Newsletter – 21st
May 2022
The Shape of Things to Come? EXCLUSIVE
Findmypast add half a million Wiltshire and
Lancashire records
Get a bonus when you subscribe to Findmypast.co.uk EXCLUSIVE
Women in history ONLINE
Tackling a ‘brick wall’ with the help of an
expert
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 14th May) click here; to find earlier articles use the customised Google search between
this paragraph and the next (it searches ALL of the newsletters since February
2009, so you don't need to keep copies):
To go to the main
LostCousins website click the logo at the top of this newsletter. If you're not
already a member, do join - it's FREE, and you'll get an email to alert you
whenever there's a new edition of this newsletter available!
Marriage register confusion
A year ago a new system for marriage registration came into effect
across England & Wales – one which meant that the names of both parents could
be included in marriage register entries. The Explanatory Notes to the Civil
Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc.)
Act 2019 include a section headed Policy Background which includes this paragraph:
Since 1837, the
marriage register entry in England and Wales (and consequently marriage certificates,
which are a certified copy of the entry) has included details of the fathers of
the spouses, but not their mothers. Although changes to the content of the
register entry could be made by secondary legislation (as the particulars
required to be registered are prescribed in regulations under section 55(1) of
the Marriage Act 1949), any change would necessitate replacement of all 84,000
marriage register books currently in use. The change to an electronic system
will enable the form and content of the marriage register entry to be easily
amended to include, for example, the details of both parents of the couple, without
having to replace all marriage register books.
The Act came into
force on 4th May 2021, and in my newsletter dated 10th May
2021 I wrote:
The campaign for
equality dates back several years, and involved an
online petition. At the time my comment was "be careful what you wish
for", and unfortunately this turned out to be spot on. To avoid the cost
of replacing tens of thousands of handwritten marriage
registers the government decided to introduce an electronic system, which means
that whilst churches may continue to have marriage registers, they will no
longer fulfil any legal requirement, and any certificates issued by the church
will be ceremonial rather than legal.
What I didn’t realise
until this month is that just one week before the Act came into force the Home
Office approved a Statutory Instrument issued on behalf of the Registrar
General for England & Wales. When it is proposed to change the law by way
of an Act of Parliament it’s big news – there are debates in Parliament, and
often changes are proposed – which may or may not be accepted. Primary
legislation is big news.
However, when Statutory
Instruments are laid before the Houses of Parliament they usually go through undiscussed,
unamended, and unnoticed by the world at large. Secondary legislation is rarely
controversial and rarely newsworthy – except, perhaps, when price rises are being
imposed.
The Marriage (Keeping
of Records in Churches and Chapels) Regulations 2021 are short, but include this
important provision:
In other words marriage registers will still be kept by churches and
chapels of the Church of England and the Church in Wales. That’s good news for
genealogists – but there’s also some bad news that you might not have anticipated….
Marriage registers
(and certificates) for Scotland have included the name and maiden name of the
parties’ mothers since the introduction of civil registration in 1855; the
mother’s occupation was added from 1965. (See this page at the National Records of Scotland site for more
information.)
I’m sure that, like
me, you were anticipating that the much-acclaimed changes in England & Wales
would produce a similar result. However, if you refer to the Guidebook for the Clergy issued by the
General Register Office on 1st July 2021 you’ll find that in the examples
in the Appendices there’s no sign of the mother’s maiden name:
This example is from
Appendix N, but others tell a similar story. I didn’t notice this anomaly at
the time – it was only when I was contacted by a LostCousins member who is
planning to marry this summer that I realised what a difference there was between
my expectations and reality.
I suspect I won’t be
the only one to be disappointed – how ironic that legislation intended to remove
perceived discrimination against mothers won’t allow their maiden surname to be
recorded!
The Shape of Things to Come? EXCLUSIVE
As
a boy I read all of the HG Wells science-fiction novels that I could lay my hands
on, but I don’t believe I came across his 1933 work The Shape of Things to
Come – though perhaps this is just as well, if the reviews on Amazon are anything to go by!
Because
of the way that government works a close examination of legislation can
sometimes provide clues to future plans. For example,
when I was researching the anomalies in marriage registration I was obliged to sift
through numerous pieces of secondary legislation, including The Births, Deaths and Marriages (Records and Fees) (Amendment)
Regulations 2020.
