YOUR QUESTIONS
With our experts Jayne Shrimpton, Chris Paton, David Annal, Simon Wills, Gill Thomas & David Frost
Our experts help to solve some puzzling research predicaments
Was she Wilkins or White?
QThe birth certificate of my grandmother (Ellen Miller, born 3 January 1873, Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire) shows her parents as being William Miller and Sarah Ann Miller formerly WILKINS; however the birth certificate of her sister (Emily born 12 April 1870) shows her parents as being William Miller and Sarah Ann Miller formerly WHITE.
Sarah Ann is the second wife of William MILLER and the parish registers show he married Sarah Ann WHITE at St Sepulchre, Northampton on 3 May 1859. A search of GRO (General Register Office index) for the children of William and Sarah Ann shows the maiden name of Sarah Ann as WHITE for Walter, Annie and Emily; as WILKINS for William, Jane and Ellen. So was she Sarah Ann WHITE or WILKINS?
For all: born Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire; district Wellingborough; christenings at St Mary the Virgin, Higham Ferrers:
• Walter – GRO Oct-dec 1860; cannot find a baptism at Higham Ferrers
• Annie – GRO Apr-jun 1863; baptism 28 Nov 1878 (aged 13)
• William – GRO Jan-mar 1866; baptism 7 Nov 1866
• Jane – GRO Apr-jun 1868; baptism 28 Nov 1878 (aged 8)
• Emily – Born 12 Apr 1870 (have birth certificate); baptism 28 Nov 1878 (aged 7)
• Ellen – Born 3 Jan 1873 (have birth certificate); baptism 28 Nov 1878 (aged 5).
David Parker
AThis is an unusual situation. It is also interesting that on 28 November 1878 there was a mass baptism of Ellen, Emily, Jane, William (who had already been baptised on 7 November 1866 by a different vicar) and Ann (not Annie as in your question). This is unusual but not unknown and such mass baptisms sometimes include children already baptised, as here.
I note the 1871 census, taken the year after Emily’s birth, lists other children not shown above – Frederic (25), John (22), Sarah (20), Mary Ann (17) and Elizabeth (12). As Sarah was 39 it is clear some of these would have been the children of a former marriage; explained by William being described as a widower when he married Sarah.
A possibility is that Sarah was not a spinster when she married in 1859 even though the parish register says she was. Had she previously been married to a man named Wilkins, who had died, and was a widow? Maybe he hadn’t died and the 1859 marriage was bigamous. That’s not unknown. Have you traced Sarah’s family to check this possibility?
Looking for her siblings and parents may reveal some relationship between the two names. Try local newspapers which may have noted the wedding and possibly the births of the children. I’m a great believer in joining relevant family history societies if you’ve not already done so. Their members are a fount of local knowledge and history: www.northants-fhs.org/ for Northants.
Other than that it’s difficult to know what to suggest. DF