There are three other Hope and Anchors listed. Two of them, the Hope and Anchor Jacobs Well and the Hope and Anchor, Mardyke both appear to be close to the Merrifield home address of Hotwell Road as listed on the 1841 and 1851 Censuses, respectively.

My next search is for a possible Parish Church or Churches where the family may have had ties. The above inserted image of the Hope & Anchor sign is from the present Jacobs Well, Hotwells’ location.

Enjoy, and stay-tuned.

Jim