marriage index query

[magicspice]

My mother was born Jane but was always known as Jenny. I've met a Mary or two who turned out to be Margarets. All it took at a marriage was for the woman to report her "use" name rather than her given name, and Bob's your uncle. Bob would still be your uncle if a mother reported her "use" name on her child's birth certificate. No-one ever asked for evidence.

Mike

This is something I've been pondering this afternoon, and I suspect this will be an issue here. Moving slightly off the orginal topic, does anyone know if Elspeth is commonly used as a shortened name (eg Morag is usually used for Mary Agnes)?

[Nick29]

Elspeth has two origins - Hebrew, meaning "God is my oath", or it can be a contraction of the name Elizabeth.

[casalguidi]

Hi

Having just noticed this thread, I'd just like to say that we have had 3 Jenny/Jennies in our family who all turned out to be either Jane or Mary Jane

Casalguidi

[magicspice]

Hi there, its been a long time and we've been a bit busy but I was still shocked at how long it was ago that I started this search.

I found my grandfather's birth certificate:- Garfield Robert Wilkins, born 20th Aug 1906, mother Jennie Wilkins, nee Harris, father Thomas Wilkins.

I found Thomas and Jennie's marriage certificate:- 18th Aug 1902, Rock Calvinistic Chapel, Bedwelty. Bride's father's name:- Robert Harris (deceased) Groom's residence at time of marriage:- 117 Middle St, Pontypridd (same address as on 1901 census, I think!) Witnesses:- Abraham Harris and Mary Harris.

I'm 99.9% certain that these certs are the correct ones.


Going back to the 1901 census there are two Jennie Harris's that are likely contenders to be the correct one. There is one identified by hireath as living in pontypridd as a servant (RG13/5003/45/23) and another living as as daughter in her mothers house in Tredegar, but also listed as a domestic servant. (RG13/4938/ /40). This particular Jennie  is listed in the 1891 census as Jane, and her father is Robert and on both 1891 and 1901 she has a brother Abraham and a sister Mary so these tie in with the marriage certificate. I have done a search on all teh Janes / Jennies born between 1876 and 1880 in teh South Wales area and this yields 13 Janes and no Jennies. I ordered a birth cert for the most likely Jane and it turns out to be the second one listed.

I think that what I am struggling with is:-

1. Should I widen the 1901 census search to include all Janes and not just Jennies?

2. Is there any way I can put teh 1st Jennie into a census with a family context? Currently all teh info I have on her is her employers name.

3. Is it a fair conclusion that the second Jennie is my ancestor? I would like to draw that conclusion but that may not be the case.

I guess I feel a little despondant that rather than narrowing down the search the list of possbilities seem to be opening up even further, and I feel that if I cannot be accurate at this early stage  when records are relatively easy to obtain, what hope do I have later.

I would appreciate peoples comments, thoughts and experiences.


Magicspice

[lizdb]

Does the marriage cert give an age for Jennie?

[magicspice]

The marriage cert gives her age as 24, putting her year of birth around 1878 (assuming she gave her correct age!)

MS