Would someone born in the Standon area have been baptised in St Albans?

[Aulus]

Sorry, yet another question from me regarding my irksome Hertfordshire ancestors.  I'll go back to another branch soon and leave you in peace!   

On the censuses of 1861 and 1871, my great x4 grandfather Samuel MASON gives place of birth as Standon, Hertfordshire and his year of birth comes out at 1803 or 1804 (1806 on the 1841, but that's the rounding for you).  On the various records I've been able to track down for him, he's resident in Standon, Wade's Mill or High Cross.

On the IGI, I've found a record of a christening of a Samuel Mason 28 DEC 1803   Abbey, Saint Albans, Hertford, England (parents Richard Mason and Elizabeth).

The date of the IGI record is looking rather seductive, but would they really have traipsed all the way to St. Albans???  Surely there was a more local church?

I'm afraid this isn't a part of the country I know at all.  On a modern map it doesn't look that far, but at the start of the 19th century, I'd have thought it was a fair distance.

I suppose an explanation might be that the mother was originally from the St Albans area and had returned there to give birth.

Anyone got any thoughts on whether the IGI record might be my Samuel and how to go about proving it?

thanks very much

[Rick]

Hi Aulus

Your theory about the child's mother seems reasonable.

I have ancestors who baptised several of their children in Harpenden even though they lived at Barnet because they were still of the parish of Harpenden.

I would be cautious though because Samuel MASON is not a particulary uncommon name.  See Chris Reynolds excellent article "Right name, wrong body"

http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/topics/t011-wrongbody.htm

Rick

[Clincher]

Establishing a link to a particular parish was crucial to establishing entitlement to poor law relief. So if a family had a child in parish x but the family originated from parish y, and the family thought that the poor law relief (if it were ever needed) would be more generous to them in parish y then they might get baptism done in y.

[Aulus]

Thanks Rick and Clincher.

I guess my next step is to put a reques on the Hertfordshire Lookup requests to see if anyone with access to parish registers can turn up another Samuel Mason round about the right time.

[JanetteO]

Something else to always bear in mind, was he told he was born in Standon yet really born in St.Albans. I have seen many times on my tree where a relative has put down their birthplace as one place, yet they don't appear on the church registers.

Investigating further to siblings you realise they are all present and correct... look around the area and you realise that they were born a few villages away and moved when small to the other area... so for example my so many times great grandfather told all the census returns he was born in Standon as were his siblings, yet really he was born and baptised in Little Munden.

I also believe that the name is probably quite a common one.

Standon has a great church, St.Mary's all the records are held at HALS

Jan

[Benzol]

Hi Aulus
Have you solved your mystery yet?

Just a thought. The Hertfordshire - Allen Index at HALS is great. It shows all Hertfordshire marriages from the year dot to 1880. Might be worth looking at this index for your Mason name. Unfortunately don't think it's available on-line.

Benzol

[Aulus]

Thanks Benzol - not heard of that: shame it's not on-line.

I recently discovered the Joiner marriage index (which is on-line, pay per view), which mainly covers the north east, but also Hertfordshire.


Peter Cornish was kind enough to look up Samuel Mason in the Standon PRs: http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,238489.0.html and the Samuel baptism he found is the one I've gone with.

Thanks for your interest.

[bedfordshire boy]

I discovered a couple of days ago that the marriage index is now online,
http://www.hertsdirect.org/libsleisure/heritage1/HALS/indexes/

David

[Benzol]

Hi David

Thanks for the info. Great news. Pity I've done most of my Herts lot. Still you never no when it might come in handy.

Benzol