Can anyone help?

[ali607]

Hi, Ive just found my great great great great grandmother born in 1777! Im really pleased as i only started researching my family 3 weeks ago! Ive become addicted now cos things are going so fast and I was wondering if anyone could find her husband?
She is a Mary Petty born in 1777. She is down in 1851 as being 74 yrs old and living with her daughter Deborah Hughes (nee Petty) and John hughes (Deborah's husband) and their family at 32 Halesowen Street, Oldbury. She is a pauper (next to pauper theres a word thats illegible - something like _ll__lwife maybe??
It states she is born in Oldbury, Worcestershire - but it just says ditto from all the family above. The enumerator may have just presumed she was born in the same place as the rest or something....so that place of birth may be inaccurate.
She's obviously a widow by 1851.
Ive tried looking her up on West Midlands BMD but there are no records yet, so i tried Staffordshire (as the re is a discrepancy in borders last century) and she doesnt seem to be there either. I've also followed a link on rootschat to BMD's in Halesowen and the surrounding area - but im fumbling in the dark really.
I wondered if anyone could help find her or if anyone has any advice on what i should try next??
Thanks very much for your help...
Alison

[casalguidi]

Hi Alison

You need to work back from the 1851 census.  Assuming that they were in Oldbury 1841, it shouldn't be too difficult to find them in the 1841 census.

Next step - find the baptism of Deborah PETTY.  Begin by searching the baptism register for Oldbury because that is where Deborah was supposedly born.  Work backwards and forwards through the register collecting any baptisms for any other PETTYs with the same parents (assuming that you find them there).  It would be a good idea to list all references to the name that you come across whilst searching because they could quite easily turn out to be cousins or some such. 

Once you have found Deborah's baptism - you should have her father's name so then you will be looking for a marriage of a Mr PETTY to a Mary ......... .

You might even find Mary's marriage in the marriage register for Oldbury too.  Don't forget to check the banns register in case she lived there but married in another parish.

You will need to enquire at the local county archives for the registers or else hunt around any county genealogy pages on the net to see if there are any indexes or transcriptions floating about.  If you are too far away, you may be able to view a film at your nearest Family History Centre http://www.familysearch.org
You can search their catalogue online to see what has been filmed for that parish and also see where the family history centres are situated.

Good Luck

Casalguidi

[ryan]

Alison,
Have you been able to locate an entry for Deborah's marriage to John Hughes at FreeBMD or another BMD site? The couple's marriage certificate should give both Deborah and John's father. This is, of course, if we make the asumption that the Petty husband was Deborah's father