Isabella Martha Wright

[jk22]

Isabella is proving to be a conundrum.  Censuses of 1841 and 51 give her origin as Reading, Berkshire, but i have not been able to find any confirmation of this.  Her birth year as given on the census is c1803.

The Reading Archivist has researched ST Giles, ST Laurence, St Mary's, the Baptist and Independent Churches in Reading and found no birth or baptismal record for my great great grandmother during the period of 1798-1808.

She suggested that the surrounding parishes be checked as they can only do 2 hours paid research:

Sonning    Shinfield   Burghfiled    Tilehurst    and    Caversham. 

Is anyone able to help me on this?

Julie.

[jillruss]

Hi Julie,

I checked Sonning and Caversham from an Oxon FHS CD, but no luck - sorry.

Assuming, Isabella was married, have you considered that Wright may not be her maiden name and she may have been married before?

Just a thought - it's caught me out a few times! 

Jill

[jk22]

hello Jillruss

Thanks very much for the prompt reply and lookup! 

I'm feeling quite at a loss with this lady of mine!

As i'm in Australia, do you know any expedient way to locate descendents given we haven't got access to the 1911 census?  I've come full stop.  My English grandfather who emigrated to Melbourne, either destroyed or discarded his memorabilia of the Motherland!  I've got a reasonable structure to my family line over a couple of the last centuries, certainly still some gaps, like Isabella, but those that had children stop at 1901.  My grandfather left England in 1912.

I've looked at some WW1 sites but nothing surfaced for me.

Thanks again.
Julie

[jillruss]

Hi Julie,

I did find one baptism for an Isabella Wright, but it's in Penn, Bucks - about 30 miles from Reading. She was baptised 21 Jan 1798, daughter of Thomas & Charlotte.

Probably not yours - no mention of Martha as a middle name.

I think we all have the same problem with researching 'forwards' later than the 1901 census! It's just a case of trawling through the BMD indexes unless you know exactly who you're looking for and when. That was okay for a short time when Ancestry BMD indexes were free to search but now they've made it payable, it's pretty much out of the question. There was some talk a while back that the BMD Indexes were going to be re-indexed so that details like age at death, maiden name of mother etc would be included in the indexes. Ideally, that would mean you could search for all children of a particular surname with the addition of the mother's maiden surname - a great way to find all those recent ancestors. However, last I heard this project had hit the skids, so no knowing when and if it will ever appear!!

Back to Isabella - is there anything else you can tell us about her which might help find her? You say you've got her on the 1841 and 1851 censuses? Is she married? Who are her family? Where were they born?

You'd be surprised how much help even the smallest detail could be - Rootschatters love a challenge, so I'm hopeful we'll find her! (Famous last words!!) 

Jill

[KN]

Is she Isabella M Kemp in the 1851 census - born Reading?
KN

[dillybert]

And if so, do you have the marriage yet, or do you have one of the later children's birth cert for the maiden name?

I found Henry (1836), George (1840), Isabella (1838) as per the census.

Is Henry William Horatio Kemp (1830-1835) in the IGI also one of theirs do you think?

[jk22]

Hello KN and Dillybert

KN, yes she is my lady!

Dillybert, the children i have and their families, but Horatio i don't know of.

Thanks ladies,
Julie

[KN]

Julie,

some details for you......

Isabella Kemp
born 12 Oct 1838
christened 25 Nov 1838, Old Church, St Pancras

Henry Kemp
born 15 April 1836
christened 5 June 1836, Old Church, St Pancras

both from batch C047933 on the IGI

George Kemp
born 19 Dec 1840
ch. 19 July 1842 Old Church, St Pancras
batch C047934

Henry William Horatio Kemp
born 1 Jan 1830
chr. 7 Feb 1830 St Mary, St Marylebone Road, Marylebone.
died 17 March 1835.
batch C035248

There's a big gap between Henry William Horatio and the next Henry.  Were there any other children?  I've not found any more on the IGI - but that doesn't mean that there aren't any!  A challenge for you other Rootschatters!

The marriage could have been a few years earlier than was originally thought,  anyone with access to Reading PRs?  Or have you already found the marriage Julie?

KN

[KN]

Bingo!

Just tried a search in Pallot's Marriage Index on Ancestry - and there it is!

Hy Kemp marriage to Isabella Wright

St Andrews, Holborn, Middlesex.  1835.

If you look at the original document she is listed as Isabella Martha Wright.

KN