Something old, something glued

The oldest original certificate passed down to me is for the marriage of one set of my great-grandparents nearly 115 years ago.  It has been folded to pocket size and become so thin along the folds that they have given way.  On the back you can see the glue of sticky labels and sticky tape has been used to hold the pieces together, but those repairs have also worn and torn.  Handling it is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together.

At the time of a birth or death registration the person themselves does not speak their name for the record.  However, for a marriage the wedding couple are providing their own names to be written down.  The front of the paper shows the groom and bride were John Dwyer and Alice Webb.  The condition of the certificate suggests that it was carried around for a long time, which perhaps indicates the personal value of the document or the relationship it documented.

He was born in 1875 in Upper Glanmire Road, City of Cork, Ireland, baptised the next day in St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Lower Glanmire Road and then the civil registration took place two weeks later.  Both the church register of baptisms and the copy of the civil registrar's book of births have clear handwriting and both show the name John James.

She, on the other hand, was born in late 1881 in an area of Hampshire in England which is now absorbed into Southampton.  As a baby she was registered as Mary Alice but baptised as Alice Mary then later recorded as either Alice, Alice M or Alice Mary on census records and in a newspaper report I've seen as well as for her marriage certificate and death registration.

Also passed down to me in the same bundle is a cemetery receipt for £2 15s.  It too is very well worn although not to the same extent as the marriage certificate.  I have visited the couple's shared grave and seen their family headstone, initially for him and subsequently also for her after the second burial seven years later.  The text reads "In Loving Memory Of My Beloved Husband John Dwyer ... Also Alice Mary Wife Of The Above John Dwyer ...".

Since the bride's surname changed when they married, one might summarise by saying that she began life as Mary Alice Webb and ended as Alice Mary Dwyer.  She is not the only one amongst her many siblings whose name evolved over the years, which has made tracing this family across the decades an absorbing challenge.  But that's what it's all about.

This says ... that says ...

Having an original document passed down through the generations can provide a firm foundation for the family historian.  That is assuming you can find it, read it, work out what it is telling you and resolve any inconsistencies.  In practice, considerable time and effort may be required to pull together multiple pieces of information from different sources.

For one set of my grandparents I have their wedding day certificate of marriage which shows the groom's father named as Charles Frederick Welch.  Meanwhile, a cousin has the family's Holy Bible which I understand contains an inscription for the Family Register of Frederick Charles Welch and Fanny Welch, née Tipton.  Well which was he? ... Charles Frederick or Frederick Charles?

It is clear from the registration of his birth that he was officially given the name Charles Frederick Joseph Welch.  However, it seems that as a child and on into his marriage he was known as Frederick.  For the records I have seen, the name Charles only reappears as his first name for the registration of his death and the certificate of his son's marriage which was a few months later.  Meanwhile, the headstone placed on his grave still refers to him as Frederick.

Why register your son's name as Charles Frederick Joseph and then call him Frederick?  Well it is worth noting from the birth certificate and census records that his father's name was Charles.  The baby was named after his father.  Perhaps the use of the name Frederick was just to avoid there being two people in the household who answered to the name of Charles!

As there was a census soon after his birth, we have evidence that the toddler was known as Frederick before he was two years old.  What we may never know is whether the family started out calling him Charles and then changed over, or whether they always intended to refer to him as Frederick and passing on his father's name was only ever meant to be ceremonial.

The underlying question for a genealogist is whether you want to build up a catalogue of names and dates found in official records or aim to become more of a social historian uncovering richer details of lives as they were lived.  The answer may influence which sources you go to consult, what details you seek to record and how much time you invest.  However, there's always the option to avoid going around in circles, back-tracking from dead-ends, and instead read a blog which spotlights hints, tips and interesting anecdotes.

Where it all began

As a child I was given the name McQuay and believed that everyone in the country with the name was related to me!  Any time we were away from our home town I searched telephone directories (this was pre-internet) and this seemed to confirm that it was indeed a rare surname.

With a strong desire to collect and organise information (which later defined my career), I questioned each of my relatives about their full name, date of birth, marriage, and their other family members.  Letters were posted to people whom I could not visit in person, with questions written out to explain the information I was requesting, spaces for their replies to be filled in and a stamped, self-addressed return envelope.

All the gathered facts were carefully recorded onto hand-drawn charts and trees.  Where necessary, multiple pages were joined by sticky tape to provide a large enough space for everyone.  One rather ambitious sheet of A4 paper was entitled "Total Ancestry Research" and had spaces labelled ready for myself, two parents, four grand-parents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents and thirty-two great-great-great-grandparents.

However, out of those sixty-three spaces on that chart, only six of them, tracking up the paternal line in each generation, would be expected to have my surname.  The choice before me was whether to concentrate on a One-Name Study for McQuay to try to link up everyone I could find with that name, or to travel back through time and attempt to learn about each one of my direct ancestors, with their range of surnames.

A cousin on my mother's side had traced our shared ancestors so I thankfully copied that information and all at once filled in half of the pedigree chart.  That left me looking at my father's side for an opportunity to do some research of my own.  His grandfather McQuay had married a woman with the surname Brown.  Prejudiced towards my lovely, rare surname I assumed that tracing the McQuay family members would be so much easier than the much more frequently occurring name Brown.  I was so wrong ... but we will return to the Brown family on another day.

My early notes state that my great-grandfather's name was "Albert William (Harold) McQuay".  Someone had mentioned to me that the names may possibly be in another order.  I did meticulously write up that comment in my notebook although not who told me.  However, inexperienced as I was, I did not understand that when parents give their child a name that is not the end of the story.