FAMILY HISTORY FUN
DEAR PAUL
The theme to this month’s ‘Dear Paul’ is ‘The Name Game’ as we delve into a variety of name-related Genealogy Gems
The burial of Mary Etches, followed by the baptism of her sister just three days later
Guy Etchells starts us off with a reader challenge regarding traditional naming patterns that he uncovered whilst researching his family tree. If you have ever traced Scottish or Irish ancestry you will be aware that many families followed a traditional naming pattern when naming their children. A guide to traditional naming patterns can be found at http://familytr.ee/naming.
We often also see the first name re-used again after a first child sadly died, to ensure that the family keep to the traditional naming pattern. It was whilst Guy was researching his family from Newton Heath in Manchester, that he came across a child named Mary being baptised after her older sister, another Mary, had died.
Nothing remarkable here, you might say, but in this instance the baptism of the second child took place just three days after the burial of the first child. The first Mary Etches was born on 3 April 1742 and was buried on 14 March 1744-45. Her sister, Mary Etches, was baptised just three days after, on 17 March 1744-45.
Both events took place in the Parish of All Saints, Newton Heath. Guy doesn’t know the details of why the name was so important to the family, but I wonder if any of our readers have found a burial followed so quickly by the baptism of a child, with the same first name? If so, I would love to hear from you.
Three Cleelands on one certificate: groom, father and registrar – and the father and groom were themselves registrars!
Wartime names
Dr Christopher Morris has sent me this wonderful tale that relates to one of our previous editions of ‘Dear Paul’, where we looked at names associated with the war. Dr Morris is the Hon. Sec. of the RAF Habbaniya Association, which is a huge RAF base in Iraq, with a Civil Cantonment within it, of 10,000 locals. Dr Morris was actually at the base, as an elevenyear-old child, with his father, who was the RAF Officer I/C in 1955.