Lubson family of Ely

[jbml]

All of the following is from the Parish registers available through Find My Past.

I am trying to identify the baptism of Edward Lupson, who married Dinah Veale in Holy Trinity, Ely on 7 April 1743.

I have two possible baptisms:

1. Edward Lubson, son of Robert and Grace, baptised at Ely Holy Trinity on 22 October 1710

2. Edward Lubson, son of John and Mary, baptised at Ely Holy Trinity on 14 January 1721


The problem I have is that when I go to burials to try to exclude, I find that I can exclude them BOTH, vis:

1. Ed Lubson buried Ely Holy Trinity 21 December 1713

2. Edward Lubson, a girl [yes, really!!] buried Ely Holy Trinity 8 September 1722


According to the Cambridgeshire FHS disc, there were also Edward Lubsons baptised at Holy Trinity in 1653 and 1678. My inclination, therefore, is to assume that the 1713 burial was one of these (this is further supported by the fact that the earliest Edward Lubson burial recorded on the Cambridgeshire FHS disc is in 1682 - so I am minded to match the 1682 burial to the 1653 baptism and the 1713 burial to the 1678 baptism - or the other way around, it really doesn't matter: the point is that there are two baptisms and two burials, meanign that I only have one burial to share between the 1710 and 1721 baptisms!) and to believe the entry saying that the Edward Lubson buried on 8 September 1722 was a girl. But how confident can I be in matching her to one or other baptism? it is of course rather more likely that she was the latter of the two (infant mortality being far more frequent than 12-year old mortality) - but can I go further than this? Would a 12 year old still be referred to as "a girl" in 1722, or would she by then be referred to as a woman?

Any thoughts much appreciated, as I've never come across anything like this before!!

[sbny357]

You really need to be careful about making assumptions.  It is better to try to connect as many dots as you can by checking other records such as probate records and other parish records.  For example, many parish registers include accounting records of who received and made payments, which might indicate for example if a support payment was made to a man's widow or to bury the child of a destitute family.  If a man no longer appears in the list of people contributing to the church, you may be able to connect that to his death record.

It sounds like you have just looked at info from the CD database.  If you haven't actually looked at the microfilmed parish records, that would be a good next step.

Also, the wording of "Edward Lubson a girl" seems unusual.  Are you sure it doesn't say "Edward Lubsons girl"?  Transcriptions are sometimes wrong.

[Selina]

Just a couple of comments.

This burial register contains descriptions of those buried, i.e. a boy, a girl, an old man, a maiden etc., so in that case the transcription 'Edward a girl' would seem to indicate that this Edward was a girl.

However, the burial immediately preceding Edward's, the day before in fact, was of a 'Sarah Lubson a girl'.  This makes me wonder if a mistake was made in the register with Edward's entry, someone just not concentrating etc.,(the two entries could have been made at the same time) or if there were what looked like ditto marks the transcriber would have had to interpret them as a repeat of the gender.

Sarah Lubson buried 7 September 1722 looks like the Sarah baptised in 1719 daughter of John and Mary.

Have you considered looking at burials under the variation Lupson?

Good luck with your searches.

Selina