Hello Drayke
I just come across your reply to my query. Thanks so much for posting this information. I am quite bullish on following this lead of Thomas and Lydia Holman. I just can't understand why I cannot locate a birth registration for Luke Holman. He could have been going by his middle name which was quite common. I will just keep on researching and hopefully one day will be able to verify who is parents really are.
Kind regards
Corinna Pickett
Hello Corinna,
To be honest I am not sure you will find one as it looks like the family in question were non-conformists or at least some of the time.
I have had a look at the parish registers and all of the children born to Thomas and Lydia were baptised as adults with most being around the 1830-40's and if you consider the earliest birth listed as 1794 and the latest as 1821 there would be many children missing from the registers for this couple.
They are as follows:
- Elizabeth bapt. 6 Nov 1842 in Hove, Sussex to Thomas and Lydia Holman, register records her as born 9 Feb 1821
- Lydia Holman bapt. 21 Sep 1832 in Brighton to Thomas and Lydia Holman (Deceased) of North Lane, Tailor and record shows her being born 17 Nov 1800 (Note that just above the record entry is also a Luke, Louisa and Mary -and others- Holman baptised to Luke and Sarah Holman 9 Sep and 16 Sep 1832 Respectively and Luke is listed as butcher of North Lane. Luke and Sarah also baptised other children on the 9th and 16th Sept suggesting a move to CoE possibly)
- Mary Holman bapt. 17 Mar 1835 to Thomas and Lydia Holman (now Bartlett) of Ditchling, Tailor and record shows her being born 9 Feb 1794
Given that all of Thomas and Lydia's children I can find were all baptised as adults and Luke and Sarah's children were all baptised on mostly the same day/years it is highly likely they were non conformists and Luke just never got himself baptised and when he moved to CoE he baptised all of his children all at the same time. This would explain why you cant find his baptism. It is odd however that he married in the CoE to Mary Buckman though, considering as jonw65 has shown that he had a son George who was buried in the non conformist records, Luke was definitely non-conformist sometime after his marriage and up until 1832. There are also other Ditchling Holmans having children at the same time in the non-conformist records.
Also something to note is that Lydia's baptism in 1832 shows that her mother Lydia was deceased. Another thing to note is with Mary's baptism showing in brackets (Now Bartlett) under Holman in the surname column so this would be probably Mary's married name.
In such situations you will need to look at land records, wills (if there are any) or even try to match family names of the above mentioned children to see if you can find a match. I.e. look at Mary Bartlett (nee Holman) mentioned above and her children to see if she named children Lydia, Thomas and especially Luke. Can even match signatures on records.
That said, considering Luke's marriage record in 1820 shows witnesses as Thomas and Lydia Holman, whilst an assumption, this is probably Luke's siblings.
There is also a Lydia Holman who married a Benjamin Breach 1822 in Ditchling of which the witness was Thomas Holman (signature matches the Thomas Holman signature of Lukes marriage) and Lydia signed her own name which matches (or near about) the Lydia Holman who was a witness on Lukes marriage. This is probably Lukes sister and the Lydia mentioned above being bapt. 1832 and born 1800 (in the census' she is born 1800-1801 in Ditchling) and this couple also named a child Luke adding further weight that all of these were the children of Thomas and Lydia.
There is also a Thomas Holman marrying an Anne Goldsmith 1819 in Ditchling and he signed his own name. His signature matches the signature of the Thomas Holman who was a witness to both Luke and Lydia's marriages. The witness to Thomas's marriage was Lydia Holman and she also signed her own name and the signature matches that of the Lydia who was a witness to Luke and the signature of the Lydia who married Benjamin Breach.
Also if you are not aware, Thomas Holman married Lydia King in Ditchling on 12 Dec 1791 (in CoE Parish registers) with witnesses being John King and Lucy Holman (Lucy was Thomas's sister bapt. 1775 and buried 1825 [non-conformist]. Thomas [bapt. 1770] and Lucy's parents were Thomas Holman and Elizabeth Muzzel married 1766 in Ditchling) . Also note that Thomas and Lydia both signed their own names on the marriage register, however, the signatures seem to be different to those on Lukes marriage to Sarah.
Given that all the signatures match, the fact that Lydia's birth, who married Benjamin, is shown on the census as born 1800 matching her baptism and that Lydia named a child Luke, I would dare say that they are the siblings of Luke and children of Thomas and Lydia.
Hope this helps.
