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Can anyone help me find information about the birth of my paternal Gt-grandmother Susanna VINCENT.

She married my Gt-Grandfather (Samuel CROWDER) on 25 August 1875 at the parish church in Thursford, Norfolk. On the marriage certificate her age is given as 27; her father's name is given as John VINCENT. a labourer.

She died in Peterborough on 1 March 1926 at the age of 78 although the death certificate gives her forename as Susannah.

I have been unable to discover Susanna's date of birth but using the age given at the time of her marriage and her death I would expect that she would have been born in 1848 or possibly 1847.

In the GRO index for Q4 1841 I found a marriage of a John VINCENT registered in Thetford, Norfolk to a Sarah HILLING or possibly A Sarah SEXTERN.

I have not yet discovered a record for the family in the 1851 census but in the 1861 census for Thursford, Norfolk I found John VINCENT (aged 37 - born Houghton, Norfolk) living with his wife Sarah (aged 36 - born Thursford), Susannah their daughter (aged 14 - born Thursford) and James their son (aged 11 - born Thursford).

In the 1871 census for Thursford, Norfolk I found John VINCENT (aged 49) living with his wife Sarah (aged 46) and James, their unmarried son (aged 22), I could find no record of Susanna(h).

I would appreciate if anyone can help me find a record of Susanna/Susannah's birth and where the family were living at the time of the 1851 census.

Given that she was supposedly born in Thursford I might expect her to have been baptised in Thursford parish church, so a search of the parish records might be productive. She could of course have been born or baptised elsewhere in Norfolk.

I do not think there were other children from the marriage of John and Sarah but if any are found I would appreciate their names and details.

John

1851

Name: John Vincent
Age: 26
Estimated birth year: abt 1825
Gender: Male
Where born: Houghton, Norfolk, England
Civil Parish: Thursford
Phillimore Ecclesiastical Parish Maps:
View related Ecclesiastical Parish
County/Island: Norfolk
Country: England
Street address:

Occupation: Ag. Labourer

Registration district: Walsingham
Sub-registration district: Fakenham
ED, institution, or vessel: 11
Neighbors: View others on page
Household schedule number: 48
Piece: 1826
Folio: 422
Page Number: 11
Household Members:
Name Age
Ann Moy 70
Sarah Moy 26
Susan Moy 5 - born: Thursford, Norfolk (1846)
James Moy 2
John Vincent 26

...................so Susannah and James were born before the couple married.

Name: Susanna Moy
Registration Year: 1846
Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec
Registration district: Walsingham
Inferred County: Norfolk
Volume: 13
Page: 322

.............and Susanna's birth was registered as Moy.

..............as is James:-

Births Sep 1850 (>99%)
Moy James Walsingham 13 331

Found these two baptisms not sure if same person though

Susanna bastard daughter of Sarah Moy (Spinister) 17 Jan 1847 Thursford
Vincent James son of Sarah Ann Moy (Spinister) 4 Dec 1848 Thursford
Vincent James illegitimate son of Sarah Moy (Spinister) 17 Jun 1849 Thursford

I have looked at Thursford Bap 1840-1860 and the above appear to be those that might be associated to Sarah/Sarah Ann Moy and John Vincent

Details of Marriage

Date 20 Oct 1955
Groom John Vincent, full age, Bachelor, Labourer
Groom's Father John Vincent, Labourer
Bride Sarah Moy, full age, Spinster
Bride's Father Francis Moy, Tailor
Both living Thursford
Witnesses Henry Moy & Thomas Gant (looks like)

Also married was William Moy ( father Francis, Tailor) to Harriet Daglas

Possible Bap of Mother, Sarah?

Sarah Ann daughter of Francis (Labourer) & Ann Moy 2 Sep 1827 Thursford

Possible Bap for Father, John?

John son of John (Labourer) & Susan Vinson 13 Jul 1823 Houghton in the Hole (Houghton)

Other Baptisms show couple as John & Susanna Vinson

Worth a look on below also...

http://www.freereg.org.uk/cgi/Search.pl

Chris :)

Norfolk parish registers are online at
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1®ion=UNITED_KINGDOM_IRELAND
However, they;re not fully indexed there, so you have to "Browse the images".

