Sometimes it is hard to trust what is actually carved in stone!

It does not happen often but sometimes what is shown on gravestones does not exactly conform to what was recorded in the parish registers. Consider these examples from Cornwood parish in Devon, England.

The gravestone for little John Harvey Vivian states he died on July 1st, 1876, aged 7 weeks. That would put his birth date in mid-May. 

Photo by Terry Leaman, 2012

But the parish register says a John Harvey Vivian was baptized on July 23rd.



 

And the burial register says a John Harvey Vivian was buried on August 27th with the child only seven weeks old.

 

I think someone got some dates wrong and that he was actually born on July 1st, just over seven weeks prior to the August burial. In this case I am sure the headstone is wrong although some descendants don’t entirely agree.

And in this example we see another discrepancy between what is in the parish register and what it on the gravestone, a difference of a year. And for another Vivian coincidentally!

 

Photo by Bryan Truscott, 2013

The headstone inscription reads:

In

Memory of

HENRY HARVEY

Son of

JOHN & AGNES VIVIAN

Born 24th November 1825

Died 22nd January 1832

The Great Jehovah full of love

his messenger did send

to call this little child above

to joys that never end

 

While the headstone says Henry Harvey Vivian died on January 22nd, 1832, the register says he was buried on January 25th, 1833. There were no burials recorded in the Cornwood register between September 2nd, 1831 and February 3rd, 1832. But there are several entries on either side of the 1833 entry that demonstrate the time period.

Which one is right?

 

Again, a look at the baptism records revealed that Henry Harvey Vivian was baptized on December 18th, 1825. He would have been just a month over six years old if he was buried in 1832. So the 1833 date must be correct!

While there is always a possibility that entries in parish registers can be wrong, my first inclination would be to accept the written record as being the most accurate. The information can be crosschecked with supporting entries as to birth, such as we see for both John Henry Vivian and Henry Harvey Vivian, or other entries made before and after the one in question that support the date, such as in the case of Henry Harvey Vivian.

All images reproduced here were downloaded from FindMyPast and are used with the kind permission of the Plymouth and West DevonRecord Office, the copyright-holder.

Communication, Collaboration and Serendipity

Sometimes a conversation with one person about one subject will lead to the discovery of a whole new source of information about a totally different subject. That happened to me recently.

When I was looking at starting this blog, I consulted James Tanner, author of Genealogy’s Star, one of the foremost genealogy blogs. He let me know that he was going to be giving a live webinar on blogging for the MesaFamilySearch Library and that I might get some ideas by tuning in.

Following up on his message, I went on to the Mesa FamilySearch Centre webinar site to find out more about the presentations and had many more planned or already available to view from passed presentations. In their list of webcasts, I found two given by Steve Packer earlier this year on German Ancestors. Since I have a 2^nd great-grandfather who was born in Germany, and about whom we have found very little, I decided to spend some time watching both webcasts. Steve is a great speaker, by the way, and very knowledgeable about German research.

Anyway, in the course of his presentation he gave several examples of how and where to search for information, particularly on the FamilySearch website. I confess that, even though I have used the site often over the years, his particular tricks, and information about the updated library, led me to very valuable data I might not have seen. I followed his directions and was able to find several entries in German birth and marriage records for a friend’s family that I have been researching for several months. Not everything is there, of course, but enough to confirm some names and dates we had, and give me a few more names and dates, which I will now be able to pass along to my friend. It will also allow me to contact the pertinent archives office in Germany to request specific information and extend the research even further.

As a result of watching the videos, I now have many more ideas for searching for my own ancestor, who arrived in the US from Germany in the early 1800s. Hopefully I’ll have some equally-good fortune in finding information about him as I did for my friend’s ancestors.

It is funny how one unrelated question posed to one person leads to interesting and valuable information from a previously unknown source!

The lessons: don’t stop looking for alternate resources; go back to FamilySearch from time-to-time and see what’s new or what advice they may have added; read lots about what other genealogists are doing, such as in other blogs; and don’t be afraid to contact any of those genealogists.

Valuable Parish Register Notes

It is not uncommon to find a reference to people who came to the parishes from elsewhere or some seemingly minor piece of information recorded in a register. In such cases the note may direct a researcher to another region, another source of information or another line of investigation.

It is always a treat to read specific notes in the parish registers that tell us more about the individuals, as is the case in these 1625 entries.

These Plympton St. Mary parish burial entries include notes about: Richard Pearse “a skoller of oxford” buried on September 25th; Richard Whyte from “Ashebournth Derbi Shire a soldier” buried on October 20th; John Leigete “a soldier dyed at Chadlewood Said from Cromford in Deby Shire”; Nicholas Maye who was “a servant with Nicholas Avente” buried on October 31st.

The father of Joseph Baker, born in 1818, was a hairdresser; so he might be listed in a business directory. He was also deceased by the time Joseph Jr. was baptized.

1818 May 3 – Plympton St. Mary baptism – Joseph Baker

 

The death date of the father can be narrowed down in this case since the couple had a daughter, Mary Ann, baptized in Plympton St. Mary in 1816. There is a burial entry in Plympton St. Maurice parish for Joseph Baker, of Underwood, aged 36, that is most likely the father. One might look for additional information that would indicate whether Ann Baker remarried. In that event, the children’s names could have been changed as well.

 

1820 October 15 – Plympton St. Mary baptism – Elizabeth James, whose “Father has commonly gone by the name of Sanders.”

Since Elizabeth James’ father used an alias she might be found later with either surname.

It is always a good idea to inspect the original registers to see if information other than just name and date are available. For many areas in England now, OPCs can help with these inspections.

All images reproduced here were downloaded from FindMyPast or copied from my microfiche and are used with the kind permission of the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, the copyright-holder.