RootsChat.Com

I guess this comes under ancestors who moved around before census eras, but you still have to find the documents to show they did move around. And often if you cannot find the evidence, it can be hard to determine, even if they had a locative surname such as the Norfolk name Cattermole in Birmingham in the late 1700s for example.

As was customary, lots of cities had the strays, the ones who moved there looking for work, especially London. For instance looking through St Margaret Westminster records for the 1700s I found surnames like Horsfall (a Northern surname) among several other locative surnames.

And interestingly my ancestor was a William Inkpen who wed in Oxford in 1765. He was a college servant, and later a publican before dying in 1769. His wife Jane (Nee Gater, later Coles before becoming Inkpen in 1765) was from Burford, a large Oxfordshire village near the Oxon/Gloucs border. They wed by licence, and the original licence says William Inkpen was a servant, bachelor, aged over 21, sponsor was Richard Baylis. His marital status not given in actual marriage register for St Peter In The East, Oxford. Witnesses to actual marriage was Richard and Mary Baylis. Now the surname Inkpen may have very ancient origins in Inkpen, Berkshire but by the 1700s Inkpen was a Sussex, Kent or Dorset surname. No known Inkpen baptisms, marriages or burials in Oxfordshire prior to 1765. William died in 1769, no age given at death. They had 2 children, James and William. James seems to be from Jane's side as her father was James Gater.

The above example is food for thought, that William Inkpen was probably from Kent, Sussex or Dorset. I have looked for any further info on him and his origins but to no avail. No poor law records for Oxford mention any Inkpen's.

I know Oxford was a city that also had a lot of people move there to study, but probably also to work in the colleges.

Also In have a weaver ancestor called Dennis Helsdon who wed in London in 1784. It did not take me long to find out he was the same Dennis Helsdon born in 1756 in Norwich, Norfolk. And his wife was Susan Helsdon, nee Fradine, a Huguenot.

 

It is quite a common thing, especially as many people do and did die in the winter months. Although 50+ years ago funerals were often just 3 or 4 days after the death, whereas today they can be 2 weeks after the death. I have found numerous cases of an ancestor dying in the last few days of one year and being buried in the first few days of the following year. We have births, marriages and deaths but 2 other main life events are baptisms and burials of course.

An instance is one ancestor died 30th December 1896 so was buried 4th January 1897.

My great grandfather died on the 30th December 1958. Death was registered on the 31st December 1958, and he was buried on the 3rd January 1959. Southend Standard issue dated 1 Jan 1959 says his funeral will be 3rd January at 11:30am.

Such things can be difficult to pin down but are interesting nonetheless. How long a domestic servant changed employers. I guess it depended on whether they were local servants, or ones who lived on their employers premises.

One ancestor is living with her employer in the 1861 census in Oxford, her parents had died by then and she was aged 18 and was employed by a master stationer. She was living just a few miles from where she was born. I found a document where her employer gave up that premises in Nov 1861. I then found him as a stationer in Spalding in 1862 according to directories. I found he then married in London in October 1863 and gave a Camberwell address. My ancestor later married in that area of London. If she was still employed by him in Nov 1861, 7 moths after the census, she probably would have gone with him.

My great gran was in the 1911 census in Bexhill, Sussex as a servant aged 15, and she married in 1917 in Essex. I found she had spent time in a Hackney, London convent a year before she was in domestic service in Sussex, and was also from Oxford originally. According to the 1911 census, the convent had young girls training for domestic service.

Very handy. I did noticed that in certain parishes in Co Durham, such as Cockfield, a few of the miners who had children baptised 1798-1812 were originally natives of Westmoreland or far west Yorkshire.

My ancestor William Mason (c1758-1826) had some children baptised in Cockfield, Durham inbetween 1800 and 1809 and on each of the baptisms he says he was a native of "Dent, Westmoreland". Dent was actually in the far north west of Yorkshire but next to the Yorks/Westmoreland border.

His daughter Jane Mason married in Cockfield in 1811 to Hugh Stones and they had a son Thomas baptised later that year but the Barrington register says "Hugh Stones and Jane his wife, daughter of William Mason native of Mickleton, Yorkshire". Mickleton is a long way from Dent, and is actually where William lived as an adult, and is next to Romaldkirk, just outside Middleton In Teesdale, Mid In Teesdale being where William married in 1785. As of yet the witnesses to his 1785 marriage are unknown as the Durham registers online are from bishops transcripts as opposed to the originals. I think William was from Dent originally but moved to the Mickleton area, as he always said he was of Dent in his own children's baptisms.

Jane may have given where her father lived as an adult in her son's baptism as opposed to where he was born.

William died in 1826 and was buried in Romaldkirk, and his age at death says he was 68, so born c1758. I have not been able to find a baptism around 1755-1760ish in Dent, but one was born 1748 in Dent, son of Edward. 10 years out from his death date.

I had my eye on Susan Riches born 1694 in Norwich, daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth as being the Susan Riches who wed Henry Helsdon in 1725 at All Saint's Norwich. But I never had the definite proof it was her. But I have just found definitive proof it isn't her. I had never added the 1694 one to my tree but had a good idea it may be her, as Isaac Riches was a weaver, and lived in the same Norwich parish as Henry Helsdon who wed Susan Riches. Goes to show that things are not what they seem.

A Susan Riches had a marriage bond to a Charles Brandon in 1744, both of Timberhill, and he left a will in 1756, mentioning his late father in law Isaac Riches, weaver of Timberhill.

My Susan Riches who wed Henry Helsdon (no licence or bond, just banns) had children up to 1739. Dennis, Robert, and two Elizabeth's the last baptised 18 Sep 1739. Susan Helsdon died in 1762, no age given at death, and no will. Henry left a will but only mentioned close family.

A Susan Riches born 1702 at Pockthorpe Norwich, died as a unmarried woman aged 59 in 1761.

There was a Susan Riches born 1691 at St Stephen Norwich to James and Deborah, but that would have made her 48 when she had her last child, and 34 when she first married.