Jonas Read

[Bobmc]

  HI Paco.
    I have been into those web sites and had a look at them, Sir William Beechey was married twice, he had 5 children from his first marriage, his second marriage to Ann Phyliss Jessop produced 18 children,all children are named except for the eighteenth which shows as unknown, all up that was 23 children from both marriages not 16. Yes Paco a birth certificate would show this and I think this would be the way to go, this enigma has gone on for too many years now to be ignored we have to know who Elizabeth Read's father is and put this to rest with our families.
                                                           Best Wishes Bobmc

[suffolk*sue]

Have you seen the actual Walker/Read marriage entry in the parish registers. This should tell you what the brides status was at time of marriage.

[Paco]

Yes, I had it down as 23 as well. 5 from the first and 16 from the second, but they were all named on the site I went into, and as I said there was no Elizabeth on there.
regards.

[Selina]

suffolk*sue - the transcript does not show their marital status, same for all marriages that year and some other years.  We know Jonah was a widower so Elizabeth may well have been a widow, or not.

Her census ages and age at death indicate a birth year of 1800.  1841 she was down as born in County, 1851 and 1871 as born Cambridge and 1861 as Cambridge St. Giles.

I can't see a baptism for an Elizabeth Walker around the right time but there is at least one other possibility - an Elizabeth (Carter) baptised St. Giles who married a Walker and who was a young widow.  So if the Beechey connection proves unfounded she would be worth considering.  However it all depends on what the the birth certificate of Christiana reveals.

Bobmc - I do hope you will let us know what you discover when you get the birth certificate, its always nice to know the answer!

Selina

[Bobmc]

Hi Paco. There was 23 children on the site that I was looking at 5 from the first marriage were named and 18 children by the second marriage all named but 1 the 18th child listed as unknown.
 As I put the scenario before, maybe because Elizabeth married below her station it is possible she was cast out of the family as a black sheep, back in those days, families of standing did that sort of thing. this is what some of our family members seem to think happened so we will keep looking til we get to the bottom of this enigma one way or the other. Cheers for now Paco. Bobmc.

[Bobmc]

Hi Selina.
   I agree with you, as you said, the problem could be solved through Christiana's birth certificate, can you point me in the direction as to where I might start looking for her certificate. It is just a shame that we are sepparated by such a big distance I was up there early 2005 if I had have been in Cambridge I could have done some of the hard work there. Thankyou for the work you have done on this please stay in touch either way i will keep you informed. Bobmc Ps and not forgetting all the other people too.

[Selina]

You have two choices for ordering the birth certificate.

From Cambridgeshire County Council Register Office - go to
http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/db/ridbirths.nsf/search?OpenForm
Fill in details to get to her entry and reference number (note you must spell Christianna with the two n's) then follow the instructions for ordering a certificate.

Or from The General Register Office
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/
for that you will need details from FreeBMD as follows, you can double check this by going to http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl
Births Mar 1839 
Read  Christianna    Cambridge  14 18

The reference number is different for each of the above ordering services.

Good luck
Selina

[rosie99]

You have two choices for ordering the birth certificate.

From Cambridgeshire County Council Register Office - go to
http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/db/ridbirths.nsf/search?OpenForm
Fill in details to get to her entry and reference number (note you must spell Christianna with the two n's) then follow the instructions for ordering a certificate.

I don't know what Cambridgeshire charge for their certificates but an additional £1 postage and handling fee will be charged per certificate.  You are probably better off getting it from the gro.

Rosie

[Selina]

Its a long time since I bought a cert from Cambs Register Office as I usually get several at once from different districts so use the GRO.

I just had a look and Cambs charge £9 plus the £1 postage and handling as opposed to GRO at inclusive £9.25.

Selina