parish records Archives

For Eva

Poor little Eva Rogers.

Not only did she die at just 3 years of age, but she was buried under the wrong name!

To be fair, this error is likely confined to the burial register – a slip up by the rector confusing the names of two sisters – but I can’t help but feel a little indignation for the wee lass.

Eva’s older sister, Ada Rogers was born in 1859 and was only 18 years old when she died in 1877.

Eva Rogers was born two years after her sister in 1861 and baptised in November at Newport, Shropshire, England.

As she was born and died between censuses, I only know of Eva’s existence due to trawling the Newport, Shropshire parish records on FindMyPast. But still, her burial did not appear in the burial records. However, there was a burial of ‘another’ Ada Rogers in 1865. I already knew Eva’s sister, Ada (who did appear on censuses) died in 1877 so who was this other Ada? At first I thought there was a transcription error but the record clearly showed ‘Ada Rogers’.

Burial of Eva Rogers (mistranscribed as Ada) 1865

Fortunately, Eva was registered under the correct name as can be seen in the GRO index.

The surname, death place and age at death match so I can surmise the rector simply had ‘a bit of a slip-up’ at the time of recording in the burial register. I feel glad that I was able to uncover the mistake and reestablish her place in the family tree.

Double Marriage Entry

Came across something very curious last night…

The marriage of George WREFORD and Harriet STILING (for which I have both the original parish entry AND official copy of entry, as well as the record of banns) was recorded twice in the registers – same parish, church, year and even volume – within pages of each other.

Jan-Mar Quarter 1845, Volume 10 page 407

April-Jun Quarter 1845, Volume 10 page 431

At first I thought it may be a different George Wreford since Wrefords abound in Devonshire, but Harriet is mentioned in both entries (albeit with different spelling).

Perhaps the clue lies with the only other name from both entries – Elizabeth Galliford recorded as marrying George Marley/George Manby. Perhaps it was just recorded twice to clear up the spelling mistakes but that also doesn’t make sense as the parish records show both marriages actually took place in the April Quarter.

Marriage of George Marley to Elizabeth Galliford

Marriage of George Wreford to Harriotte Stiling

I have tried searching for a second ceremony in the Tiverton area via the Devon Parish Registers on findmypast but there doesn’t appear to be any.

Why would the marriage which took place in May be initially recorded in the previous quarter? I guess the next step is to order the record from page 407 although I don’t want to spend more money just to get the exact same copy sent to me.

Notes:

I will now begin spelling Miss Stiling’s name as Harriotte as that is how she signed the register herself.
I found out while researching this that Phillip Chave, who appears in both entries as witness and several times in the Cove registers was actually the assistant to Mr William North Row of Cove House – magistrate for Devon. I presume this meant he often ‘sat in’ as witness for these smaller ceremonies where required. I had originally thought he may have been a friend or relative.

Next Steps:

Order Jan qtr marriage certificate
Revisit Harriet STILING to find connection to Cove area

Saint vs Saints

I have done a LOAD more research on the Lamb/Rollett family and found what I believe are answers to some of the questions I posed in my previous post (which I will write about later, I promise) but I’ve just come back from a quick trip to Derby and inputting the information into my online tree has thrown up ANOTHER question.

While at the Derby Local Histories & Family History Library, I found the baptism entries for William Henry LAMB & Rebecca TAYLOR’s children on a parish register microfilm. Their 5 oldest children were baptised at All Saints, Derby (which is now known as Derby Cathedral) all on the same day – 11th March 1849. Beside the first column, the children’s actual birth dates were also recorded – the eldest, John, being born nearly 10 years previous.

This is not that unusual and I have come across this before in my research over the years. However, these children had already been baptised as infants in St Alkmund’s Church!

StAlkmunds_Church_in_1906 — St Alkmund’s Church, Derby c.1906

Now, I have heard of some children being re-baptised after changing religions or denominations; I’ve even heard of some being re-baptised after moving to a new area. But St Alkmund’s & All Saints are both Church of England AND within a stone’s throw of each other so those explanations don’t fit.

antique-maps-Town-Plans-80-1 — Plan of the Town of Derby c.1817 – arrows indicate the locations of All Saints & St Alkmund’s churches

Researching the church of St Alkmund’s shows that it was rebuilt 1844-46 (during the time some of the children were originally baptised); perhaps there was some issue surrounding this? The only other thought that has come to mind is some kind of scandal where there were concerns the children were not legitimately baptised.

