I have been driving myself insane trying to find a birth record for my great-great grandfather Jesse Ayling (Jesse is my middle name, so it continues to be handed down

) for some time now, so I was really interested, Jane, to see your theory that he may have been baptised James. Have you been able to find any material to back this up? I have Jesse's death certificate from 1882, which gives his age as 77, just to confuse matters further. I was really pleased to see you associate him with James Ayling and Mary Issacs, as a distant relative of mine in the US found Jesse on the 1851 census when he had a nephew living with him, which she used to trace Jesse's brother's parentage, which seemed to be James and Mary. It's so frustrating that no records exists, as I want to follow this line more than any other.