l have been researching my Courts family from Fowey for quite sometime now and thought l'd found them all, l only had one problem a William Courts baptised in 1796, who l haven't ever been able to find anything about, then out of the blue while looking at the Merchant Seaman's papers on FMP l came across a William Courts of Fowey who states he was born 18/8/1792, as far as l know from all the parish records l have copies of there was not a William baptised around that time other than my one in 1796 and most of the Courts members were of my family so l'm wondering if he could be mine, l wondered would it be possible for there to be such a big gap between birth and baptism as you can never be sure how old they actually were as no birth dates are ever given on baptisim registers.

l would be most grateful if anyone has an ideas of how l could confirm whether this was my William or not, l have a suspicion that going down the merchant seaman records route may be the answer but l'm not sure at all, so any help would be most appreciated. My GGGrandfather Thomas and his brother James were both master mariners so does seem possible that this William also followed his brothers into the merchant navy, and on the seaman's papers he does actually say that when not at sea he lived in St. George in the East London, which was where my GGGrandfather lived also so maybe another pointer towards him being mine.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Valman