Was being a Registrar BMD a family line???

[CJ]

I wonder if someone could help.  I have a marriage certificate for my g,g,grandparents and am having a great deal of difficulty getting any further with my g,g,grandmother's line.  Her name was Mary Jane Harrison (also Maria Jeanette/Marie Jeanetta).  She married Alexander Steele, July 1875 St Paul's Warrington.  Her father is listed on the certificate as William Harrison a Registrar.  On all her census returns after her marriage she listed Bristol as place of birth.  On a birth certificate that could be her's, her mother's details are Elizabeth Harrison formerly Wearham.  This does not fit with "the family story".  The story went that Mary Jane's parents married on board a boat in the Bristol channel and that her mother was French and her father was a "captain".  Her mother's maiden name was De Lisle, this name has been passed down the family.  I have not been able to find Mary Jane or her parents on any census returns prior to her marriage.  I have found a William Harrison bc1857 Warrington, living in Warrington who was also a Registrar and thought this may be a family line or just a coincidence.

Will someone save my sanity please!!!

CJ

[PaulineJ]

Much the same set of questons (again)!

What were the witness name(s) on the marriage cert.

You have  a (possible) birth certificate, yet do not give address, date, witness,  to try and find if there is another child which matches that, and 'prove' that the child on the cert is not the one you seek.

Observation :

I'd be very surprised if "Registrar" was ever only applied to the GRO Registrar, and no-where else.
Bristol == Registrar of shipping , as a suggestion

The "Jeanette" part of the name more commonly found in Scotland rather than England.
Have you eliminated those across the border?

Pauline

[CJ]

Unfortunately both the witnesses on the marriage cert were siblings of Alexander!

I have just looked on the 1881 census at the younger William Harrison's return and having looked closer there is a George Wearham aged 43, widower from Warrington.  The other members are William's wife (Elizabeth aged 27) and his 2 brothers (John Evans Harrison aged 20 and Joseph G Harrison aged 14), all listed as born in Warrington.  I will look again on the 1871.

On another line of my tree we found that the "family story" was one generation out, so maybe this is the same.  It is a bit of a coincidence that the name Wearham crops up as Mary's mother and also a visitor for William!

On the possible birth cert the father is listed as William Harrison, licensed hawker (whatever that means, sounds like seller of goods!) birth took place on Bath Parade and certificate "marked" by mother Elizabeth Harrison formerly Wearham.

I have looked on the 1871 and cannot find any of the above.  Any suggestions?  I am now going bog-eyed!

CJ

[avm228]

I wouldn't think it would formally have run in the family, but as in all jobs (more so then than now) if your father's in the job it's probably easier to get an interview!

You may already have this, but William Harrison seems to have married Elizabeth Wearham in Bristol Dec 1852 6a145 per FreeBMD.

It looks as though the BMD Registrar you found (William H. Harrison b 1857 Warrington) was a son of William (solicitor's clerk, b Warrington) and Elizabeth (b Somerset): see 1861 RG9/2793 folio 47 p 36.  William had a sister Hannah K. (5) and a brother John E (9 months). The family lived at Church Place, Church St, Warrington.

The only one of them I can find a likely candidate for in 1871 is "Hannah Kay Harrison", 15 b Warrington, who is with her grandfather William Harrison in Warrington: RG10/3906 folio 79 p1

By 1881 young William is head of household (as William Hy. Harrison) at 176 Church St, Warrington, and married to Elizabeth - at 24 he is already Registrar of Births and Deaths.  Also in the household are his brothers John Evans Harrison (20) and Joseph G. Harrison (14), plus a visitor George Wearham, 43 born "Warrington" (but this could just be a lazy ditto): RG11 3796 folio 91 p 24.

So, for what it's worth, it does look as though the William Harrison/Elizabeth Wearham couple are likely to have been the parents of William H. Harrison the BMD registrar. (it might well be that William senior was a part time solicitor's clerk and part time registrar, or switched between the jobs - they would both have required similar clerical skills).

Obviously that doesn't help on (1) where Mary/Marie/Maria was all that time, or (2) whether these people are actually connected with you, or (3), if they were, where the family legend came from! I'll keep pondering on that and come back to you if I can think of anything.


What was the name on the candidate birth certificate? Was it plain Mary Jane, or Marie Jeanette etc?

 

Edited to add: sorry - I now see you have some of this already!

Anna

[CJ]

On the birth cert she is listed as Mary Jane.

CJ

[avm228]

Aha!

I think I've found Mary Jane in 1861.  She's with her grandfather William (with whom her sister Hannah Kay was in 1871).

Here's the household (RG9/2793 folio 44 p 30):

William Harrison widower 64* Registrar of Births and Deaths b Warrington
Jane daur unm 29 b Warrington
Ann daur unm 27 b Warrington**
Mary Jane gd daur 8 b Gloucestershire Bristol***

*Could be age 60 but transcriber obviously reads it as 64.  He was 71 in 1871.
** Ann was "deaf and dumb from birth" in both 1861 and 1871 censuses - she was still with her father in 1871
***Mary Jane's birthplace is mistranscribed as "Brisley, Gloucestershire" on Ancestry.

HTH 

Anna

[avm228]

One more thing: Mary Jane's age is 8 on the census return but the transcriber has read it as 18, and thus given her a birthdate of 1843.  The mistake is easy to see on the face of the census return - Ann's age of 27 in the row above has a long tail on the "7" which comes down into Mary Jane's row.

Anna

[CJ]

Many thanks for saving my sanity.  I have found them on the 1861, 1851 and 1841 census returns.  I have now found William's father's marriage to his mother Hannah (Maiden name Kay!!!!)  There were quite a few William Harrison marrying Hannah's but when I found a marriage in Farnworth near Prescot on the LDS site and then saw Hannah Kay I thought it was too much of a coincidence!  I have found quite a few maiden names becoming christian/middle names for children/grandchildren

So far thanks to the LDS site I have found 6 children for them
William, Ann, Jane, Joseph, James and Mary.  Unfortunately there is another William Harrison born in Warrington the same year so I cannot definitely say who his parents were.

Also on the 1841 census he is a Parish clerk.  I suppose that they would have been the predecessors of Registrars of BMD, which he went on to become.

Once again many many thanks for saving my sanity.  I hope that I can repay the favour for you sometime!

CJ

[avm228]

Hannah Kay! That must be the one. And it definitely makes sense that the parish clerks would have become the BMD registrars.

Now that I come to think of it, the parish clerk role did run in the family over several generations in one of my lines, and indeed one of them also became the local census enumerator (he had lovely handwriting!)

Glad to be of help 

Anna