Monday 21 May 2018

How to trace all the children of your ancestor!

In this post I am going to show some of the methods you can use to trace the
children of your ancestors. This list is by no means conclusive, but it is a start.

There does seem to be a myth about our ancestors. They were all upstanding moral pillars
 of the community. They were married before they started to live together meaning that 
all their children were born at least nine months after the wedding. Of course, there were 
a few strays who had children outside marriage but they are on other peoples' family trees 
not ours. Well, I am sorry to break the news but that is not the case. Our ancestors were
 very similar to us. Some were well and truly wed before the next generation started to
 appear. Others married after the birth of their first or second child. Whilst some preferred
not to marry or were not able to. They also suffered the problems of relationship
 breakdowns and interesting personal lives. The point of all this means that it can be
difficult to trace all the offspring of a particular individual. You need to extend the
 boundaries of your search in order to trace all members of the family.

When starting to search for the children of an ancestor in both parish registers and civil
 records it pays  to be fairly generous with the dates you are researching. Allow for a 
few years before the presumed date of  the parents' marriage. Any children born
 before a couple were officially married may be recorded with either the father's or
the mother's surname. It is worth checking both even if the child used the family
 (father's) surname later. Should the couple come from different towns or villages
 again check both.  There are always the stories of daughters being sent to stay with 
distant relations to await the birth of an illegitimate child.  It may be worth extending 
your search to include the home towns of other relations.

You should also check more local sources for details of bastardy bonds and paternity suits.
 These can appear in local records rather than on the major websites.  Usually the
 presence of such documents means that the child's parents did not go on to get married.

Old Wills can also be helpful. You may find names of people you do not recognise. Or, it may be
you find a relative referred to by a slighter different name to that you are familiar with.


Example One
The son of my 3x great aunt Frances Wills was born before his parents married. The birth was registered in the September quarter of 1848 in Newport on the Isle of Wight. The child's name shows on the civil records as Thomas Person Wills (This is a transcription error his name was Thomas Pearson Wills). No other name is recorded. In 1849 Frances Wills married Thomas Pearson Bissett in Portsea. Frances and her husband Thomas Snr do not appear on the 1851 Census together. Frances is shown in 1851 with the surname Bissett. Thomas jnr is shown as Thomas P Wills.  From 1851 onwards Thomas jnr uses the surname Bissett.

Example Two
My great great grandparents, Robert Emond and Jane Romanes , were married in Selkirk in the
 Scottish Borders on Christmas Day 1846. Their first child, another Robert, having been born
 on 4 September 1844.  He was christened on 21 December 1845. The record of his
 christening describes him as the illegitimate child of Jane Romanes and Robert Emond. His 
brother James was born sometime in 1846. So, Robert and Jane already had two children when 
they married. Scotland's People have indexed  the christening record of 1845 under Emond.

Example Three
In another branch of the family I found a little girl who only lived for nine months. Her parents married a few months after her she was born. Her birth was recorded showing her mother's surname and her death her father's.


Example Four
My 4xgrt grandfather, John Newbolt,  was baptised in  Minstead, Hampshire in 1732. He was buried a short distance away in Lyndhurst in 1809. He was a timber dealer in the New Forest. Fortunately various documents about him are available at Hampshire Records Office. Two of these are bastardy bonds relating to his son James Witherington. James was baptized in Lyndhurst in 1797. John is not recorded as his father in the record of this event. Without the bond I would not have made the connection. A copy of John Newbolt's Will is also available at the records office. In it James is referred to as his natural son. James always used the surname of his mother, Mary Witherington.

Example Five
John's legitimate  daughter, Sarah, is my 3xgrt grandmother. There is no evidence of her baptism in the New Forest or of John's marriage. The reason why is disclosed in another document held in Winchester. It is a settlement certificate for John, his wife Elizabeth, Sarah and younger daughter Elizabeth (born Lyndhurst). It is dated 1772 and is relevant to Lyndhurst. It shows that around 1748 John was apprenticed to a cardboard maker in Frome, Somerset. A search of the records for Frome showed that John married there in 1753. My Sarah was baptised there in 1765. Sadly the records also show that three other children born in Frome did not survive infancy.

Example Six
Back with my Selkirk relations I found a paternitysSuit dated 1845. It related to the son of Euphemia Emond and Benjamin Fearson (or Pherson). James was born on 31st October 1842. He was baptised on 17th November 1844 when his name is given as James Fearson. The paternity suit is dated 1845. After this date James uses the surname Emond. So, this raises the question did Euphemia expect Benjamin to marry her? 

Example Seven
One of my great uncles shared his life with a lady who was already married. The births of this couple's children were all registered using the lady's married name and usually her maiden name. Therefore it is almost impossible to trace the connection to my great uncle. Although! On the 1911 Census he also used her married name so they all appear with the same surname. The name being that of her estranged husband.

Hint😉 You need to have a broad mind when searching for your ancestor's  offspring! Good Luck!

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