Genealogy Chat

I am trying to confirm that my ancestor was born in Essex, England. Is there a way to see how many James Mumford's were born in 1826 in England (he's not on the LDS site -- that's a different one). I have the exact date of his birth, if that helps. Thank you for any suggestions.

The Birth deaths and marrages records start here in 1837. What other information have you got that may help there are church records. Ian stanford

Hi Ian: James was born in Hatfield, England (there are about 7 Hatfields in England) on 26-Oct-1826. I know his parents were James and Martha Mumford. St. Mary's Church in Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex has a christening for a James Mumford on 16-Jan-1827, parents were James and Martha Mumford. I have additional information about the parents and about my James. I am trying to somehow confirm that I have the correct parents. (I was incorrect about another ancestor years ago, and I don't want to "assume" anything about this ancestor.)

Hi Lisa, I think you would need to see the entry in the Church baptismal register to be reasonably certain. If the LDS have copied the register, maybe they could get a copy of the film for you to look at. At that date the register might have an address or father's occupation which could provide corroboration, particularly if you know of any siblings whose parents' details turned out to be the same. Personally I'd be inclined to take the risk in this case, but I must admit I've had to remove someone incorrect from my tree when I discovered I'd made an unjustified assumption. Regards Stan

Hi Stan: The church wouldn't let the LDS copy their records. I paid a fee to the church and was given a copy of the Mumford records. The father's occupation is listed as butcher. My James was a butcher in Toronto, as early as 1861 (James left England prior to 1858). There are other "coincidences"; I'm just trying to find out if there was any other James born in England in 1826. Thank you both VERY much for your comments.

there can't have been many. FreeBMD isn't complete but the coverage of births 1837-1910 is maybe 60-70%. The James Mumford birth rate in the database so far is about 2 a year average, not more than 4 in any year. Number of James Mumfords in the 20-50 age group in 1826? Maybe 30-ish, based on guessing the birth rate and death rate around 1790. Number of those married to a Martha? Maybe 3-ish. Number of those living in a village called Hatfield? That's a handful of villages out of thousands, so the odds against a random coincidence are very long. You could look at the other Hatfields and see if any of them had any Mumfords living there at all. None of them was very big then You're much more likely to get name collisions between cousins or distant cousins in the same district. As you say, IGI's got another James Mumford, baptised 1826 about 4 miles away from Hatfield Broad Oak. But that's common descent, not coincidence. Possible problems like that emerge as you trace more of the tree, you can't always rule them out in advance of doing the research

Hi Robin: I've been researching (on and off) for 25 years. Not once have I thought of averaging births!!!! I can continue along your train of thought with my other "coincidences" -- makes it even more likely that he was born in Hatfield Broad Oak. I definitely will check the other Hatfields in England. If my James was born in Hatfield Broad Oak, then he was at least the fourth generation James Mumford. Apparently, James was a popular name. Thank you SO much, Robin.