Zebulum Ayres

[pastimperfect]

There was a very strong Baptist following in Bottisham and Lode in the late 1800's and it appears to have been common practice to name children with Old Testament Hebrew first names. Only a few IGI records include the independant churches at that time.

The Cambridgeshire FH Society are currently transcribing the independant church records for that county (May 2009 confirmation email).

Free BMD search (births, marriages & deaths) for any male with first name starting with "Zeb" between 1837-1924 in Cambridgeshire produced the following hits:

Deaths:
Jun 1848   
Fulcher    Zebulom         Wisbeach    14   136

Jun 1861   
Barrett    Zeblon         Linton    3b   320

Jun 1915 
Benham    Zebulun T    68    Cambridge    3b   586

Marriages:
Sep 1906   
Smith    Zebulan         Peterbro'    3b   487


Free BMD search for marriages between female AYRES and males whose first names begin with "Zeb" - NO HITS

I suspect that your Zebulum is still waiting to be found in the independant records but only if the birth registration fee was paid!

Ally

[Redroger]

Ally, According to my mother who was born Emily Hannah Ayres, Zebulon (lum) was a brother of her father's. He did not make it into any of the censuses, like her Aunt Ruth, who was b 1869, and died before the 1881 census. The family kept producing for over 20 years, the youngest known to me was James who was b1889, 21 years after his older brother my grandfather Samuel. Like you I suspect that Zeb. was registered in the Baptist records, but what's this you say about a  registration fee to be paid?

[bedfordshire boy]

Civil registration was compulsory from 1874, with fines for failure to register births. So irrespective of whether or not the family was non-conformist, if Zebulum was born after 1873 his birth should have been registered. They appear to have registered the births of all the children who appear in censuses, so it would be inconsistent if they failed to register Zebulum. Unless of course he's been horribly mistranscribed, but that would mean his death was also mistranscribed. Both Zeb* and Ayres. Unlikely

David

[Redroger]

I have gaps in the births from 1870-1873,then 1875-1879,1881,1883-4 and 1887-1888. I know of a total of 9 children including Zeb. i.e. Samuel,Ruth,Eli, Asher, Aaron, Absolum, Elizabeth and James.The mother Emily, nee Cornwell was b1850, and was therefore 39 when the youngest known James was born in 1889, so Zebulon could have been born as late as 1895 without being too improbable. I have been told they had 12 children, but the detail is a little vague. The family already spanned 2 generations and Elizabeth was more like a big sister to my mother than an Aunt, as the gap between the two families was so short.

[Redroger]

To try to establish how many children in this family had died I tried to find James Ayres (b1844) and Emily nee Cornwell (b1850) in the 1911 census. Found neither of them, so presume they had died unless someone can tell me differently.

[Redroger]

Must be slowing up, Gaie, hadn't replied to your posting, I apologise. You found them in 1911 and I couldn't, was there anything odd about the entry? My mother was quite definite that Zeb. was her father's brother. He had only two sisters, Ruth who died before she was 12, and Elizabeth (b1887) who married John Benstead. Nice idea though!

[Gaie]

Hi 

The odd thing was that they are listed as AYERS!

I've just spent the last ten minutes thinking I'd given you the wrong information - I couldn't re-find them.  In desperation I tried James (no surname) b1844 with Emily (no surname) in Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, and there they are....   I must have mistyped Ayres (added: into the 1911 search page) when I first looked on Sunday without realising.

Kind regards
Gaie

[pastimperfect]

Re Registration of births.

I was aware that registration was compulsory but I refer you to a response I had from a fellow Ayres researcher by email earlier this year regarding failure to find an Brignell birth registration. His theory was that the father, Charles Brignell, had gone to register his daughter, Melinda Brignell's birth then ,

"  The story was that the registrar at Cambridge was an alcoholic, he pocketted the fee, told the person that they had made the registration and invited them to
leave."

Melinda Brignell  (1872-1953) married Samuel Ayres (1868- 1935)
If this is true and the registrar was conning parents that they had to pay a fee to register it makes you wonder if the same thing happened to others that might be missing off the registers during his employ.

I have also come across Ayres as Ayen and Ayriss in the census and parish records.

[bedfordshire boy]

But as Zebulum's death is also missing, and as the death cert would have been needed by the vicar before burying him, I don't think it can be explained away by the registrar pocketing the fee and doing nothing! Even if the registrar had conned a fee out of whoever was registering the birth/death, there's no reason he shouldn't have entered it in the records which was free of charge anyway

David