Genealogy Chat

hi any advice would be helpful please i have on the 1861 a family living in southampton with two children born in italy two years apart. the parents come from bushey and are labourers, married in bushey 1848, my problem is, i have a birth cert for one of the children born in england(1849), why would the parents say she was born abroad when she was,nt, and why would a ag lab be in italy for a couple of years, how could they afford to get there, as they were in southampton in 1861 i assume that was the port they docked in, i,ve mailed southampton family history soc, but so far no reply, what does anyone think, hope this all makes sense marcie x p.s. southampton have just replied, no records before 1878, ho hum

Hi Marcie Have you found them in a later census and do they still say they are born in Italy? Could it be a transcription error? Heather

hi heather in later census, rosena changes from florence italy to bushey herts, but anatole stays the same italy throughout marcie x

Marcie Not sure about this but could it be something to do with the Crimean War? Don't know if soldiers would take their wives. Heather

crikey heather, don,t know anything about that either, will look on the net, see what i can find many thanks marcie x

Marcie - have found the birth information for Rosena Rowbottom (I presume this is the right person) in the IGI and a marriage for Anatole, as well as for their parents all in Bushey. No birth information for Anatole however. This could confirm that he was not born in this country even though his sister was.

thanks linda it,s just the detail of the birth thats my problem, appreciate your help marcie x

The childrens names are certainly not what you'd expect in England in the 1860's! What is the mothers name, does it sound English? Could the husband have met her overseas, in the war as suggested, and brought her back with him? If he did, were there formal procedures he should have followed and didn't, so he pretended she was English and put her down as being born in Bushey? Also, who was born first? The child in England or the one in Italy? Like you haven't got enought ot think about already!! Sorry! Brenda

Marcie If you are in Bucks - the Herts side of it - and you mean Bushey, Herts, there's an excellent museum which has copies of the parish register pages in it's Local Studies dept (open Thursday afternoons). http://www.busheymuseum.org/localstudies.htm Christine

William, the father is shown as a drover and has other children, born in Southampton but they still obviously had links with Hertfordshire. Where were these Southampton born children christened? I wonder if the parish register entries would say anything about his occupation/ military links?

thanks brenda mother was suan fensom, both from the bushey area, married in bushey, 1848 first child born 1849,(1861 say,s florence italy, there after say,s bushey) second child two years later born italy, this could be a marathon search, why am i so nosey marcie

that's before the crimean war, isn't it? hmmm

hi christine i remember you,ve looked in the musem before for me, i was just thinking about it, when you left a message, many thanks for that, sometimes i get very blinkered and forget the obvious. thank you gwyenth, i think thats the way to go, marcie xx

Hi Marcie, Could it be they adopted the children - perhaps from a foreign relative. It's strange that the names sound so Italian. Do you have either of the childrens' marriage cert to see what father they put down? I must say I'd be chewing this one over every possible moment - fascinating! Anne