ESSEX-UK-L Archives

Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 2011-02 > 1296600911


From: "Betts, Paul" <>
Subject: [Ess] HELP! Charles Betts (Harvey?), born Finchingfield, ~1837
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2011 17:55:11 -0500


Hello all,



I am reposting a message that I sent back in 2008. I am still looking for my g-g-g-grandather Charles Betts and hoping someone has access to Finchingfield parish records and can find a birth record for him. The previous posting is as follows:

I have a question that I hope you might be able to answer, or at least comment upon. In tracing my Betts line back from a Barnardo's child (Charles George Alfred Betts - sent to Canada in 1881), I discovered the family of his father (also Charles) was from Finchingfield, Essex. His grandfather, Joseph, is listed in the Finchingfield parish registers as having been the "base-born child of William Betts, miller of this parish, and Sarah Harvey". In the transcription of the register that I saw (which only showed Betts names) it appeared that Joseph was listed as a Betts. He was one of three boys born to William and Sarah (who would later marry before having their third son). In the 1941 and 1851 censuses, Joseph is listed as a Betts, as are all his children, Susan, George, Charles, Sarah and William, and his wife (in 1841) Mary. Based on census data, possibly Charles (born about 1837), and certainly Sarah (born about 1839) and William should have appeared in the BMD birth index!
. In addition, since Joseph is listed as a widower in the 1851 census and since the youngest, William, is no longer with the family, the deaths of Mary and, presumably William should also have been listed, however the only registered event I can find is the birth of William to Joseph and Mary (nee Dare) in 1840. I cannot find Sarah's birth nor the deaths of Mary and William. I know because I ordered all of the Mary Betts and William Betts deaths registered in Braintree between 1841 and 1851 and none were appropriate as to age or other particulars.

There also seem to be no parish events listed for the births of Susan, George and Charles nor of the marriage of Joseph to Mary, though all (except Mary, as the 1841 census only listed whether the person was born in the same county) were claimed in later censuses to have been born in Finchingfield. There are a couple of possibilities. One is that Mary was from another parish outside Finchingfield. It is possible that they were married and lived some time in a different parish outside Finchingfield ao that the earlier children's birth culd not be found in Finchingfield even though later censuses claimed that they were. Along with this Mary and William's deaths must ave occured outside the Braintree registration district.

There is another possibility that has been suggested... that because Joseph was born some number of years before his parents married, he may have gone by his mother's surname... he may, in fact, have be known by both names Betts and Harvey? Perhaps in the church registers the marriage was listed as between Joseph Harvey and Mary Dare... and perhaps the children were also listed this. What do you think? Is it possible that in some records Joseph and his family could have been called Harvey, while in others he was known as Betts? Have any of you encountered anything like this?





This thread: