Can you help me find out about my 3x great grandfather?
QI’ve hit a brick wall with my 3x great grandfather William Coffield. I have found his marriage to Rosannah Levy (Levi) on 9 July 1787 in Whitechapel, London, and her birth on 4 July 1770. However, I can find no birth or death records for him. I also wondered about my great grandfather’s name Mintiam. Might there be Jewish connections through the Levy family? David Coffield
AI could find no trace of William in the 1841 or 1851 census, suggesting he had died before then. If he died after civil registration came into place in 1837, that would include his age. I searched the General Record Office (GRO) death index on https:// www.gro.gov.uk which shows the age at death but he is not recorded, which suggests he died before 1837. I found a William Coffield buried in St Mary’s Paddington Green around 1790 on Ancestry ( ancestry.co.uk), but the entry is difficult to read and includes no age at death. Similarly, there is a William Cofield baptised in 1755 (parents William and Mary) in St Mary’s Marylebone, which would be worth looking at further.
Your records show that your 3x great grandfather’s surname appeared under a number of variants, including Coffield and Coffill. Bear this in mind when searching, and use different search options and wildcards. The Dictionary of American Family Names available on Ancestry suggests variants including Cockfield, Cofield, Caufield, Coffelt, Coffel, Bonfield, Coffer and Belfield.
Although Ancestry has a large London collection, you may wish to contact Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives ( ideastore.co.uk/local-history-visitorinformation) to see if there are relevant burial registers that are not yet online.
Mintiam is an unusual name with no Jewish associations. Check other families that have the name for possible connections. However, Levy is a strong indication of a Jewish connection for Rosannah. In 18th-century London she is most likely to have Sephardi roots. See our guide at bit.ly/sephardi. Emma Jolly