Genealogy Chat

Im trying to find the parents (and any siblings) of Thomas Randall born c1853, Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire. Cant seem to find them. He married a elizabeth wheeler in 1876, Marston. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi, Tracy I've had a look at the 'Hugh Wallis' site to get IGI Batch Numbers. I see that Marston Moretaine has entries to quite a late date. I can see that Batch M003992 gives Thomas Randall, 22, marrying Elizabeth Jane Wheeler, 20, on 17 Mar 1876. This would be verifiable from a Marriage Certificate or the full Parish Register entry. These will also give the fathers' names. However, Batch C003992 gives births from 1813 to 1866. There are 22 people called Randall. Thomas Randall comes up as christened 9 May 1847. Assuming the Thomas Randall who married came from the Parish, it is likely that this is the person you are looking for,in spite of the age discrepancy. This discrepancy could be a mistranscription of the original, an error in the marriage record, or even a lie by the bridegroom. The Thomas Randall of 1847 has father James Randall and mother Mary. Doing a search of Randalls in that batch with the same father and mother, we have 10 more names, making a total of 11 children, or half the 22 for the period: Elizabeth, Mary, William, Sarah, Ann, James, George, (Thomas), Jane, Harriet and Emma. I really think you should get the marriage certificate for the marriage, and then the birth certificate for Thomas, to see if the parents and/or address match up. Best wishes Stan

Tracy, What happened to your thread from a few hours ago where Jan Simpson had already listed all the info. that Stan just did and I found a v. likely birth record? I would hate for people to duplicate all the results from your earlier thread. It would be such a waste. The conclusion from that was that you would need to order certificates to establish parents. Crista

Thank you christa, i agreed the BMD record appeared the most accurate. I was hoping for a 1861/71 census lookup to see if that verified any parents for Thomas Randall in Marston Moretaine. But any assistance from any other resources any one had to offer is always helpful. As these names appear to match others in the family history. Thank you anyway.

Thank you stan, That info is much appreciated. My thomas Randall appears to be married on that date, but there was no entries on IGI matching his d.o.b for Marston Moretaine. That year of birth is verified on the BmD site though. I dont quite understand the Batch no's you quoted but the names do provide a few links. Thanks for your help

Hi, Tracy, The Batch Numbers are those of the LGS copies of Parish Registers, from which they created their computer indexes. You will see these numbers on all of the records in their IGI. What Hugh Wallis did was to reverse index them. If you go into his site and look up the County of Bedford, and then look up Marston Moretaine, you will see some reference numbers under the columns for Baptisms and Marriages. Clicking on one of these, and then putting in a name to the 'Search' box, e.g. 'Randall', will give you everyone called Randall who appears in that batch of Register entries for the Parish. In this particular case, there were 22 Randalls baptised between 1813 and 1866. Doing an advanced search within the batch number, you leave Randall without any Christian name as the main search name, but add the father's name (e.g. James Randall), and the mother's name (Mary) alongside. You will then get everyone with that combination of mother and father (11 people in the middle of the period between 1813 and 1866). Clearly you have sometimes to be careful that the time span from earliest to latest is not too long for a woman's reasonable child-bearing years, but it is a reasonable guide. For earlier registers, where only the father's name is given, it works less well, particularly in areas where it was common to name sons after their fathers. Howebver, in Marston Moretaine I think the record should be quite relaible. I hope this helps. Stan

Tracy, Take a look on the Records Office board. There is a list of people who have various census disks. Crista

THANK YOU BOTH, STAN & CRISTA for all your help. It was indeed very much appreciated. I have been searching for information on this person for so long i was was about to give up. The more advice and information i get the more i can look into them... i only want the certficates as a last resort otherwise it takes the fun away from searching. Thank god theres people like you around to help us.