One
recent query I received as an OPC was to find the baptism of Ada Nellie Smith, born around 1896.
Ada’s granddaughter, in making the query, had information from census documents
that the family had lived in the Plympton St. Mary area in 1901. She had not
been able to find a birth record for Ada Nellie Smith anywhere, though, which
was strange since, by this time, civil records were fairly complete and should
have been relatively easy to source. (How many times have we thought that!)
I
did not immediately find the individual or the family in my parish information;
so I asked a few more questions about the data sources and any other family
names that might have been recorded.
According
to the 1901 census sheet, which I sourced on Ancestry: the parents were John
and Ellen Smith; the family lived at 22, Whitleigh Terrace, St. Budeaux,
Plympton St Mary; and Ada had a brother, Harry, aged 3. (Readers may choose to
use either Ancestry.com or Ancestry.co.uk for searches.)
Now
the actual census document shows that Plympton St. Mary was recorded as the
Rural District and the Civil and Ecclesiastical Parish was St. Budeaux. This
parish is not one of mine; so I was not able to look up any baptism, marriage
or burial information in my records. The granddaughter had misinterpreted the
entry, thinking the enumeration was for Plympton St. Mary parish and had come
to me as the area OPC for answers. This is not unusual since Plympton St. Mary
is the name of both the Registration
District (RD)
and one of the parishes in the district. This RD is made up of nineteen
separate parishes and there are many occasions when I have had to direct
someone to a parish different than the four I administer.
Anyway,
I did a little further digging and found the family on the 1911 census as well.
Both
censuses showed that Ada had been born in Plymouth, not Plympton St. Mary.
Since little Ada Smith did not appear on any index I thought that perhaps her
birth might have been recorded with a different surname. Maybe she had been
born before her mother’s marriage. Hey, it happens! Ada was shown as four years
old in 1901 and 14 in 1911; so I searched FreeBMD for an Ada Nellie, born between 1896
and 1897. I found an Ada Nellie Puddicombe, whose birth was registered in the
Exeter RD (Devon), in the October-November-December quarter of 1896. That was
the only instance of a birth record for an Ada Nellie of any surname. I thought
it worth following up because Ada’s mother was shown on the 1901 and 1911
censuses as being born in Newton Abbott which is not far from Exeter.
The
granddaughter confirmed that the marriage certificate for John and Ellen, which
she had previously obtained, did show Ellen’s last name as Puddicombe and that she
was a spinster at the time of the marriage on September 1, 1896. It appeared we
were on the right track!
Was
it possible that the parents recorded her birthplace on the census as Plymouth
to avoid any questions as to her origin, especially if she was illegitimate?
Could Ellen, in fact, have been a widow, rather than single and the information
on her marriage record was in error? Was John Ada’s natural father? Was it also
possible that Ellen Puddicombe was not entirely truthful about her age on
various census and other records? We knew that the age recorded for her on her
marriage certificate was not quite in line with that shown on the 1901 and 1911
censuses. These were all questions that begged for answers. I suggested that a
copy of the 1896 birth certificate for Ada Nellie Puddicombe be ordered from
the General Record Office
to see what parentage was shown.
The
granddaughter duly purchased the birth record only to find out that the
parents’ names were shown as Emma and Fred Puddicombe! So back we went to the
drawing board. Hmmm – we should have asked that the information be checked to
see that the mother’s name was Ellen. The answer – no – would then have come
back and the cost of this certificate could have been avoided.
I
next tried searching records for just a female with the surname, Puddicombe,
born in 1896, in the Plymouth area. Again, perhaps I should have done that
earlier, as well, in order to get a broader sampling of possibilities. On FindMyPast
I came across a baptism entry for Adra Nellie Puddicombe, parents John
and Ellen Puddicombe, born June 13, 1896 and baptized November 4, 1896, in
Charles, Plymouth. Given the parents’ forenames, that looked promising. (Readers
may choose to use either FindMyPast.com
or FindMyPast.co.uk for searches.)
Their
residence was Mount Pleasant, Egg Buckland parish, Devon. There was also a
baptism recorded for a boy, John Henry Smith, in 1898, parents John and Ellen
Smith, also living in Egg Buckland. Egg Buckland parish is right next door to
St. Budeaux parish and both are part of greater Plymouth.
We
concluded that this John Henry was probably the Harry shown on the censuses.
The 1901 census had shown him as being born in Egg Buckland. Now the family
members started to fit together even better. FreeBMD had a birth entry in the July-August-September
quarter of 1896, for an Adary Nellie S. Puddicombe. Now I was even more confident
we were close. The use in searches of the forename, Ada, and the surname,
Smith, had distracted us and the concentration on only the surname, Puddicombe,
was providing more useful data.
The
granddaughter now agreed to purchase this second birth certificate to see if it
would finally answer the question as to Ada’s origin. And it did!
The
name on the part of the record for forenames was Adary Nellie Smith. Her
surname was shown as Puddicombe. Her birth date was June 13, 1896, the same as
that shown on the later baptism entry, and the birth was registered on July 24,
1896. The father’s name was not shown but the mother was indicated as Ellen
Puddicombe. Ellen’s residence, 27 Harwell Street, Plymouth. That was the same
address as was shown for Ellen on the marriage certificate.
All
the pieces now appeared to have fallen into place. The use of the surname Smith
on the birth record strongly indicated that John was Ada’s father. The
residences shown for Adra Nellie and John Henry, along with their parents’
forenames of John and Ellen, in the baptism register, suggested the same
family. The addresses on Ada’s birth certificate and Ellen’s marriage
certificate confirmed Ellen, the mother of Ada, was also Ellen, the bride of
John. The birth dates on both Ada’s birth certificate and the baptism entry
strongly indicated they were the same individual.
One
conflicting piece of information was that the baptism entry showed Ada’s
surname as Puddicombe but her birth certificate had Smith. The Vicar in the
parish of Charles, Plymouth, probably possibly did not approve of using the
child’s father’s surname, Smith, since the parents were not married at the time
of her birth, but would likely have consented to show there was a father
present by the name of John. It is interesting to speculate why the couple waited
until September to marry and until November to have her baptized.
In
this case, the fact that we could not find a birth record for Ada Smith, at a
time – late 19th century – when such information should certainly have been
recorded, suggested that the name under which she was born and registered was
not the name she went by in later years. Ada had been recorded on various
documents as Adra and Adary although, to her granddaughter’s knowledge, had
never gone by either of those names. That certainly threw our searches off.