Statutory
Instrument 2020 No. 1093 (which you can find here) was
signed by Kevin Foster, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Home
Office, over 18 months ago, on 7th October 2020. But I doubt that one family
historian in a thousand read the amendments set out in the Statutory Instrument,
or even the Explanatory Note that explained the effect of the new regulations –
which is a shame, because there’s more than a hint of exciting new services to
come…..
Is
this the shape of things to come? For as long as I can remember family historians
with ancestors from England & Wales have been envious of the online access
to historic registers provided by ScotlandsPeople, and
when we were offered the opportunity to purchase PDF copies of birth and death
certificates in November 2016 it was certainly a step in the right direction.
Should
one infer from the reference to an "online view service" that the General
Register Office are considering taking another step in the right direction?
What good news that would be for family historians!
Findmypast add half a million Wiltshire and
Lancashire records
In
the past two weeks Findmypast have added 150,000 workhouse records for Oldham, Lancashire
and added 350,000 transcribed records to their Wiltshire collection, including
nearly 70,000 baptisms, over 27,000 asylum records, over 250,000 tithe records,
and WW1 hospital records from the Old Sarum Isolation Hospital, the Harnham Red Cross Hospital at East Harnham
and the Salisbury Infirmary (Fisherton Street).
Tip:
patients in the asylums and hospitals could well have come from farther afield.
Remember,
searching at Findmypast is always free – though you will need to log-in or
register (if you haven’t done so before).
Oldham,
Lancashire Workhouse records
Wiltshire
baptisms index 1530-1917
Wiltshire
tithe award register 1813-1882
Wiltshire
Asylum registers 1789-1921
Wiltshire
WW1 Hospital records
Get a bonus when you subscribe to Findmypast.co.uk EXCLUSIVE
From
now until midnight (London time) on Friday 10th June you can get a
free 12 month subscription to LostCousins (worth up to
£12.50) when you purchase a new 12 month Plus or Pro subscription
to Findmypast.co.uk using the special link near the top of your My Summary
page at the LostCousins site. (If you qualify and already have a LostCousins
subscription I’ll extend it by 12 months.)
With
a Plus subscription you’ll have access to all of
Findmypast’s British and Irish historical records with the exception of the 1921
Census, which is not included in any subscriptions; with a Pro
subscription you’ll also have access to Findmypast’s worldwide records and
newspapers (including more than 50 million pages in the British Newspaper Archive).
Pro subscribers also get a 10% discount on 1921 Census records.
The
LostCousins subscription offer will be funded by the commission that we receive
from Findmypast, so you need to be a new or returning subscriber (not a current
subscriber - since commission is never paid on renewals).
Please
ensure that your purchase is tracked as coming from LostCousins: this might
mean that you have to temporarily change the settings
in your browser (see the end of this article) or disable certain browser extensions.
If we don’t receive commission then sadly you won’t get your free subscription,
so if you normally use a browser that is designed to block tracking it is
simplest to use a different browser – I recommend Chrome.
Because
the link on your My Summary page is unique to you it won’t be necessary to
claim your free subscription (or extension to your current subscription); up to
30th May I’ll be able to update your account within 24 hours, but after
that date it will probably take longer as I’m having a cataract operation on 31st
May. A joint subscription will be awarded provided you have linked the two
accounts by entering the Membership Number of one on the My Details page
of the other (remembering to click Submit at the bottom of the page).
You’ll find your Membership Number on your My Summary page, or in an
email reminder of your log-in details.
To
check your Chrome browser settings choose Privacy
and security, then Cookies and other site data; look down the page
for Send a ‘Do Not Track’ request with your browsing traffic and ensure
that it is switched OFF, ie the button is switched
the left (white), not to the right (blue). This is the default setting so you probably won’t need to change it.
To
check your Edge browser settings choose Privacy,
search and services from the Settings menu, then Privacy, search
and services; make sure that the Tracking Prevention box at the top
is set to either Basic or Balanced (not Strict), and that
lower down the page Send ‘Do Not Track’ requests switch is to the left (white
on a black background), not to the right (white on a blue background). These
are the default settings, so you probably won’t need to make any changes.
Note: if you’re not
sure it’s going to work, don’t make an immediate purchase, instead click the test
link on your My Summary page. I will email you to confirm that it worked (email
me if you don’t hear within 24 hours).
Women in history ONLINE
Local
historians and family historians have a lot in common – we just look at things
from a different perspective. This year’s Local History Day, organised by the
British Association for Local History, features an afternoon talk by Oxford
lecturer and BBC broadcaster Dr Janina Ramirez based on her forthcoming book A
New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It.
