The Smith family of Bath SOM

We all know just how difficult it is tracing a very common name. Add George to Smith and you are faced with numerous choices and no indication of the right one!

In her diary, Mary Anne Smith who married Charles Fisher, said that her father died from a ruptured blood vessel while walking down a main street in Bath SOM when she was just 2 years old. If Mary Anne's recall was correct then this would have occurred in 1827.

Pictured: Mary Anne Fisher nee Smith

The problem is that several George Smiths have been located dying in Bath at the right time.. The information in each record is just not sufficient to ascertain if any of the men concerned were Mary Anne's father or not!

The most likely candidate is George Smith who was buried 14 Apr 1827 in the graveyard of Bathwick St Mary the Virgin. A Harriet Smith d. 4th qtr 1843 Bath RD (Ref: 11/50) - she is the only woman of this name dying in this RD in the period 1841–1861.

It seems likely that the the surviving family, the late George Smith's wife and his two children were still in the area at the time of the 1841 Census with Harriet making ends meet as a laundress.


Even the name Fisher is quite common in the Bath area and that line of research has often been slowed down through multiple options. Fortunately in the case of the Fisher line these have largely been resolved.