baptism lookup please for Hastings

[omega 1]

Hello Tracey

From the Marriage Onebigfamily found on IGI regarding Josuha & Ann,

i looked for Ann Tollis.

From the SMI

29 June 1794,St Clements

Ann Tollis
Josuha MANN,widower

I wonder if the name Slann/Mann has been mistranscribed somewhere along the line.

Kind Regards

omega

[tace]

Thanks again for all your help.
I checked the IGI to see if my Thomas Slann could have been mis-spelt and I found him recorded as Thomas Hann.  His details were:

Thomas Hann born about 1801 Hastings
Spouse Sarah
Married about 1831 Bobington, Shropshire
Children Thomas and Jane.

Is it possible that his surname may have been mis-spelt in the Hastings baptism records?  Is there a Thomas born to Joshua and Ann about 1800 with a different surname?  If he is indeed their son, it seems strange that their other children were baptised there but not him.

[Roy G]

There is something not quite right with the iGI copy of the records of St Clements, Hastings.
I like you would have considered that Thomas should have been baptised in the same church as his siblings, so I searched under the batch number that contained his sister Elizabeth baptised in 1796.   Batch C135584 .
Yes there were baptismal entries for 1800 and several years either side, all recorded on the IGI against that batch number, but every one of them was female.  In 25 years of searching, I have never come across what appears to a record that segregates baptisms on a gender basis.    Roy G

[OneBigFamily]

Hi Tracey

Very well done you! 

The new version of FamilySearch is a powerful search tool:
https://www.familysearch.org/#form=advanced-records

For example I just visited the above site.
I then made the selection of "Parents" from the drop down field entitled Relationship, then I typed the first names only of the parents into the parents forenames fields, ie Joshua and Sarah, then I added the values 1793 to 1826 in the date range fields, and typed 'Hastings, Sussex' into the 'Place' field (or maybe I put Hastings, Sussex England), and the results unfortunately only showed the baptisms in St Clements Hastings of two of Joshua and Sarah's children; Elizabeth Slann and Joshua Slann.  (Note I did not need to enter ANY surnames).

I have often used this method when dealing with surnames that are easily mistranscribed, however, no result came up for a baptism for your Thomas. 

It could be that the baptism record exists but is not legible enough to be transcribed, or it could be that Thomas was baptised to them (or to another couple) but elsewhere, and his surname is mistranscribed, waiting still to be discovered, or perhaps it was the case the record of his baptism, wherever it happened got lost through time.

Of Sussex records on the IGI, I've only heard of Cuckfield IGI records being discriminative over the genders, where up until this new version, we could only find female baptisms for Cuckfield.

So you can test the link at your leisure, trying the possible variations of mis-transcriptions of Slann, like you said, Hann, and then Stann, Kann, SLAN, etc etc, and broadening or changing the areas.

Let us know if you still have no luck (keeping my fingers crossed for you).  Bear in mind, if Thomas's father, like himself was in the Dragoons, that he may also have moved around a bit ....

OneBigFamily

[OneBigFamily]

Hi Tracey,

I think I have might have found your answer for you, which if correct.... would take matters round a bit of 90 degree turn....

Feeling sorry for you with the thought of looking up all the Alan/Alann surname records...  I decided to look for baptisms on Ancestry, in Sussex, where the mother's surname was Tollis and found this...

England & Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906
Baptism for a male; Thomas Tollis with birthdate of about 1804, christening date being 25th May 1804 in Hastings, Sussex, England.  The name of the father is given as James Tollis, and the mother's name given as Elizabeth.  Parish where the baptism was recorded was All Saints, Hastings, Sussex.

So perhaps Ann Tollis had a brother James who married an Elizabeth....   

... just looked and could not see a Thomas Tollis floating about...

... I'm left theorising - for the moment - about whether Joshua and Ann might have adopted this Thomas Tollis and thus he had then taken their surname. 

OneBigFamily

[Roy G]

Great theorising OBF, Thomas may have been a Tollis taken in when very young by Joshua & Ann because of parental difficulties or loss.  Worth checking out.

Incidentally, thanks also for the tip on the parental box in the new Familysearch.  As member of the old school, I always felt more at home with the old version, but that little extra which they never told you about, and therefore had previously gone unseen, has distinct advantages.     Roy G

[tace]

Thanks OBF for the IGI hint - I had stuck to the old site.  Used the new site and did a *ann surname search for Thomas to take into account all the mis-spellings for Slann - no success unfortunately.
If Thomas Slann was born Tollis, I don't see how that can ever be proved unfortunately.  I had hoped when I ordered his military records, names of parents would be listed, but they weren't.

As Thomas was a butcher when he joined the army, I thought his father might also have been one and he had joined the family business.  There were a lot of butchers in the extended Slann family for 2 generations following Thomas.

I guess we'll never know his parentage for certain, but a big THANK YOU to you all for all your input!!

[OneBigFamily]

Hi Tracey,

You are very welcome.

Incidentally, no, the * key doesn't work on FamilySearch/IGI (unfortunately).  Perhaps on their next release....

The truth may turn up one day about Thomas's parentage...   From the amount of stuff available about the fairly rare name of Tollis (also TollisS), on ancestry/IGI, it appears they had links to the county of Kent, to the Bethnal Green area, and also to Warwickshire where your Thomas ended up.  I think it could be worth being mindful of that coincidence in your researches.

OneBigFamily