Local
History Day is Saturday 12th June: you can attend online or go along
to London’s Conway Hall – a venue I last visited to hear a distinguished LostCousins
member speak (though on a subject far removed from family history). Either way
the cost is just £10, which includes a talk in the morning by Mark Forrest
entitled Using post medieval manorial documents for local history research
(it’s even cheaper if you are a BALH member like me). If you attend online you’ll also be able to watch Q&A sessions led by
the two speakers.
To
find out more and book please follow this link.
Note:
on the evening of Thursday 26th May there’s an opportunity to attend a one hour
online talk entitled ‘Women Hiding in Documents: Women’s lives in 16th century
patriarchal society’ – you can find out more here.
Tackling a ‘brick wall’ with expert help
Earlier this year Linda won one of the top prizes in my
competition – the chance to knock down a ‘brick wall’ with the help of an
expert genealogist, Sarah Williams, who is also the editor of Who Do You Think
You Are? magazine. Linda kindly agreed to write about her ‘brick wall’ and how she
is attempting to knock it down – hopefully the article that follows will
inspire you to try new ways of solving the mysteries in your own tree. At the
very least it will emphasise the importance of going about it logically, methodically,
and thoroughly.
And now I’m going to hand over to Linda, who has written the rest
of the article….
In
the graveyard of St Mary the Virgin at Langham, Essex
is a large weathered memorial stone which reads:
In
memory of William Sargeant who departed this life
June 28th 1796 aged 80 years
And next to it and to the right, another of similar size which
reads:
In
memory of Mary wife of William Sargeant who departed
this life Jany 24 1795 in the 72nd year of
her age
The parish register records Mary’s burial on 30 Jan 1795 as “Mary
wife of William Sargeant”, but there is no burial
record for William – possibly due to poor record keeping as there are only two
burials recorded for 1796, which compares to 10-14 burials for 1794, 1795, 1797
and 1798.
We
can conclude that the above were born circa: William 1716, his wife Mary
1723. My main quest is to find out where
William was born. It does not appear to
be at Langham as the earliest records for ANY “Sargents”
in Langham are the baptisms for William & Mary’s sons:
Samuel
son of William Surgeant 31 Mar 1751
Daniel son of
William and BLANK Serjeant 14 Oct 1753
John son of
William and BLANK Serjeant 25 Jan 1756
James son of
William and BLANK Serjeant 22 Oct 1758
Joseph son of
William & Mary Sergeant 8 Feb 1761
Thomas son of
William & Mary Serjeant 24 Jul 1763
Later
there are marriage entries for some of their children:
Mary Sargent and John Cason 21
Nov 1773
Samuel Sargent and Mary Gray of
Nayland 14 Jul 1782
James Sargent and Sarah Smith of
Langham 21 Nov 1784
Joseph Sargent and Sarah Smith of
Stratford 2 Oct 1787
Ann Sargent and Daniel Leggitt of Wormingford 11 Sep
1791
I am descended from their son Joseph born 1761, and have DNA
matches with two descendants of Mary Sargent & John Cason, and two
descendants of Daniel Sargent & Mary Elizabeth Winny.
In the Will of William Sargeant born
c.1716 (D/ACW
36/6/2 at Essex Record Office) it seems he had another son – he
was called William and appointed an Executor of his father’s Will made on 22 Feb 1791 which states “I William
Sargent of Langham, Wheelwright appoint John Bedford
of Ardleigh, Wheelwright and my Son William Sargent of Great Bromley,
Wheelwright Executors.”
In essence he instructed that his Copyhold at Langham and his
Copyhold at Wivenhoe were to be disposed of “for the best price that can be
got”, and the monies invested. He left Household Goods, Furniture etc to Mary
his wife for her lifetime together with the interest and dividends from the
investments, but after her decease all his assets were to be realised and given
“unto my four Sons Samuel, John, James and Joseph Sargent, and my two Daughters
Ann Sargent and Mary the wife of John Ca..on to be
equally divided between them”.
(In
fact William’s wife Mary died 18 months before he did.
The cover of the Will states that he died on 28 Jun 1796 in Great Bromley –
perhaps he moved there to be cared for by his son William after the death of
his wife?)
These additional questions arise:
Why would his son William be made an Executor but not a
beneficiary?
Had his son William already been given or inherited property from
his father or another source?
Where was his son William born and baptised? Was he a son of a
previous marriage?
