Here
is another example of how family historians can be confused by different
surname spellings and references to places. As the OPC for Plympton St. Mary parish in
Southwest Devon, I get lots of queries about birth, marriage and death records
for that area. Unfortunately Plympton St. Mary is also the name of the Registration
District
for civil registration of births, marriage and deaths after 1837. The two are
often confused with each other.
I
recently received the following request for information from a lady in
Australia: “Would you have any information on the birth of William Sherrell
born about 1820, also who were his parents. William is my 2nd great
grandfather. I believe his son, James Cawse Sherrell, born and died in 1850 is
buried at St. Mary. Any information on this family would be very helpful.”
There
were a number of facts here that should have allowed us to find the family:
their names, of course; the birth dates of the father and son; and the possible
birth and burial place of the son. But nothing showed up in my inspection of the
birth or burial registers of either Plympton St. Mary or Plympton St. Maurice
parishes, for which I have copies of all of the registers.
I
asked the researcher about the references she had used to identify the people
concerned and got some additional information back: “James Cawse Sherrell was
born and died in 1850 at Plympton St Mary, Devon. Ref: England and Wales birth
and death records. I thought there might be records relating to his
grandparents, James and Honour Sherrell.
The other family connection are the Cawse family. William Sherrell
married Jane Cawse in 1845 at Plymstock, Devon. I have been trying to find any
records for John and Jane Cawse who were the parents of Jane who married
William Sherrell.”
Now
I had some more names and areas that might help in the search: the “England and
Wales” records, presumably the civil registration of births and deaths; an 1845
marriage in Plymstock parish; possible parents’ names for both William Sherrell
and his wife, Jane; and the maiden name of Jane. I did not know, at this point,
whether the family historian had actually seen any birth, death or marriage
entries, from either the General Record Office or parish registers, but I had a
suspicion that, for the 1850 birth and death, at least, she was looking at
Plympton St. Mary Registration District, not Plympton St. Mary parish. The
registration district contains records from 24 individual Devon parishes,
including Plympton St. Mary, Plympton St. Maurice and Plymstock.
I
did a quick search on FindMyPast for William or
Jane Sherrell, using the years provided and came up with possible baptisms for
William in Egg Buckland parish and Jane in Plympton St. Maurice parish. An 1845
marriage entry was found for William Sherrell, a wheelwright, and Jane Cawse,
in Plymstock, that gave the couple’s ages and names of their fathers. The
groom’s father was James Sherrell, labourer, and the bride’s father was John
Cawse, shoemaker.
I
also found an 1851 census record for the family of William and Jane Sherwill,
living in Plymstock parish. The surname seemed too similar to Sherrell to be
anyone but the right people, especially when additional data showed: their ages
fit with the other records; he was a wheelwright; he was born in Egg Buckland;
and she was born in Plympton. There were two children listed, Sarah, age four
and born “at sea” and William, two months of age and born in Plymstock. From
there I went back to the baptism register of Plympton St. Maurice and found
Jane’s baptism in 1823, along with three siblings. The father was shown as a
cordwainer which seemed to confirm this was the right person.
The
main differences between what the Australian descendant had, and what I found
in the parish records, were the names of the parents: James and Elizabeth
Sherell, rather than James and Honour; and John and Elizabeth Cawse, rather
than John and Jane Cawse.
A
further search on Ancestry yielded an 1853
passenger list to New South Wales, Australia for the same family. The family
researcher confirmed this was her family and the entry was one of the records
that started her on her journey through Devon sources.
At
this point we believe we are the right track with these two families and the
search has expanded to include the Devon parishes of Broadhempston, Egg
Buckland. St, Budeaux and Stoke Damerel, as well. Unfortunately not all of them
have Online Parish
Clerks like me, so assistance will be sought from the Plymouth and West Devon
Record Office and the Devon Family
History Society, among others places.
The
important things to note in this example, which allowed us to identify members
of the families of William Sherrell and Jane Cawse were the similar sounding
surname on the 1851 England census and the fact that the reference Plympton St.
Mary was for the registration district, not the parish. Both are very common
mistakes encountered in the search for ancestors.
Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish
Clerk program, handling four parishes in Devon,
England. He serves as the Editor of Chinook,
the quarterly journal of the Alberta
Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical
consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.
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