Following the Line: Charles - Isaac - John - Isaac - ?

Here's the Brick Wall: Isaac Law and Martha Parkinson were married in Felkirk Parish, Yorkshire, England on May 8, 1764. Prior to his marriage we really don't know where Isaac came from: where he was born, where he lived, etc.

The marriage record is very brief: "May 8th. Isaac Law & Martha Parkinson of this Parish & Banns."

Marriage by banns indicates that the impending marriage was announced for three consecutive weeks prior to the ceremony so that any objections from the Parish could come forth.

Isaac died September 15, 1819 and was buried 2 days later on the 17th. He died in South Hiendley, a village in the Felkirk Parish. The burial record indicates that he was 89 years of age, placing his birth sometime about 1730.

So in 1764 Isaac was of the Parish of Felkirk, but this only means that he had resided in the parish for the minimum of a few weeks. He could have been there for a few weeks, a few years, or decades. However, careful inspection of the parish registers reveals no birth record for Isaac in the Felkirk Parish.

So where was he born? In an attempt to come up with some good possibilities I culled from FamilySearch 5,000 Laws born in Yorkshire. I would have limited to a specific range of years, except the search engine won't allow that without a given name. After deleting some some that were women whose married name was actually something other than Law (or Lawe, Lawes, or Laws) I have a list of just over 4,600 Laws. Here are the top 22 towns and cities for Laws being born and/or christened in Yorkshire.

Todmorden, Yorkshire, England	701
Sheffield, Yorkshire, England	632
Halifax, Yorkshire, England	275
Rotherham, Yorkshire, England	136
Yorkshire, England	112
Birstall, Yorkshire, England	104
York, Yorkshire, England	93
Wath-upon-Dearne, Yorkshire, England	89
Wakefield, Yorkshire, England	88
Leeds, Yorkshire, England	80
Cantley, Yorkshire, England	77
South Hiendley, Yorkshire, England	77
Bradford, Yorkshire, England	72
Hartshead, Yorkshire, England	71
Horbury, Yorkshire, England	63
Egton, Yorkshire, England	50
Elland, Yorkshire, England	50
Swinton, Yorkshire, England	47
Brampton, Yorkshire, England	40
Sedbergh, Yorkshire, England	39
South Kirkby, Yorkshire, England	39
Walsden, Yorkshire, England	38
Heptonstall, Yorkshire, England	37
Heck, Yorkshire, England	36

Obviously Todmorden and Sheffield have the "Lion's Share" of Laws. I've contacted a researcher who has connected up most of the Laws in Todmorden and our Isaac doesn't fit in anywhere.  Some of the other localities here remain good possibilities. Isaac married Martha Parkinson who was born in Hunslet, which was a Chapelry of Leeds until 1719 when it was made a parish itself. Hunslet is 130th in the ranking of places with Laws in Yorkshire, having only 4 in the IGI. The four entries are all for Hannah Law with two records indicating her birth on 12 Aug 1759 and two other records indicating her christening on 12 Aug 1759.

It's also worth noting that the last entry in the list shows that some of the Laws came from Heck (is that a good place to be from?).

The following map shows the proximity of Hunslet and Leeds to South Hiendley and Felkirk.

To see this map on FamilySearch's English Jurisdictions project click Here.