Note:
Daughter Ann married Daniel Leggett at
Langham on 11 Sep 1791 (ie after William made his Will but before he died)
In his Will, William’s main assets were his Copyhold messuage at
Langham and his Copyhold messuage at Wivenhoe.
It is most likely that he spent his working life as a Wheelwright in
Langham, but how did he acquire Copyhold in Wivenhoe? Did he originally come from Wivenhoe? Looking in the parish registers for that area
we find no record of the birth of a William Sargent about 1716, but we do find
that a William was baptised in Wivenhoe on 26 Oct 1743, to a William and Sarah
Sergeant.
Following this avenue, it
appears that a year earlier William Sergeant of Wivenhoe married Sarah Sergeant
of Wivenhoe on 17 Oct 1742 at Elmstead. Was she a
cousin? Was she a widow? The record does not give the “condition” of either. Probably
a widow, for on 1 May 1738 Sarah Pim of Elmstead married James Serjeant of Wivenhoe at Elmstead:
28 Dec 1741 Baptism of their son, James, at Wivenhoe.
Six days later, on 3 Jan 1741/42, “James Serjeant” was
buried. This was probably Sarah’s
husband, because seventeen days later on 20 Jan 1741/42,
“James Serjeant infant” was buried.
It seems then that Sarah was a widow when she married William in
1742. Was this William born about 1716?
Their son William was baptised on 26 Oct 1743 at Wivenhoe. He could
be the William who was an executor but not a beneficiary of his father’s will.
Sadly Sarah, wife of William Serjeant was buried on 17 Mar 1744/45
at Wivenhoe.
It seems that William remarried because four years later, William
and Mary Serjant had a daughter Mary who was baptised
on 22 Oct 1749 at Wivenhoe. Could this daughter Mary be the one that
later married John Cason? I have not
yet found a marriage for William and Mary the parents. Did William and Mary
then move to Langham and have other children … Samuel … Daniel … etc ?
Having unsuccessfully scoured the parish registers at Langham and
surrounding parishes and at Wivenhoe and surrounding parishes for:
(a)
the baptism of Ann Sargent,
(b)
the marriage of William and Mary between 1745-49, and
(c)
the baptism of a William Sargent around 1716
I then turned my investigations to the “property” he had in
Wivenhoe (and which was to be sold after his death). Which property was it? From whom did he acquire it? Did he inherit it or
did he buy it? Could it provide clues to
his past?
At Essex Record Office and online there is the 1799 Survey Map of
Transcribed Occupiers of Wivenhoe (D/DBm P31).
This is 3 years after William Sargent died, but certainly worth looking
at to see if there are any Sargents on it. There was
one: a Hannah Sarjeant who owned and occupied a
property called “Cocks”. Was she a
relative?
Some research shows that she was a widow:
18 Jun 1795 Burial of Samuel Sarjeant,
age 41 at Wivenhoe (this puts his birth about 1753/54).
24
Apr 1795 Samuel Sargent, Blacksmith of Wivenhoe made a Will which was proved on
13 Aug 1795 (PROB 11/1265) and in it he left everything to his wife Hannah.
24
Apr 1783 Samuel Sargent (bachelor) married Hannah Hynard
(spinster) at Wivenhoe.
7
Sep 1753 Samuel Serjeant born, and baptised next day to Samuel & Mary
Serjeant at Wivenhoe.
21
Sep 1751 Mary Sergeant born, and baptised 4 Oct 1751
to Samuel & Mary Sergeant at Wivenhoe.
26
Dec 1750 Samll Serjeant married Mary Riddlesdale of Wivenhoe at Alresford
Could this Samuel Serjeant be a relative of my 4x gt grandfather William born about 1716?
The only other record of a Sargent at Alresford that I have found so far is the
marriage of Thos Serjant
and Rachel Allen on 29 Jan 1748.
MORE RECENT RESEARCH
I spent a day at the Essex Record Office in Sep 2021 and looked at
various documents relating to properties in Wivenhoe
but none yielded any more information for my quest.
Where next? Back to parish
registers? Very frustratingly, the
parish registers for Elmstead are lost/missing for
the following crucial years:
Baptisms 1662 – 1728
Marriages 1659 – 1728
Burials 1661 – 1677
Elmstead
is the parish where Sarah Pimm married firstly James Serjeant and secondly
William Sergeant. Maybe I should
investigate her!
