Genealogy Forum UK

Jimmy wrote:NL is the one to ask.

If it is that Worcs one and is at Worcs Regis office as Mg says they usually have their own system
So the year and the name and as much info as you can give them
they normally do a search spanning 2 yrs either side of a given year but best to dble check on that with individual regis offices.

The Gro is year/qtr and then vol and page number and names

http://www.bmsgh.org/wmbmd/
this site covers some towns of Worcs and Staffs
but normally on the free bmd site you get the regis district
ie Dudley/West Brom and if that just said Worcs then it must be Worcs regis district

Not at my brightest today;

We have the same family different years

1871 Bredicot Worcestershire

John Harbron 27 Ag Labourer, Feckenham
Emma Harbron 26 Bishampton
William Harbron 4 North Hill
Ann M Harbron 1 Bredicot

1881

John Edmund HARBORNE Head M Male 37 Feckenham, Worcester, England Agricultural Laborer
Emma HARBORNE Wife M Female 36 Bishampton, Worcester, England Gloveress
William Thos. HARBORNE Son U Male 14 Northfield, Worcester, England Scholar
Ann Maria HARBORNE Daur Female 11 Bredicot, Worcester, England Scholar
Sarah Jane HARBORNE Daur Female 8 Bredicot, Worcester, England Scholar
Harriatt Emma HARBORNE Daur Female 6 Bredicot, Worcester, England Scholar
George John HARBORNE Son Male 4 Newtown, Worcester, England Scholar
Francis Leo HARBORNE Son Male 10 m Churchill, Worcester, England


Village
Churchill, Worcester.

Whether they are the right family remains to be seen - the birth certificate would help chrisR as it would give details of parents to either match or not with the above -

I forgot to put that was 1881 from Familysearch.

That helps Jimmy I was working with Ancestry and can't find them on that in 1881:

There are births recorded at the right age for all these children in the name of Harbron

William Thos. HARBORNE Son U Male 14 Northfield, Worcester, England Scholar
Ann Maria HARBORNE Daur Female 11 Bredicot, Worcester, England Scholar
Sarah Jane HARBORNE Daur Female 8 Bredicot, Worcester, England Scholar
Harriatt Emma HARBORNE Daur Female 6 Bredicot, Worcester, England Scholar
George John HARBORNE Son Male 4 Newtown, Worcester, England Scholar
Francis Leo HARBORNE Son Male 10 m Churchill, Worcester, England

Which at least makes the two families fit

Thanks for the efforts guys - for now I don't think we can go any further until I get hold of some certificates. First port of call has to be what is in the box that the mother in law has. I will report back as and when I get some more details.

Chris

The mother in law has had a look in the box and the marriage certificate for William senior isn't in there, so I've ordered it from the GRO website. Hopefully it should be here by the weekend.

We wait expectantly and in eager anticipation

I guess if the family does turn out to be from Bilston then there is a black country connection. I do need to watch what turns up as I have ancestors named Turner from Bilston.

I received the marriage certificate today which had the following details :-

5th October 1890 in the parish church of St Martins Worcester.
William Harbron, 23, Coachman, of St Martins Gate, Worcester, father John Harbron, Labourer.
Elizabeth Preece, 22, of St Martins Gate, Worcester, father Edward Preece, Labourer.

The William with father John ties up with the William Harper with father John found on the 1881 census. William is shown as born in Bilston and his father John as born in Ettingshall. I have checked the scanned original and it does read as Harper not Harbron. The DOB of William also ties up with the marriage certificate, within a year (date of census and date of wedding?)

It appears to be a reasonable assumption that they are one and the same person.

Any ideas why the name change could have happened? I guess it could have been a mis-transcription on the 1881 census, so I will try and find John Harper on an earlier census.

ChrisR wrote:I received the marriage certificate today which had the following details :-

5th October 1890 in the parish church of St Martins Worcester.
William Harbron, 23, Coachman, of St Martins Gate, Worcester, father John Harbron, Labourer.
Elizabeth Preece, 22, of St Martins Gate, Worcester, father Edward Preece, Labourer.

The William with father John ties up with the William Harper with father John found on the 1881 census. William is shown as born in Bilston and his father John as born in Ettingshall. I have checked the scanned original and it does read as Harper not Harbron. The DOB of William also ties up with the marriage certificate, within a year (date of census and date of wedding?)

It appears to be a reasonable assumption that they are one and the same person.

Any ideas why the name change could have happened? I guess it could have been a mis-transcription on the 1881 census, so I will try and find John Harper on an earlier census.

The Bilston 1881 census is as follows:-

John Harper 50
Eliza Harper 44
Mary J. Harper 21
Alice Harper 19
Eliza Harper 16
William Harper 13
Clara E. Harper 10
Ellen Harper 7
John Harper 5

so this is who you think it is

who were the witnesses chris ?

Yes Peter, that is who I think is the family in Bilston (with William as the son)

The witnesses were Henry Dance and Edith Bayliss. Not sure how they fit in with the family, but I guess they could have been good friends?

but he still harper in 1871 ?

John Harper 43
Eliza Harper 36
Martha Harper 16
Harriet Harper 14
Jemina Harper 12
Mary J Harper 10
Alice Harper 8
Eliza Harper 6
William H Harper 3
W R Harper 6 months

I guess the change of surname happened after the 1881 census for some reason, possibly at the same time as the move from Bilston to Worcester, which has happened before 1890 with the marriage.

I've been looking at possible reasons for the change of name and location and I found the death of an Eliza Harper in Apr, May, June 1886 (birth year matches as 1836) in Wolverhampton (which would have been the registration area for Bilston?)

Even with this, I get the nagging suspicion that I am finding results to match the information I am sure of (date and place of birth of William and his fathers name from the marriage certificate).

Bilston is just down the road from home so I could go and visit the church (St Leonard's) but would I find anything which confirmed that this is the right family?

Anyone got any pointers as to what should be the next move?

Cheers

Chris

I guess no-one has any thoughts on the way to progress with this one then