Parents of Thomas Fraser of Gateshead

[JenB]

You definitely need to get the birth certificate of one of the children to confirm the mother's name. You can easily find, say, that of Eleanor on freeBMD.

Mary is Frazier, born Seaton Sluice in 1851,
Fraser born Seaton in 1861
Fraser born Seaton House in 1871
Clearly the same person with different spellings.

Thomas is Frazer in 1851, Fraser in 1861 and 1881 - also clearly all the same person.

Added: I just found Thomas in 1871 (spelt Fraser) he is boarding in Barnard Castle, County Durham.

[esdel]

Dear Jen
Please tell me the secret!
HOW do you know they are "Clearly the same person".

This sort of thing always baffles me - makes me miss a lot.
Many thanks

[JenB]

I have looked at Mary in the 1851, 1861 and 1871 censuses.

Her age.
Her place of birth.
Her children, and their dates and places of birth.
Where she is living.

All lead me to believe it is the same Mary in each census.

[esdel]

Thanks Jen, I now see how you do it.

I have Eleanor Fraser born 1856
The nearest I can find in BMD is born a year earlier. Is that "near enough" or can I hope for an exact match.
The recorded births are often got by subtraction but as Censuses are always early in the year this gives a birth date one year later than the probable true date.
Many thanks

[JenB]

For anyone who wants to double check:

1851 census:
Thomas HO 107 / 2436 / 50 / 10
Mary HO 107 / 2437 / 252 / 20

1861:
Mary and Thomas RG 9 / 3944 / 34 / 4

1871:
Mary RG 10 / 5449 / 47 / 18
Thomas RG 10 4945 / 35 / 15

Mary dies in Whitehaven R.D. in 1871, and Thomas is a widower in 1881.

[JenB]

The age on the census is that at the persons last birthday, so the year of birth given on transcriptions can't be relied on.

If you are not happy to get Eleanor's birth certificate, then you could try for son Thomas Daud (?Dowd) Fraser, who is with Mary in 1871, aged 18. (presumably you had this name already?).

[esdel]

For anyone who wants to double check:

1851 census:
Thomas HO 107 / 2436 / 50 / 10
Mary HO 107 / 2437 / 252 / 20

1861:
Mary and Thomas RG 9 / 3944 / 34 / 4

1871:
Mary RG 10 / 5449 / 47 / 18
Thomas RG 10 4945 / 35 / 15

Mary dies in Whitehaven R.D. in 1871, and Thomas is a widower in 1881.

Very impressive, Jen - I so wish I could work so well and QUICK!
Have coppied it verbatim into my tree notes!

[JenB]

Have coppied it verbatim into my tree notes!

I assumed you already had all this information - I simply put it here for anyone else who wanted to check out my reasoning about Mary.

[esdel]

Thank you Jen
Your resoning is very sound - and thanks to you I now see how you did it
I had the ifo but was confused as Mary is VERY commom name - hundreds in any R D any year.