Two Caroline's born Sept 1861

[KiwiRose]

Hello,

I have been searching for Caroline Hamlin born in the Exeter area in Sept 1861. There are two Caroline's registered with Free BMD  for that quarter. One in St Thomas and the other Exeter. (The births of my  Caroline's older siblings were registered in either Exeter or St Thomas.) I am trying to work out which one could be mine through a process of elimination.

To eliminate one of the girls I searched in the 1871 census. My Caroline is aged 9 and living in St Thomas with her family. There does not seem to be another Caroline aged 9 living in Exeter. 

I could also find no death of a young Caroline registered between Sept 1861 and 1871.

 If there were two Carolines born in the same quarter, what became of the namesake or is it possible that  my Caroline was registered twice?

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Regards
KiwiRose

[DOB7]

It's possible that she was registered twice - the only way to be certain is to order both certificates.

[maidmarianoops]

birth registered july aug sept 1861
hamlin caroline   5b 64 st thomas

hamlin caroline  5b 90 exeter


sylvia
hope this helps

[KiwiRose]

Thank you DOB7 and Sylvia for your replies.

I wonder what circumstances would cause a child’s birth to be registered twice?

As Caroline is only a sibling of a direct descendent I am reluctant to purchase certificates if cheaper alternatives are available.  Are there any websites for Devon births and marriages that give a little more information than an index i.e. parents names? Familysearch seems to have nothing that would be helpful at present. My local library has recently begun to provide access to two very well known genealogy pay websites. Would these websites be useful with Devon births/marriages that include the years 1861 – 1884? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Knowing that two Caroline’s births were in the same quarter was not a problem until recently when I found a likely Exeter marriage at the South Street Baptist Chapel on 13 March 1884. My Caroline’s mother was buried as a dissenter which is why I think I may have found Caroline’s wedding.  I was hoping to somehow find further evidence to link this marriage to my Caroline. The married Caroline later emmigrated to South Africa with her family and died there.
Regards
KiwiRose

[DOB7]

The websites you mention will almost certainly not have the information regarding birth certificates as this falls under civil registration and the information is only available via purchase from the GRO. http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/
The double registration (if that is what occurred) was probably down to fear - they registered in one place and then thought that they should have registered in another.

[BumbleB]

I was going to suggest that you ring the Register Office to ask the question, but that's certainly not feasible from NZ    However, I think that both Districts now come under Exeter, and they have an e-mail address - see Exeter Register Office - and ask them the question, giving them all the information you already have.  If you know the parents' names then they should be able to confirm or deny the connection, but they will not tell you who the parents are.  I don't have personal knowledge of Exeter RO so don't know how helpful the staff are to family historians, but if you don't ask the question, you won't get an answer    And an e-mail is a lot cheaper than a certificate.

BumbleB

[KiwiRose]

Thank you for your suggestion, BumbleB.

An email from NZ is the way to go as I know the names of my Caroline's parents. I do hope the staff at the RO in Exeter are helpful and have the time to attend to queries from family historians.

As the key certificate is the marriage one and I know the groom and date, do you think I should limit my question to just the marriage or go for sorting out the  two registered births as well? I only need a confirmation or denial as to who the parents were.

Thank you, BOD7, for the GRO link and your explanation as to why a child's birth could be registered twice. I will purchase the marriage certificate if the Exeter RO email approach fails.

Kind regards
KiwiRose.

[KiwiRose]

Hello,

I have received an email reply to my request to confirm or deny the parents of Caroline Hamlin. I did as suggested and put all I knew.
 The names of bride and groom, exact date of marriage and even named South Street Baptist Chapel as where the marriage took place. Plus the names of Caroline's parents.

Maybe I was pushing my luck but I also asked if they would confirm or deny whether or not both birth registrations for Caroline had the same named parents.

I quote from  the very prompt email reply below.

"We are unable to help with family history research at the Devon Register Office, we provide copies of Birth, Death and Marriage certificates for a fee if the customer is able to provide detailed information names, dates and place the event happened."

No luck at all! It looks like I have to send for the marriage certificate after all. I will leave  ordering two birth certificates for now as I am content to know that Caroline was born in the Sept quarter. The marriage is the key certificate to establish if I have the correct Caroline and continue the family tree.

Merry Christmas.

Kind regards
KiwiRose

[carol8353]

Certain areas of Devon have online parish clerks.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,378350.0.html

You can email them and they will do a look up for you,I was very lucky with one I had a query on,the chap did a look up and provided loads more info too.

As the surname will probably be common to the area,there could be 2 babies born who were cousins of course,both named after a Caroline in the family(grandma?)

Good luck

Carol

[DOB7]

Unfortunately, there isn't an OPC for this area that can help. (I'm the OPC Coordinator)