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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: StripedFeline on Saturday 08 October 16 19:40 BST (UK)
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Hey everyone!
I've been avidly doing my family tree lately to find where my surname originates from (Clarke), but I've come to a bit of a dead end.
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=60496&h=1293073&ssrc=pt&tid=104238029&pid=230038460599&usePUB=true
Name: Margaret Clarke
Gender: Female
Child: James Clarke
CHESHIRE PARISH REGISTER DATABASE
Field Name Field Value
KEYCODE BEBIC02201092.30150
PADVER bebiC1092.3
PARISH_CODE BEBI
TAGGED 0
DATED 8340119
FORENAME JAMES
SEX M
MOTHER_FORENAME MARGARET
SURNAME CLARKE
OCCUPATION SINGLE WOMA
RESIDENCE STOR
ILLEGITIMACY I
http://cgi.csc.liv.ac.uk/~cprdb/
That's all the details I have at the moment. Obviously James Clarke was born an illegitimate child to single mother Margaret Clarke, but I can't seem to trace back from that anymore. If anyone could point me in the right direction, that would be fabulous. I'm mainly just looking for Margaret's DOB and where she was born.
Thanks!
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"STOR" is the CPRD abbreviation for Storeton, a small village near Bebington.
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in case you are not aware
James Clarke 8340119 - this becomes (1)834 - 01 - 19 which reads the year 1834 the month 01 = January and the day 19
so James was baptised 19th jan 1834
have you looked for a Margaret Clarke baptism from 1820 backwards in the Bebington area - many gilrs were working at 14 and could marry at that age then - wasn't that rare for a 14 year old to give birth
Storeton is your clue
Margaret Clarke baptised 15th May 1808 father Charles Clarke abode STORETON
2 having children name Clarke in Storeton at the time
Charles and Peter
it looks more likely that your Margaret is the daughter of Charles but no proof ?? she is on page 54
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UPDATE:
I finally managed to get some more information on James and Margaret Clarke. A few years later she married a Joseph Bennett in Liverpool, though still resided in the Bebington/Bromborough area. Her son James was listed under the last name 'Bennett' hense I couldn't find him the first time round in the earlier censuses.
So now I've got a few more questions. Would James have been Joseph's son, but because he was born to an unmarried mother he could only take her last name officially and not his? How would these things carry out? When he is married he is then in the censuses as a 'Clarke'.
Thank you!
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You can call yourself anything you like as long as there is no intent to defraud.
I've seen baptisms where an illegitimate child does have the father named (sometimes as "reputed father of") but those are only a small % of illegitimate births, and I assume in such a case the relationship between the parents was well established and recognised, even if they weren't married.
Sometimes illegitimate children were given the father's name as a middle name, which can be a clue, but not if there's no sign of a father! eg my gtgtgrannie was baptised Augusta Upton Marshall; a year and a half later her mother, Fanny Marshall, married Augustus Upton and little August becamse Augusta Marshall Upton. I conclude that Augusta was likely to have been Augustin's daughter (DNA has backed this supposition).
Back to your family - James could have been Joseph's genetic son, but you've no evidence of this. I find that step children often were given the new stepfather's surname on the censuses (in fact I'd say the majority that I've seen have done this), only reverting to their original name when they married (if ever).