WATTS & LEONARD Families - Doddington - births and marriages help wanted

[annelie1980]

Looking for the origins of the Watts family in March/Doddington Cambridgeshire.
*Bridget Watts born abt 1844 March/Doddington, cannot find birth.
*Her mother Mary Ann (abt 1821 March Cambs), possible match in the 1841 census with her older brother William (aged 9 mths) - 1841 England census HO 107/81/4 North Witchford Union.
*Mary Ann is on the 1851 listed as the wife of Patrick Leonard (abt 1817 from the Co of Roscommon Ireland). William and Bridget are also listed under the surname of Leonard and not Watts (not uncommon).
*Bridget's marriage certificate, in 1867, lists her surname as being Watts (married James Langstaffe in Lancashire). I have also located a 1871 census of William Watts with Patrick Leonard listed as "Step-father". I am thinking Patrick would have come to England due to the Potato Famine in Ireland - he was a Ag Laborer and the timing matches.
*My theory is that Mary Ann Watts either had 2-3 illegitimate children or was widowed before she married Patrick Leonard. I have been unable to confirm any of my suspicions.
*Would like to find either church or registry details of Mary Ann's marriage/s to a Watts or Patrick Leonard, the births of children William (abt 1839/40), Bridget (abt 1844) and Mary (abt 1846), most likely under the surname of Watts. The daughter Mary died between 1851-1861, I am unsure if this could have been in Cambridgeshire or Lancashire.
*I would like to trace the Watts connection back further.
*I live in Australia so am unable to look at the records directly - thank you to anyone who can help.

Annelie

[lizdb]

Have you seen the family in 1861 in Lancashire?

RG9 3057 123 22
Lancashire
Patrick Leonard 44 bn Ireland
MAry A 40   bn March
William 20           "
Bridget 17         "
Ann 8                "
Thomas 6             "
 James 2              "
Mary A 2 mths    bn Lancashire
3 lodgers

so they moved up there 1859/60 ish -  I wonder why?

[bedfordshire boy]

I live in France. Nor can I! In fact hardly anyone who helps on these boards has access to the records directly. We rely on subscriptions to paying sites eg Ancestry.com, and purchasing transcripts from Family History Societies, and from free online databases eg FreeBMD, the IGI etc. So even in Australia you have the same facilities at your disposal as the rest of us. There are even LDS Family History Centres in Australia where you can order and view microfilms of parish registers.

Cambs FHS has an excellent website which includes a baptism index 1801-37, at http://www.cfhs.org.uk/BaptismIndex/index.html

There's a Mary A Watts baptised in March in 1821, which might be yours.

Did Bridget name a father on her marriage certificate?

Unfortunately my Cambs FHS produced CDrom of March parish register transcription has stopped working so I can't check to see if any of the earlier three children were baptised. I can't see that any of their births was registered, which wasn't uncommon in the early days of civil registration, although it's a bit surprising if she gave birth in the workhouse

David

[annelie1980]

thank for your replies. I am a paying member of Ancestry.com as well as a few other sites and I am a regular user and transcriber at LDS. Given that, there is not a great deal of information that I can seem to access, if you know of any particularly good sites, I would be thankful. I will try my local library for parish registers (they are not particularly well stocked around here though). I might just have to bite the bullet and try to purchase a copy on CD from the Cambridge FHS etc or similar.

I have the census documents, thanks. The move to Lancashire, I am not sure of the exact reason, I do know there was a very strong Irish community in that area of Lancashire, there may have been a family influence.

[bedfordshire boy]

Most of your query relates to post 1837 events.

http://freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl is a good place to start, but the first and only birth that I can see is James in 1858. No sign of a marriage or birth registration of the older children. Your subscription to ancestry should also enable you to view all of the BMD images, quarter by quarter

As their births don't appear to have been registered, at least, I can't see them if they were, the other angle is baptism - were they baptised in March? It doesn't seem as though the LDS has filmed the register so you're reliant on the transcript produced by Cambs FHS. I would post another more specific request, Subject - March PR Transcript - as there is another lady who pops in occasionally on this board who has the transcript. If that doesn't work you could always email Cambridge Records office asking if they could check for Bridget's baptism.

David

[annelie1980]

Thanks David

Yes I have painstakingly gone through the BMD for marriages and births. It wouldnt surprise me if they never married, not uncommon and they wouldnt be the first in the family! As for Bridget's birth, it may just be as simple as her not having a name right away and being registered as "Female". There is a Bridget Wales registered Q2/1843 in North Witchford, I will check the 1851 census and see if there is a Wales family that matches, if not it is a fair possibility this could be my Bridget, North Witchford being the registration district for March/Doddington.

I will post a more specific request and also give Cambs FHS a go. I was hoping that being post 1837 I might have something to go on but it wouldnt surprise me if the name is just recorded incorrectly. I have looked under all sorts of variations of Watts and have yielded nothing so far.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Annelie

[bedfordshire boy]

I saw that Bridget Wales and wondered if it might have been a misread Watts, but there were a number of other Wales born at about the same time in North Witchford registration district. Having written that and rechecked I can only see Bridget Wales this morning so I'm not sure what I was looking at yesterday morning!

As the date is about right it might be her. If your March PR request doesn't bring a result it might be worth investing £7 in the Mary Wales certificate, You can reduce the cost if it's not the right one by putting in a reference point that the mother is Mary

David