Genealogy Chat

it's odd they would skip a baptism and then carry on with the next child without catching up. That missing baptism might be out there somewhere There was a lot of church building going on at the time. There was a committee handing out grants for new C of E churches, the non-conformists were becoming respectable and attracting middle-class money, and the Catholics were re-establishing themselves. People were suddenly faced with a lot of choices, and they experimented. Also, there was grant money to demolish existing churches for rebuilding, where the population was growing, so even loyal parishioners might be forced to go somewhere else for a time

Hi Lyla, Don't give up. I have a family where I thought there was no space for any other kids, and yet I had a chap I felt sure was theirs too. There were 10 children altogether, they were all baptised in the same church, but he appeared from nowhere, yet according to the census he was born in the same village as all the others. They were the only family there of that name. Then one day I got hold of copies of 3 wills - the fathers, the mothers and one of the sons. There he was! mentioned in all three........son and brother! From the census and his age at burial, which all gave a consistent year of birth, he would have been squeezed in between the 8th and 9th kids, and a quick calculation leads me to believe that there probably only about 11 months between him and his siblings on either side. Well she was pretty fertile! and there was less than two years between most of the others. Could be that he was baptised, but the register that's survived may well be a copy of an older one. The original could have been falling apart or consist of loose leaves etc and if the info was transcribed into a new register, he could have just been left off by mistake. I also have another family who I always believed had 6 kids, but then I found a settlement examination which stated that their were 9 living children - I've never found baptisms for these other 3. As mentioned, non-conformity was gaining popularity, and had been since the late 1700s. I now know that there was an independant chapel nearby, but the records haven't survived......I have people who could be these three, but no proof to date. So don't give up, sounds to me like your gut feeling is probably right.....and one day the proof might turn up when you least expect it......so keep on pluggin'! Best wishes Carole

Hy Lyla Have you seen the Flewers surname Yahoo Group http://groups(.)yahell(.)com/group/Flewers/ why won't GR allow Y a h o o , crazy people ? dave

Thanks for all your words of encouragement. Unfortunately there are no wills to help me out with this one but as you say one day maybe something will turn up. I have been searching for nearly 15 years so what's a few more? I think I will go back to the baptism register to double check that I didn't miss anyone or if Charles was entered with the wrong surname or something. I have already checked all the neighbouring parishes. If Caroline is not Charlie I wondered if they could be twins - they do run in my family. Could there have been complications and he been born in a hospital? There must be other avenues to explore. Dave, yes I know about the Flewers group. Me and some other contacts I made on here set it up last year. Lyla