Quote Originally Posted by cessna152towser View Post
... The bride's father was Daniel Bell, who was also a witness to the baptism of their first child. Daniel Bell as a 5 x great grandfather is my earliest confirmed ancestor, he would have been born about 1710 to 1720. I have been unable to prove or disprove whether this is the same Daniel Bell from Lesmahagow in Lanarkshire who fathered a daughter Janet Bell in 1742. If I could confirm this then I could go back a further three generations as that family were farmers and were well documented in local records. ....

Might I suggest Y DNA testing?

If you can locate a male, patrilineal Bell descendant from each of these men, it would be a simple matter to determine it is the same Daniel Bell who is their common ancestor.

It might take a bit of digging, following the paper trail forward instead of backward as we usually do in genealogy, and it would cost a couple of hundred pounds, but the results would show to a high degree of probability if it was the same man.

For how to do this, go to www.familytreedna.com and click on their FAQ. They have the largest database of all the genetic genealogical testing companies.

There is a Bell Surname Project here: http://home.earthlink.net/~bell.ancestries/ If you are tested through a surname project, Family Tree gives you a discount.