I'm not a fan of the Meatloaf method of genealogy – two out of three ain't bad. The name's right, the age is right, the place is wrong but don't be sad, cos two out of three ain't bad. In this case it's only one out of three! The name's right, the age is wrong and the place is wrong. The other thing that's right is the father's name from the marriage certificate.
Let's go through all of the considerations:
- Legate is not a common name, so it's not a difficult job to put all the Legates in Henlow and the adjoining villages into family groups
- there are only three George Legate baptisms in Beds in anything like the right time frame – 1833 in Shillington father George (who was from Henlow); 1834 in Henlow, son of Charles; and 1847 in Blunham son of George, who lived in Henlow (All Legate roads lead to Henlow!). The 1847 one can be discounted, as not only is he too young, he's easily traced in censuses as marrying Emma Capon. The 1834 George had Charles as father which conflicts with the marriage, was living in Henlow with father Charles in 1851 aged 16 and was in Brentford Union Workhouse in 1881, although I lose him in censuses between times, so I think he can be discounted too.
- Which just leaves the 1833 Shillington George. The family moved around a bit within a very tight radius – married in Henlow, where they baptised one child, then moved to Shillington, then to Clifton in the 1851 census although one daughter says she was born in Clifton in 1839, then to Shefford in 1861. I'm not surprised that George junior didn't seem to know where he was born!
- Unless of course there was another unbaptised George born around 1838 of whom there's no trace in 1841 and 1851. In which case what happened to Shillington George who disappears off the radar screen after 1851? No census appearance, no burial/death.
- So for me there are three options: (i) he was an unbaptised George b 1838 in either Henlow or Shefford, of whom there's no trace before his marriage in Cambs (but there's no George going spare in the district who could have been his father); (ii) a variation of (i) he was an unbaptised illegitimate George, son of one of the many Legate girls in Henlow, but who doesn't appear in 1841 and 1851 and who invented a father for his marriage certificate (to me this option is getting pretty desperate!); and (iii) he was the George baptised in Shillington in 1833 who disappears after 1851 and he shed 5 years off his real age and lived in Hitchin/Stevenage.
It's down to the balance of probabilities. It's not as though there are spare Georges floating around in censuses, or that there are possible deaths/burials. I prefer option (iii), that for whatever reason he consistently lopped 5 years off his age from his marriage onwards, but I agree that there's no cast iron proof.
If anyone can find any other relevant facts that add to the equation I'm more than happy to reconsider
David
