Genealogy Chat

Maps and local information are great at helping us to understand situations.

I had the same dilema re. born in one county, Christened in another. We went to visit the area and all became clear. The church was just a stroll away from the family home. It just happened to be down the hill and acoss the county boundary, but it was easy to imagine them walking the short distance for the ceremony.

Gwyn

Thank you for explaining things it appears as though the family did indeed just move to the next village.

Tawny

Hudnall is just next to Little Gaddesden. To get to Great Gaddesden you go along Hudnall Lane then onto the A4146 a total distance by car of 3.1 miles.

From Wikipedia

Little Gaddesden is a village in the English county of Hertfordshire three miles north of Berkhamsted. As well as Little Gaddesden village (population 694), the parish contains the settlements of Ashridge (population 53), Hudnall (population 139), and part of Ringshall (population 81).[1]

Part of the parish was formerly in Buckinghamshire. This includes Witchcraft Bottom, notable as the alleged location where the last witch in Buckinghamshire was tried and hanged. The village of Little Gaddesden borders both Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, whilst being situated in the county of Hertfordshire.

It sounds like she may have moved in with her husbands family for the birth. I don't know how close the area she was born in and the area she was christened in are but I don't think where she was christened is on the county border so she must have moved in with her in laws.

Sarah was born in Hudnall, Buckinghamshire which is where her father was born. The family moved to Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire which is where Sarah was christened. Her mother Marys family was living in Great Gaddesden but her father James had a brother and two nephews living in Little Gaddesden.

Tawny

One possibility is that the mother went to stay with her husband's family for the birth.

If you got the certificate, it would tell you the exact address where she was born.


It was reasonably common for an expectant mom to go back home to her own mother for the delivery, but in odd cases she could have gone to her m-i-l



In fact, it was very common in olden days for a wife to move to live with her in-laws .... and her m-i-l was responsible for teaching her all kinds of things.

As recently as 1952, my brother's wife learnt everything she needed to know about marital life, pregnancy, delivery, and feeding the child from MY mother not her own!




sylvia

Where was she born and where was she christened?

It could be that the vicar was a family friend? (Even vicars have them!)

Thank you for telling me that.

Tawny

Perhaps her birthplace is on a county boundary? My grandma's brothers and sisters were born in a village in Leicestershire but grandma and her immediately elder sister were born just over the border in Lincolnshire, falling into not only another county but another registration district!

I've got a really odd group in my tree - deeply, deeply weird. This man - John - has several children with his wife Sarah (John in 1822, Henry William in c. 1823, Sophia in 1827 and Henrietta in 1825) - the whole bunch of them are born in various places in Essex but all except Henry were christened as a job lot in 1828 in Suffolk! (Where their dad was from.)

He then marries Mary Ann from Northamptonshire and manages to have one child christened in that county, the next one is born in Cambridgeshire (and christened there) but the younger ones were born near York and half were christened in Yorkshire but the rest seem to have been christened in Leicestershire, where Mary Ann's family were living at the time.

I think they were a bit inconsistent sometimes - I've even seen one or two who were christened in Leicestershire (where their parents had been raised) even though it is stated that their address at the time was Sussex or Nottingham or something.

Thank you for giving me possible reasons.

Tawny

Well it could be 'cos Dad's job took him to Hertfordshire. Don't forget that Bucks has a border with Herts so it could be possible that they just moved to the next village.

I took my eldest back to the Church where I was married to have her christened so maybe the Church was her mothers family church or it could be that after the birth she was not too well and moved back to her parents for support during which time they decided to go ahead and christen the baby there

One of my ancestors Sarah was given as being 5mths when the 1841 census was taken and not having been born in county on the 1851 census and all subsequent census records Sarahs county of birth is given as Buckinghamshire.

Sarahs father James was also born in Buckinghamshire but her mother Mary was born in Hertfordshire which is where the family were living when the 1841 census was taken.

Sarah was christened on the 3rd February 1841 in Hertfordshire when she would have been no more than eight weeks old. Why would a family move so quickly to have the child christened in a county in which she was not born?

Tawny