Research on Sarah Pimm shows she was a daughter of Ralph Pimm,
yeoman, and a beneficiary of his Will (D/ACW 28/1/17) which states he had
Freeholds in Wivenhoe and in the parish of St Leonard and elsewhere in the Town
of Colchester. If my hypothesis proves correct that Sarah Pimm’s second
marriage to a William Sargent in 1742 was to my 4G grandfather William Sargent
born about 1716, their son William baptised 26 Oct 1743 could well have
inherited lands/funds through his mother benefitting from her father’s Will,
and so was not needing to be a beneficiary of his father’s Will.
In February I was very fortunate to win one of the LostCousins
prizes – a session with Sarah Williams, Editor of Who Do You Think You Are?
magazine, to bust an English ‘brick wall’. Peter also gave me a link to an
excellent article
written by Dr Janet Few (another ‘brick wall’ expert) which helped me focus on
the pertinent facts.
Because wheelwrights would have needed an apprenticeship, Sarah
suggested that I should look at these on Findmypast.
I found five of interest, but they will require a visit to The National
Archives in Kew to see the details. She also suggested I checked Images at
FamilySearch as they
had quite a number from some Essex parishes. I found some for Wivenhoe listing
occupants liable for poor relief contribution and assessments for window tax
and land tax. In summary I found that the following lived in the parish and
were liable for some or all of the said “taxes”:
1722-1727 Ralph Pimm (Overseer
in 1725)
1728-1731 Widow Pimm
1728-1734 Ralph Pimm
1735-1743 John Pimm (Witness
in 1735, Overseer in 1736)
1740-1741 James Sergeant
(Overseer in 1740)
1742 Widow
Sergeant (Sarah Pimm)
1743-1750 William Sergeant
(Constable in 1743)
In
1750 he is bracketed with Widow Maddox, suggesting he was an occupant for part
of
the year. He does not appear in further years)
1749-1765 Samuel Sergeant
(1750 noted Blacksmith’s Shop; Constable in 1751 and 1761-1764)
1766-1767 Widow Sergeant (Mary
Riddlesdale)
It looks possible that the William Sergeant resident in Wivenhoe
from 1743-1750 is the same William Sergeant who was resident in Langham from
1750 onwards. If so, was he born in or
near Wivenhoe, or possibly Elmstead where the parish
registers are missing for that period?
Summary so far:
It seems very likely that William lived in Wivenhoe from at least
1743-50 and during that time at Elmstead married
to Sarah Serjeant, widow (nee Pimm), who bore him a son William, who was
baptised in 1743. Sarah died 18 months
later, and William remarries before Oct 1749 when Mary daughter of William
& Mary Serjeant is baptised at Wivenhoe.
He then moves to Langham where 6 sons are baptised.
How will I prove that this is so?
I read an article about Manor Court Rolls written by
Rita Harris, a professional genealogist and published in the Essex
Family Historian. These Rolls record property transactions, agreements and
disagreements, appointment of local officials, deaths of tenants, and
inheritance. The best way to check which manors were in your parish of interest
is the Manorial
Documents Register.
The ones of interest to me are held at the Essex Record Office,
and as I am not easily able to get there myself, I commissioned Rita to look at
them for me. From her research of the Manor of Wivenhoe she confirms that
“Sarah was first married to James Sargent, widowed, and then married to William
Sargent”. However, there was no earlier
history of Sargents in Wivenhoe, but in 1758, 1792
and 1797 some property transactions specifically mention “William Sargent,
Wheelwright of Langham”! Her research of Langham reveals the properties he
rented and owned there, but again no earlier records of Sargents.
It seems that William’s parents did not come from Langham or
Wivenhoe, but probably from an area near Wivenhoe, possibly Elmstead
– where some parish registers are missing/lost. Searches of more Manor Court Rolls are now
needed!
Thanks
to everyone who wrote in to express their appreciation for the How to
share your know-how article in the last issue. I aimed to keep the article
as simple as possible to avoid worrying those readers who sometimes struggle
with technology – whilst I was conscious of the fact that some of you are still
using desktop computers which don’t have a microphone
I thought it best to deal with this in a separate article.
The
good news is that there’s a simple solution which won’t cost you a penny, because
it doesn’t require any additional software or hardware – provided you own (or
can borrow) a smartphone or tablet.
Just
follow the instructions in the last issue, but send a
copy of the Zoom invitation to the smartphone or tablet. Start the meeting on
your computer, then join the meeting on the smartphone or tablet – which you
can then use to provide the voiceover.
