Forest of Dean Story

[pusskin]

Hi,
I've been doing some simple stuff as my son's class were asked to try and make a family tree for their homework a week or two back.  My dad was able to give me some stuff as a cousin of his had done a tree. I don't have access to that at the mo but dad told me a story and I wondered if any of you guys could confirm or disprove it.

Supposedly finding the family before they moved into Cheltenham proved impossible because in the Dean births and Marriages weren't necessarily registered until the Bishop came round (once every 10 years or so) when there was a mass ratification of BMDs since the last time.

Is this really true Thomas would have been born in 1866 if he didn't lie about his age in the 1911 census.


Thanks in advance

Puss

[StintonLomas]

Hi
What is Thomas's surname and where did he say he was born in the 1911?
Sometimes some else can find an entry with a fresh eye.
Could they have lived close enough to the border that the registration district is in Wales ie Monmouth?
This might have led you to discard it when checking the BMDs

[pusskin]

Hi
The furthest back I've gone is to Thomas Cornelius Ward and his wife Ellen. Thomas is given as born Glos Cheltenham and Ellen as Kinsham Wors. Marriage time is given as 18 years.

I don't know if dad's cousin Ron had got further before he lost the Wards. It was as much that I was curious about the truth or otherwise of the bishop story, it seems a little odd that the folk would wait for the Bishop rather than do things then and there with the local priest.

Puss

[Galium]

The time of baptism should not have affected when a birth was registered - which is supposed to be done within 42 days of the birth.

FreeBMD:
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

shows a Thomas Cornelius Ward birth registered in Cheltenham district in December quarter of 1865.

The 1871 census shows a likely Ward family living at 38 Queen Street in  Cheltenham:

Cornelius Ward   head M 40 Labourer
Sarah Ward          wife M 39
Elizabeth Ward    daur    12
William Ward        son     11
Sarah A Ward        daur    9
Mary Ward             daur    7
Thomas Ward son  5
Ellen Ward               daur  1

(census ref Class: RG10/ Piece: 2668/ Folio: 24/ Page: 8 )

The whole family are recorded as born in Cheltenham,  but Cornelius Ward, living with his widowed mother in 1851, has his birthplace down as Forest of Dean (he is the only Cornelius Ward born in Gloucestershire showing in 1851):

51, Stanhope Street, Cheltenham

Sophia Ward head W  60 supported by the parish      Wiltshire, Malmesbury
Cornelius Ward son U 21 Agricultural lab.               Gloucs, Forest of   Dean
Priscilla Ward     daur U 18                                         Gloucs, Cheltenham
Caroline Stacey  Gdaur U17                                        Gloucs, Cheltenham

(census ref Class: HO107/ Piece: 1973/ Folio: 502/ Page: 24)

The International Genealogical Index (IGI) on

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

shows a baptism of Cornelius Ward son of William and Sophia at Blakeney in 1828.   If it is the same Cornelius he must have been about seven or eight years old  - which does lend support to the story about waiting for the bishop.
However this is the only child of William and Sophia Ward baptised at Blakeney showing on the IGI.

If they were waiting for the bishop you would expect a bunch of them on the same day, but in fact  Cornelius appears to have been the only child baptised in Blakeney on the 25th of May 1828.   (Although we have to be wary, as the IGI is not a complete record).

Some people were just a bit slow to get round to baptising their children.

[GRACELAND]

pm

[pusskin]

Thanks Gallium,

That could well be him. My Thomas married an Ellen and named one of his kids Ellen another Thomas and one William (thats my Granda) It seems that young Ellen was known as Nellie and that would make sense if she shared her name with an aunt as well as her mum.

I have a vague sense that it hasn't always been a legal requirement to register births. Can't call a date to mind though.

If I'm going to make a real try at this I will have to shake the family grapevines and see who knows what and what happened to the trees that were being worked on by my Parents and gparents generations. As I know one of my dads cousins did quite a bit of work, and on my Mums side she remembers a tree being done when she was a teenager. That one followed the name (Catt)back from her parents generation and forward from it first occuring in records (Norman conquest) though she believes there was stilla century or three missing when the guy doing it died.

Puss

[GRACELAND]

Have you came across any Slatter's Or Horton's in your tree ??

Cornelius Ward Abt. 1831 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Sarah Ann Reeves Abt. 1836 Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England


Sarah Ann Re Weds In 1901 to William Slatter

ok thanks ////////////////////////////////