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finding the real father?

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  • finding the real father?

    My g.g.grandfather was born in July 1836, and baptised in Exbourne, Devon as Joseph Brook, base child of Agnes Brook. No mention of a father's name. This information was given to me by the very helpful OPC for the area.
    In June 1837 Agnes Brook married Lawrence Sanders (just before civil registration began). In 1841 Joseph is listed as 'Joseph Brook Sanders' and this is how he continues through his life. Agnes and Lawrence had 12 more children, with most of them being given Brook as a middle name. From census info I have found that lawrence was a miller, aged around 14 years older than Agnes.
    Is there anyway I can find out if Lawrence was actually Joseph's father? I know very little about him, just a birth of 1802/3 and POB of Pyworthy or Bridgerule, depending which census I take it from.
    Any ideas how I could be sure? Or would you assume from the baptism and gap before marriage that he wasn't the father?
    Thanks in advance
    Darannon

  • #2
    I would personally assume he WASN'T the father, for a number of reasons.

    Millers were usually fairly important fish in the little pond and if it had been generally known he was the father I think his name would have been pencilled in the margin of the PR, because it might have been important to know in later years, should he have died intestate etc.

    I also think the eleven month gap between birth and marriage says he wasn't the father. If he was, why didn't he marry the mother, either just before or just after the birth, why wait 11 months, doesn't make sense for those days.

    The age gap between the miller and his new wife is 14 years and to me that says (rightly or wrongly, lol) that here was a man in desperate need of a wife to help in the mill (free labour) and so desperate that he was prepared to overlook her little peccadillo!

    On the other hand I could be completely wrong and the vicar hated the miller and wasn't going to make life easy for him or his by-blows, lol.

    OC

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    • #3
      Do you know how old Agnes was when she married?
      I've come across one or two examples of a marriage where the mother didn't marry the father of her child until she was 21.
      As for the son's name, it wasn't uncommon for stepfather's surname to be tagged on to the end of the child's birth name once the mother married. Sometimes that name "stuck," whilst in other cases the adult child reverted to birth name at marriage. I also have a couple of examples of a man rather unsportingly alternating between two surnames for several census returns.

      Did the miller leave a will acknowledging the boy was his son? Unless you can find some documentation of parenthood, I would regard it as speculative.

      Jay
      Janet in Yorkshire



      Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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      • #4
        would there be any type of papers by the church trying to find out who should pay for upkeep of a child in 1836?

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        • #5
          Originally posted by kylejustin View Post
          would there be any type of papers by the church trying to find out who should pay for upkeep of a child in 1836?
          Sometimes there are Bastardy Orders and the like following an investigation as to who the father ,some are still around but a lot are not and this would only apply if the woman was seeking parish relief. If the family looked after her and the child no one else would get involved.

          Margaret

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          • #6
            Thanks for looking at this - I have tended to think on the same lines as OC - I have been advised that the miller would have been quite an important figure in the village, and so I doubt that he would have left it nearly a year to marry the mother of his own child.

            The little niggle I have is his age - they married when he was around 34/35 (I haven't actually found his baptism, just going on census and death certificate) and I do wonder if he was married before. This seems quite old to me for the time and place. Maybe Agnes already worked at the mill, and she became his 'bit on the side'. As the Brook family lived in the same village for generations, I'm assuming the families already knew each other.

            The thing with the surnames, this has happened a lot in my Devon families, the mother's name being used as a middle name.

            And regarding Lawrence's will, yes he did leave one, and everything was left to his widow agnes. She then married a farmer from up the road, and one of her sons took over the mill.

            I did enquire about bastardy bonds with the devon FHS, nothing had survived from that area and time.

            On balance, I think I will still try to look into Lawrence Sanders, even if he probably isn't the father of Joseph. As he still brought him up, and fathered his 12 siblings, so it would be good to 'flesh him out'.

            Thanks to everyone
            Darannon

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            • #7
              Although 35 was probably quite old to marry, it wasn't that unusual if the man had means to pay a housekeeper (which a miller would) or maybe his mother looked after him.

              Although not really the same thing, I have a number of ag labs who didn't marry until they were in their 30s. I assume they couldn't afford to marry.

              I would certainly investigate the miller - as you say, he brought your ancestor up, gave him a home and a name, so was as good as a father could have been.

              OC

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              • #8
                Never mind . . . wrong thread!

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