James Dennis and Sarah Richardson census lookup

[michelleR]

Could somebody please look at the 1841 and 1851 census for James and Sarah Dennis, they were married 22 Feb 1818 at Eaton Socon.  All I know is that they had a son John Samuel b c1836 he was married in Australia in 1861. John said he was born in Huntington.
Kind regards
Michelle

[cathymcc]

I only have the 1851 census index:

see page 31

Henry DENNIS, aged 64 b Potton, Bedfordshire
Mary DENNIS, aged 58 - place of birth not listed

On page 7, there is a little girl called Eliza DENNIS aged 4 & b in Eaton Socon

Your John Samuel DENNIS was born the year before Civil Registration began and his parents were fairly elderly when he was born if they married in 1818.

If you hear nothing from this list, try the rootsweb mailing list for Bedfordshire.  It may be worth e mailing Jim Bundy [his particular interest is Eaton Socon]:

MODERATOR COMMENT: email address removed to avoid spam and other abuses. Please use personal message system to share email addresses. Thank You

[michelleR]

Thank you for your email I will put it on file.  I just had another look at his marriage and death certificates and he married in Feb 1861 and said he was 23 which would make his birth c1838 but on his dead in 1909 it states he was 74 which puts his birth around 1835.  So I don't know which one is right.
Michelle

[bedfordshire boy]

The Dennis' that I could see in Eaton Socon in 1841 were

Francis 50 independent  and Elizabeth 55, both born in the county

Henry 50 tailor; Mary 45; John 15; Mary 13; Henry 9; all born in county except Mary

I couldn't see either James or Sarah on the NBI in Eaton Socon, so possibly they were living in Hunts , which is not well covered on the NBI. If John said he was born in Huntingdon he may have have meant the county rather than the town. Unfortunately there is no central index for Hunts for either 1841 or 1851.

Regards

David

[cathymcc]

Michelle

They sound fairly 'well heeled' ...check out the Bedfordshire Archives search site which has about 25% - 30% of its holdings listed so far but it is steadily growing ...See :

http://blars.adlibsoft.com/form.html

May be worth e mailing the archivist in Bedford asking if there are any surviving Wills for the DENNIS family in the first half of 19th C? 

Have another look on the free BMD just in case his birth was after 1837...there may be a birth cert? 

Ps:  Henry DENNIS is listed as a tailor in Eaton Socon on a couple of trade directories. 

[cathymcc]

Michelle,

Ages are always a problem...one of mine chopped twenty years off his age when he married his young third wife...and kept that going until he died and it took a while to work it out!

Did John's parents go to Australia with him?  It seems unlikely so is just a thought.   I expect any Wills from his parents would be in the Huntingdon/Cambridge archives. 

However, a grandparent's Will which mentions John or his parents would be good too

Try the National Archives search site as they have Wills [solicitors wrote copies of Wills for their own records and they often end up in the Nat Archives]?

[michelleR]

Thank you for doing these look ups for me.   On half of his children's birth certificates he said he was born in Huntingdon and on the others he said Huntingdonshire so who knows. 
 I guess he would have had quite a few siblings being born so long after James and Sarah got married.  Is there a way for me to look at the parish records for Eaton Socon?
Kind regards
Michelle down under

[bedfordshire boy]

Hi Michelle

Entries in Eaton Socon parish register are available on the IGI, (www.familysearch.org) and a microfilm copy is available on order at a small charge through any Family History Centre of the LDS, of which there are a number down under.  But it seems as though John and any siblings may have been born in Hunts, for which coverage on the IGI is not very good, but in any event there is no trace of them in Eaton Socon.

I assume that his marriage cert quoted his parents as James and Sarah?

[michelleR]

Thank you.  Yes his marriage certificate has his parents names on it.
Michelle