Incidentally,
whilst this particular application only makes use of
the microphone in the smartphone or tablet, there’s no reason why you can’t use
the camera as well (though you might need some sort of stand – you’ll find some
examples here). So
you could use it to record memories, as suggested
in my first newsletter of the month.
Note:
in case you’re wondering why you couldn’t do the whole thing on a phone or tablet,
Zoom only allows local recording on a computer. If you have a Zoom subscription
you can store your recording ‘in the cloud’, but it’s an expensive solution if
the free basic plan meets your other needs.
Already
this month I’ve explained how, even if your computer doesn’t have a camera or a
microphone, you can make use of free Zoom software to record your memories and
know-how. So please excuse me for devoting this issue’s Tips column to some
memories of my own!
Last
month I mentioned that my wife and I were watching The Pallisers
– the 26-episode 1974 BBC adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s novels which I had
recorded (but not watched) when it was reshown in 2014. Watching Anthony
Andrews as Lord Silverbridge, and Jeremy Irons as Frank Tregear,
it’s crystal clear why they were chosen for the parts of Sebastian Flyte and
Charles Ryder when Brideshead Revisited was so memorably brought to our
television screens in 1981.
The
biggest shock of the series was the discovery that episodes 24 and 25 had not been
recorded back in 1974 – or rather, the programme that had been recorded was the
wrong one. There must have been a last-minute change in the BBC schedule, but
whatever the reason, urgent action was required to appease my wife – and
fortunately I was able to find the complete DVD set on eBay for £10.99
including postage.
Another
recent shock was the death of actress Jennifer Wilson at the end of March. Her name
might not mean much to you – she appeared mostly on the stage after 1977 – but she
played roles in several TV series that I watched in my teens and 20s. The first
was Compact, a BBC soap about a glossy magazine that ran from 1962-65 (it
was the creation of Hazel Adair and Peter Ling who later came up with Crossroads);
then came A Man of Our Times in 1968, a 13-part series in which she appeared
alongside George Cole.
I
must have seen her in Special Branch in 1969, but the role for which she
is most remembered – and not just by me – came a few years later, when she
played Jennifer Kingsley in The Brothers. This drama about a
family-owned haulage firm ran for 7 series from 1972-1976 and the last series had
just started when my mother died – in fact, it was the last thing I ever spoke
to my mother about.
Her
parents were Frederick Lohr and Irene Morgan, but her
parents divorced and her mother married Herbert
Wilson, whose surname Jennifer took – it can’t have been much fun going through
World War 2 with a German name.
Frederick
Lohr had been born John Frederick Carl Lohr, the son of Conrad Lohr, an
immigrant German pork butcher, but by 1921 he was using Frederick as his first
name:
© Crown Copyright Image reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England. Used by kind permission of Findmypast.
Note
that his father, Conrad, was a naturalized British subject – the London
Gazette dated 3rd June 1910 confirms that he had taken the oath
on 2nd May.
In
the 1939 Register Jennifer and her younger sister Christina were living with
their mother’s sister, Hilda, and her husband in Loughton, Essex:
©
Crown Copyright Image reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London,
England. Used by kind permission of Findmypast.
Note
that Jennifer’s new surname of Wilson is shown against her register entry, but
not against her sister’s entry – that’s because Christina sadly died at the age
of 4 in early 1941. Did her death in some way contribute to the break-up of their
parents’ marriage, I wonder?
This
newsletter began with articles about the marriage regulations that came into
force last year, so it’s perhaps appropriate to speculate what names would have
appeared in the marriage register had Jennifer Wilson remarried (under the new
regulations) after her second husband died in 2021? Would she have named both
her father and her stepfather – and under what name would her mother have been
recorded (I believe she married for the third time a few years before she died)?
This is where any major updates and corrections will be
highlighted - if you think you've spotted agn error
first reload the newsletter (press Ctrl-F5) then check again before writing to me, in case someone else has
beaten you to it......
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2022 Peter Calver
Please do NOT copy or republish any part of this newsletter without permission - which is only granted in the most exceptional circumstances. However, you MAY link to this newsletter or any article in it without asking for permission - though why not invite other family historians to join LostCousins instead, since standard membership (which includes the newsletter), is FREE?
Many of
the links in this newsletter and elsewhere on the website are affiliate links –
if you make a purchase after clicking a link you may be supporting LostCousins
(though this depends on your choice of browser, the settings in your browser,
and any browser extensions that are installed). Thanks for your support!