Freereg gives:
County Norfolk
Place Thursford
Church St Andrew
RegisterNumber 398
DateOfBirth
BaptismDate 17 Jan 1847
Forename Susanna
Sex F
FatherForename
MotherForename Sarah
FatherSurname
MotherSurname MOY
Abode Thursford
FatherOccupation Spinster
Notes Bastard Daughter. Private Baptism. Officiating Minister: J. Marks
FileNumber 29338

and
County Norfolk
Place Thursford
Church St Andrew
RegisterNumber 33
MarriageDate 20 Oct 1855
GroomForename John
GroomSurname VINCENT
GroomAge
GroomParish
GroomCondition Bachelor
GroomOccupation Labourer
GroomAbode Thursford
BrideForename Sarah
BrideSurname MOY
BrideAge
BrideParish
BrideCondition Spinster
BrideOccupation
BrideAbode Thursford
GroomFatherForename John
GroomFatherSurname VINCENT
GroomFatherOccupation Labourer
BrideFatherForename Francis
BrideFatherSurname MOY
BrideFatherOccupation Tailor
WitnessOneForename Henry
WitnessOneSurname MOY
WitnessTwoForename Thomas
WitnessTwoSurname GANT
Notes By Banns. Officiating Minister: Jonathan Carver (Curate) All Made Their X.
FileNumber 29334

These give the entry # as 398 and 33 (although they rename it register #).
Kowing baptisms are 16 per image and marrs are 2 per image in these registers, it's fairly easy to find the entries as:

http://tinyurl.com/q5l3jj4
and
http://tinyurl.com/nne6cc7

Welcome to the Community boards John.




(I'll let John know how to find his replies) :-)

Many thanks to you all for the information provided.

I'm not surprised that I could not find Susanna VINCENT's birth. It now looks like I have another family name to research and that MOY seems to be a common name in Norfolk.

I guess that Susanna and James changed their surname from MOY to VINCENT when their mother and father married although it appears that this change was not registered with the GRO.

It also seems that James was baptised as Vincent James MOY (which corresponds the birth record in the GRO index) but that the Vincent forename was subsequently dropped, presumably after the marriage of his parents.

Looking through the GRO index it appears that a James VINCENT married a Mary Ann DIX in Q1 1874 although I have yet to confirm that this is the same James Vincent as that in my family. (Londonbelle do you have access to the marriage record in Thursford parish - I would be particularly interested in the name of the brides father since DIX is a name that occurs elsewhere in my family tree).

I've still not been able to locate Susanna in the 1871 census under her VINCENT surname so perhaps she was still using MOY. I would be interested to know where she was living, what name she was living under and what she was doing at that time. Certainly when she married in 1873 her surname was given as VINCENT on the marriage certificate.

Regards

John

John - follow the procedure I outlined above. Look up the Moy baptisms on FreeREG and note their Register # - the 2 Vincent John Moys are firstly a private baptism and then a public one (as noted in the margin) Sarah Ann drops her mid name for the 2nd one. Then go to the FS URL I gave, and browse the Norfolk parish records.

Repeat for the Vincent marr - here the witnesses are Susanna Vincent and Frank Moy (maybe a cousin?) - the dads are John Vincent & William Dix.

I'm going to post this 1871 census for Susan Moy/Vincent. The image does state that her age is 34 years but this could be a mistake on the part of the Enumerator (which has been known) ie putting the age as 34 instead of 24 yrs; everything else is right.

Name: Susan Vincent
Age: 34
Estimated birth year: abt 1837
Relation: Servant (Employee)
Gender: Female
Where born: Thursford, Norfolk, England
Civil Parish: Little Walsingham
Town: Little Walsingham
County/Island: Norfolk
Country: England
Registration district: Walsingham
Sub-registration district: Walsingham
ED, institution, or vessel: 5
Household schedule number: 15
Piece: 1852
Folio: 56
Page Number: 4
Household Members:
Name Age
Robert Leeder 74
Elizabeth Leeder 55
Sarah E Parsons 35
George H Parsons 2 Months
Hannah Pratt 33
Susan Vincent 34
Emma Loose 15
Emily Starley 13
John Suldworth 38

As mgnv has said Family Search have a particularly good collection of parish records and bishop transcripts for Norfolk. Family Search is free to view and you can see the actual images and download them.

I get to the collection via DustyDocs which again is a free site

http://www.dustydocs.com/county/26/norfolk.html?country_id=1

You then choose the letter of the Parish that you are interested in in the Norfolk Towns and Parishes ABC; in this case 'T' for Thursford and thin scroll down to Thursford.
To get to the Parish Registers click on the third item Baptism 1692-1900 etc. and it will bring you to the Parish Records available then just click on the one that is of interest.

As mgnv has said you can use FreeReg or FreeBMD if after 1837 to find a date for a Record of interest. Then just choose the Register that you are interested in, as above, and change the image number to get to the year that you are interested in.

If you are looking for a record pre-1837 it is a matter of trawling through the images till you find what you are looking for.

Where there are no parish records pre-1837 or the the Parish isn't listed try the Bishop Transcripts.