If anyone can shed some light on this, or pose an alternative explanation, please contact me.

Mystery Grandson Solved

record — William James Cussans birth entry

In my last post, I mentioned that I wanted to find out more about the mystery grandson, William CASSANS, found staying with the ALLEN family in the 1851 census. I’ve actually wanted to do this for years – ever since I first found this census record. If I could find who his mother was, I could add another child to that family and perhaps open up more doors. Even though I guessed it was a spelling issue, I was never able to locate this child anywhere else. To be fair, I wasn’t that bothered since he wasn’t a direct line from me, but seeing his name again bugged me and I set about to solve this mystery.
William CASSANS was only 3 years old (so born c.1848 in Gillingham) and staying with his grandparents William Henry & Sarah ALLEN in the 1851 census.

8eedf9ce3b2390097afb3a386e21682f — 1851 Census – William CUSSANS with the ALLEN family

I had previously searched the subsequent censuses under various spellings since Cassans gave me nothing. (Some of the variants I found included; Cussans, Cussons, Cossons, Cousins and even Custance)
A search within two years of 1848 on findmypast, brought up the birth of a William James CUSSANS, registered in the Medway area, and a death in London that looked ‘promising’.

united-kingdom-records-in-birth-marriage-death-and-parish-records

A search for census records under this name found someone of the right name, age and birthplace married to a Jeanette in London 1881.

LNDRG11_208_213-1200 — 1881 Census – CUSSANS

A quick search for marriage record with a ‘Jeanette’ as spouse brought up:

1873 fits with the age of the first child (6 years in 1881, therefore born a year or two later in 1874/75) but notice there is also another possible bride listed.
Ordinarily, a certificate would need to be ordered to actually prove which of these women was the one he married, however since this marriage took place in London, I was able to find the parish register entry in the London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 records on the ancestry website. As well as proving the marriage, this record gave his father’s name as James CUSSANS, an upholsterer.

Tracking William back to the 1861 census finds him in London with his parents, James (yay!) and Emma, who was born in Faversham, Kent (double yay!).

MDXRG9_175_177-0106 — 1861 Census – Cussans

But was his mother an ALLEN?

Well, my many hours hunting the Kent parish registers showed that William Henry and Sarah did indeed have a daughter named Emma so the last thing I had to do was look for a marriage between a James Cassans and an Emma and…

BAM! I love it when a plan comes together…

The ALLEN Key

William Henry ALLEN, son of Henry & Susanna ALLEN, was born around 1790 in Faversham, Kent.
I can state this for sure because of Bishop’s Transcripts. Before this discovery, I only knew that William Henry ALLEN was a carpenter and the father of Mary Ann Allen since he appears on his daughter’s marriage certificate in 1848 (also seen in this post).

Marriage Certificate of George Wright PALMER & Mary Ann ALLEN

This information backs up the 1851 census record I had for the family (although the names of the visiting grandchildren made me pretty confident anyway):

So I now know that the family lived on Chatham Hill, Chatham between 1848 and 1851 (at least) and that Henry was a carpenter born in Faversham, Kent around 1790. (I also know the names of a few more children but I’m focusing on William for now). Next stop, parish records…
Unfortunately, the Medway Ancestors project doesn’t seem to have the parish registers for Faversham online but I recently did a search on Find My Past and it came up with the Bishop’s Transcript record. Bishop’s Transcripts were a copy of the parish records, often summarised, that each church sent to the Bishop. Information can vary from the register and the transcript so it’s always worthwhile to check out both if you can.

Canterbury Baptisms – Bishop’s Transcripts (St Mary’s of Charity, Faversham)

…William Henry Allen, son of Henry & Susanna Allen [May 30, 1790]…

Yay! I now know the name of William Henry’s parents and have unlocked a few more avenues of research for this family.

Next steps:

~~Find out more about William Cassans (unknown grandchild)~~
View the actual St Mary’s of Charity parish records
Find out more about the Allen’s residences