Richard HEYWARD - Devon

[Cath]

I am a descendent of William Heyward of Sidbury in Devon, son of Richard and Mary Ann. William emigrated to New Zealand in about 1857 and married Sarah Milligan in 1863.

I am looking for some more information about William's parents - Richard Heyward and Mary Ann Ley Anning.

I have been fortunate to see a copy of the book “The Heyward Family of Devon” where I found that Richard was 'born about 1798, possibly at Farringdon near Topsham, Devon; but more likely at Southon near Heavitree and Exeter'.

I have been searching for a birth or baptism record for Richard (without any success so far), which hopefully will provide me with his parents' names, so that I can then search for siblings and other family connections. The book suggests that his father may also have been Richard, and mother Ellen Rhoda Ash, but had nothing to confirm this and without a birth record etc I am not able to verify this.

Richard moved to Sidbury in about 1823, and married Mary Ann in Topsham in 1833. Mary Ann was the daughter of James and Susannah (Ley) Anning of Sidbury. They had four children - James, Ellen Rhoda, William and Samuel. Richard died in 1844.

Searching from New Zealand means access to locally sourced records is difficult, so I'd appreciate any help that might lead to finding Richard's family.

Many thanks
Catherine

[Northern Lass]

Moved to General Discussion.

[SRD]

Devon County Council have a lot of information on their family history pages http://www.devon.gov.uk/family_history_3 they say that the Parish Registers are in the process of being digitised and are held by Find My Past, this is a subscription site.
They can also provide other information from the Devon Heritage Centre but make a (to my mind hefty) charge for this service.