I also wanted to thank you and say that your link to Sampson has opened up quite a huge potential vista going back to the 1600's and may be further, if everything checks out. I have been caught out before with Stantons in accepting lots of IGI dates at face value. I get all excited by the thrill of discovery then have to back track. Mind you it is fun
On the Bournes there is still that marriage of Thomas and Fanny in St John's Old Haymarket that bugs me. His occupation is given as blacksmith rather than painter as it is in the 1841 census. But there was a Fanny (Frances) Smith christened in Burslem father James Smith according to IGI ( I would have to look it up again as I didn't put much weight on it at the time). Thomas has a son often refered to as Smith Bourne and indeed there is a birth record at Staffs reg office where he is listed as Smith Bourne. However I have a pretty conclusive death record where he is named James Smith Bourne, also his son is James Smith Bourne. Which is why I am still pondering a link between Thomas and Frances Smith.
I have sent off for a book on the Herculaneum Pottery, which seems to have been a self contained unit based somewhat on Wedgewoods Etruria pottery. I also believe that it had its own Methodist chapel as apparently there were no other churches nearby so it may potentially hold records that might interest me.
