Jenny or Jane Harman?

[f4monty]

Hi all

Thoughts please. I'm trying to trace the parents of my 4th great-grandmother Jane Harman, who married a James Bashford in Reigate, Surrey, in 1801 and settled in Chipstead, Surrey. At marriage they were both of Reigate.

Jane died in 1817 and was said to be aged 37.

However, no Jane was born in or around her expected age of birth of 1780.

There was a Jane Harman, a twin, baptised in Betchworth a few miles from Reigate in 1773 to John and Elizabeth. But this seems to be stretching the 1780 expected birth year beyond the reasonable. Also, a Jane Harman married a James Ockenden in Reigate in 1793.

There was a Jenny Harman baptised in 1781 to Abraham and Sarah at Leigh in Surrey, again a few miles from Reigate. This person does not appear again in the records as far as I can tell and I've read in a few places that Jenny was sometimes an alternative name to Jane.

Up to now I've thought of 1773 as the more likely option but now I'm not so sure. Has anyone experienced the use of Jenny and Jane interchangeably in this part of the world at this point in time?

Thanks
Stephen Finch

[rosie99]

There were other 'Harmans' marrying at Reigate around the same time, have you tried tracing them back to see if there are any clues.
James married Mary Heaver 1803
Elizabeth married John Lane 1804
Mary married  Jon Pickett 1807 (By licence)

[f4monty]

Hi Rosie

Thank you for the message. Yes, I have done quite a bit of back-tracking, which is in part how I ended up with this curious Jenny Harman who only seems to appear once in any of the records.

Strange...

Stephen

[trish1120]

Yes I think it is possible Jenny/Jane are the same person.

I have see on bapts of children diminutive names of the Mothers quite often.
Eg Liz/Lizzie/Elizabeth etc., Ann/Nancy and so on.

As you probably have seen while googling;
Jenny was originally the diminutive form of Jane, but it is now associated with Jennifer. ... It may also be spelt Jennie, which was the most common spelling before the 20th century...