I have recently been corresponding with a newly discovered cousin. Our common ancestors are Benjamin Coles and his wife Elizabeth. Robyn is descended from Henry Boyde Coles, Benjamin and Elizabeth’s firstborn, while I’m descended from Henry’s younger brother Joseph.

Here’s what I know so far about Benjamin and his family. His first son was baptised Henry Boyde Coles on 5 February 1797 in the parish of Mells, near Frome in Somerset, England. Joseph was baptised in the same parish the following year on July 15.
In 1813 a petition by Benjamin for an apprenticeship for Joseph was considered by the Somersetshire Society for Apprenticing the Children of the Poor. An excerpt from the petition provides the information that by this time Benjamin and Elizabeth had increased their family by a further seven children; that Benjamin was a labourer employed by the East India Company; and that he had been in the job for the last ten years. As the Society was founded to provide apprenticeships for children who were, or whose parents were, natives of Somerset residing in the metropolis, Benjamin must have moved his family to London sometime around the turn of the century.
The certificate for Joseph’s second marriage in 1842 records his father’s occupation as being a porter in the E.I. House [i.e. East India House], and the marriage certificate for Henry in 1845 shows Benjamin’s occupation as clerk, E.I. House. Neither certificates are annotated to the effect that Benjamin is deceased however the 1841 census records Elizabeth as being a widow. Elizabeth died of old age in 1849, aged 77 years.

The baptism register for the parish of St Martin in the Fields records the baptisms of six children to parents named Benjamin and Elizabeth Coles: Mary (1801), James (1802), Eliza Price (1804), Katherine (1806), John (1807) and Ann Boyd (1812). Are these children the younger siblings of Henry and Joseph?
The fact that both Henry and Ann share a second given name of Boyd gives cause to suggest that the London-born children are family, and the chronology of the baptisms give no reason to suggest otherwise. The task is to prove it one way or the other.