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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Dorset => Topic started by: PashP7 on Sunday 17 August 08 22:54 BST (UK)
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My PARSONS forebears came from Hinton Martell and although I have a fairly complete family tree, thanks to accurate Parish Registers, I cannot find two members of my grandfather's family after they appear on the 1871 census. They are JOHN (born 1851) and ELIZABETH (born 1855).
They do not seem to appear in any official document after that time. Can anyone help with any suggestions as to their possible fates?
Iain (PashP7)
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Hi,
Have you discounted this:
Marriages:
Elizabeth Jane Parsons Dec 1880 Poole 5a 599 (Found on FreeBMD)
Hinton Martell is in the Poole registration area.
Nanny Jan
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Thank you, Nanny Jan, for your reply. Unfortunately, my girl was not called Elizabeth Jane, merely Elizabeth.
PashP7
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She may have had a middle name !!
How are you sure she didn't ??
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Hi,
Have you investigated emigration? I have a brother and sister in one family who emigrated together.
Nanny Jan
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The 1880 marriage of Elizabeth Jane Parsons from the 1881 census in Parkstone appears to have been to James Brushette. That Elizabeth was aged 27 in 1881 and born Cerne Abbas. She is consistent throughout the following censuses about her birthplace though her age doesn't quite keep up with the years, possibly because her husband is younger.
On the 1871 census the Parson family is in Wimborne registration district. No obvious death registrations in the following decade or marriages. Nothing is showing for a John and Elizabeth (in any surname for Elizabeth) with a birthplace in Hinton Martell (or just Hinton), or on following censuses with similar ages and a birthplace in the surname Parsons but with just a birthplace of Dorset.
That leaves various possibilities the most common being the army and or emigration for John or a death registration between 1871 and 1881 but somewhere away from his last known residency - the search is obviously not helped by the family's subsequent move to Chorley Lancashire post 1873. Ditto Elizabeth but that could also involve a marriage and a death registration in another surname. Either of them could just be very difficult to find on one census but you wouldn't expect from all three. The difficulty in proving any of these is the commoness of the surname Parsons and the first names John and Elizabeth.
It is always possible that Elizabeth could have chosen to give herself an additional middle name in later life, but that wouldn't directly solve the puzzle of her absences from subsequent censuses unless she used that name as a first name.
She certainly wasn't baptised with, or had her birth registered with a second name.
Regards
Valda
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Emigration could be a possibility. John's aunt, Rhoda Green (nee Jenkins) went to New Zealand with her family in 1876 and a man with the same name as her husband is on the Passport Application register in April of that year. There is also a John Parsons who applied for a passport in March 1876, but how can one prove that it's 'my' John? Would people need a passport to go to a location within the Empire?
I suppose that to check a possible marriage for Elizabeth, I could obtain a marriage certificate to see whether the father's name tallied. It's so infuriating that the other nine children more or less fell into my lap!
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New Zealand death certificates give the name of a person's parents, making them much more useful than their English equivalents. Have you traced Rhoda Green in New Zealand - another very common surname though.
Before the First World War it was not compulsory for anyone travelling anywhere abroad to apply for passport and probably far less likely that ordinary people who were emigrating and planning only the one trip of a life time would do so.
If someone joined the army and died in service, other than a possible burial entry there were no death indexes for soldiers (GRO indexes) until the Boer War, though you can trace them through army records at The National Archives (between 1855 and 1883 you would need to know their regiment though to trace them easily).
The problem with Elizabeth is even with a possible marriage she is not showing on later censuses in any other surname.
Regards
Valda
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Thanks, Valda! My third cousin in New Zealand has done a very thorough job on the GREEN family , both before and after their migration from Dorset/Wiltshire to the Antipodes.
I agree that the commonness of the names doesn't making tracing easy. I was clutching at straws!
Iain
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If Rhoda has been researched it might be worth looking to see if there are any useful instances of Parsons in the same vicinity. People who emigrated often encouraged other members of their family to join them, as they provided a starting point for others to go to, to help them establish themselves in their new country.
Regards
Valda