Thanks once again to the LDS site – http://FamilySearch.org – I have found some more information on William Hutchings. His origins have been unknown so far, mainly due to wrong assumptions (see previous posts).  The only census (1851) to show his birthplace shows it as Tong in Kent, but I assumed this was meant to be Thong, a village quite close to the Hoo peninsula where he subsequently lived.  However, I have found a whole batch of Hutchins (without the final g -spellings are always variable) in a village well south of the Hoo area, called, you guessed it, Tong!

There is a slight problem with dates, his baptism is shown as 1797 (cf the  2 censuses (1841 & 1851) which show his birthdate as 1799) – this could be correct, or it could be an error on the part of the transcriber. Such errors are not uncommon on the LDS site, I always try to double check things if I can.  In this case I have been unable to find any parish records for Tong online – perhaps in time they will come.  Either way, I am happy that this is the correct family, so that is a step forward – or is that backward?

Next job is to put all the new information on my website etc.