I wonder if anyone can help me. I am picking up some Rush / Grimwood research I put down in 2006
I have traced my father's line back to my GGG Grandfather James Rush Grimwood born (likely), Hitcham, Suffolk 1811/12. He had 3 siblings that were also born Hitcham, Suffolk (Samuel, Sarah, Elizabeth)…all also with the "Rush Grimwood" name
Based on indirect evidence, I am near 100% certain that the parents of these children were Sarah Grimwood, born Hitcham (possibly Ringshall) Suffolk 1790/91 and Samuel Rush born 1771/72 (likely Suffolk)
All of this is gleaned from census, BMD and parish records from Hornchurch, Essex after 1830 where the family were then living
However, despite searches in the Suffolk Records Office of parish records for Hitcham and surrounding parishes, I have been unable to find baptism records for any of these individuals (neither has Suffolk-based researcher Maggie Driver). Moreover, thinking absence from parish baptism records might mean they were baptists, I also searched the Wattisham Baptist Meeting House Register "Register of Births" (the only, but extensive baptist records held at the SRO for parishes in the Hitcham area). Plenty for Grimwood births were recorded in there (most from Hitcham/Ringshall), but none of the above 6 individuals
The Rush Grimwood name clearly comes from the fact that Sarah Grimwood and Samuel Rush were not married and so the children took the mother's surname, but were given the father's surname as a middle name
There is a Hitcham parish record of an 1830 marriage between a Samuel Rush and a Sarah Grimwood which I assume must be the same couple who must have travelled back from Essex to Hitcham specifically for the marriage
So, I am looking for :
1] Where I can look next to ascertain baptism/births of the above individuals
2] Has anyone else researched this family?
3] What might be the reasons for the complete absence of baptisms from all records - something to do with the illegitimacies? Is it conceivable that people in those times did not get baptised? Seems unlikely.
4] Is the fact that they travelled back to Suffolk to get married in 1830 revealing of anything (i.e. rather than get married in Hornchurch, Essex where they had settled)
5] Any thoughts on what was required to move to a new parish/what records I can search, in case any records pertaining to the Suffolk to Essex move sheds light
6] Where else might I look ?!?
Thanks in advance
Mark Grimwood
