William Minal/Minall/Mildenhall

[artifis]

William's death certificate for 20 September 1840 gives his age as 63,surname as Mildenhall and place of death Tilehurst - the informant was Mary Dunce who as far as I've been able to determine was not a member of his family.  Strange that one of his four children, all sons, all still living at Tilehurst didn't register his death but Mary Dunce was stated to have been present at his death so maybe that's the reason.

His burial record at St Michael's church for 24 September also gives his age as 63 and his surname as both Minal or Mildenhall.  The family seem to have used both in their records of events at Tilehurst.

When he married Elizabeth Webb at St Michael's on 21 Feb 1808 he was stated to be from the parish of Enbourne in both the banns and marriage records whilst she was of the parish.  Elizabeth was buried 3 Jan 1834.  (I need to check that date taken from the parish record transcripts as the copy of the actual record seems to indicate 1838).

Looking on A*****y and FamilySearch I can't find a baptism record for him anywhere for 1777.  There is a record for a baptism on 26 Nov 1770 at Bucklebury but that seems too far out from his age at death.

I have previously seen some trees on line that link him to the William baptised at Bucklebury but I've never been able to substantiate that.

Any thoughts as to where I might look to find his baptism record?

[CaroleW]

Hi

Suspect the informant's surname was Dance rather than Dunce.  There is a Mary Dance aged 55 in Tilehurst in 1841 - husband George.  FS has a marriage in 1806 but Mary was Hasle so not William's daughter 

[artifis]

Hi Carole

Thanks for that, I'll now follow up the other three sons apart from my ancestor and see if there's any connection to either the Dance or Hasle families.  I last looked at this over three years ago and Dance does seem familiar.

It's William's baptism that's frustrating me at present, of course he may not have been baptised but all the other Minal/Minall/Minaule/Mildenhall families seem to have been diligent in this respect, I guess in the mid-late 1770s there wasn't much choice other than to do so or risk social stigma.

I have found out that the Bishop's Transcripts for Enbourne do not include his birth period and I'm currently waiting for a reply from the Berks Record Office regarding what records they have on Enbourne.

Is there anyone near the RO who could do a check for me if they do have Enbourne's parish records for the 1770-1780 period?

[HarryW]

The BRO online catalogue suggests that they hold a full set of records for Enborne:

http://www.berkshirerecordoffice.org.uk/family-history/parish-register-guide/?letter=e#results

[artifis]

Thanks HarryW.

I'll contact them and see if one of the staff there could do a search for me, I need someone to look at the St Michael's, Tilehurst burial records anyway.

[KGarrad]

Time Team once did a show from Mildenhall in Wiltshire. Series #17, episode 6.

Phil Harding, who is a Wiltshire boy, corrected the Team's pronunciation - he said it was Minall, or Mine-all!

That might explain the variance in spelling of the surname?

[artifis]

Yes I've heard that before, I guess originating from sort of slurring the syllables between the main parts of the place name.  I do remember when I was a kid in the 1940s growing up in rural Berkshire that whenever we visited family in Gloucestershire or Wiltshire I found the adult's dialects hard to understand - there still seemed to be strong local dialects which must have been a nightmare for the clergy writing up records if they were either from outside that area or one of the persons was.  Going further back in time it must have been even more disparate and harder to understand.