Seeing double

[Rachel A]

I'm trying to establish whether my Gideon Spicer was the only 10 year old of that name around in 1855, when he was sentenced and imprisoned for 6 weeks for placing stones on the railway line in Alton, Hampshire. I will then be able to put a location on that family between census returns :)

He appears to be the only one. The only trouble is, that 2 births are registered in Shaftesbury district in March 1845 on FreeBMD. Although one's in italics suggesting that it's a duplicate.

Please can someone look at the images of the online registers and tell me whether two were in fact originally listed, or just one. Unfortunately my Ancestry subs has expired and I can't look for myself.

Many thanks :)

[kiterunner]

You can view the image on FreeBMD - just click on the pair of spectacles. And yes, there is only one entry.

[ElizabethHerts]

Rachel, on the opening page of FMP you can type in a name and then it comes up with hits.
1841 Census 0 records
1851 Census 1 record
1861 Census 1 record
1871 Census 1 record
1881 Census 0 records
1891 Census 0 records
1901 Census 0 records
1911 Census 0 records

Did he marry at Portsea Island in 1864?
Did he die in 1872?

[Rachel A]

Brilliant, thank you :)

I was thinking of ringing Shaftesbury register office with the excuse that I didn't know what cert to order and hoping they would tell me they're for the same one!

How helpful to have such an uncomman name, which confirms that I do indeed have my man :) :)

Elizabeth - yes and yes :D

He had six children with her and then died aged 27 in Petersfield, Hampshire. I need to order his death cert, as I'm interested to know what he died of and whether it was anyway connected to his imprisonment.

Hampshire Record Office have been most helpful - because his case was dealt with by the Alton magistrates I queried whether anything would be held in the Quarter Session records they held. Thinking I had to pay for the research service at £15 per half hour, they came back with the info they had, which was from papers attached to the back of the quarter sessions. Didn't get anymore info though, as had already found it reported in the local newspapers at the time.

I had hoped to dig some dirt on this family :D

[Rachel A]

BTW Gideon was the uncle of the mother in my avatar photo :)

[Merry]

The only trouble is, that 2 births are registered in Shaftesbury district in March 1845 on FreeBMD. Although one's in italics suggesting that it's a duplicate.



This doesn't make any difference in this case, but the italics on FreeBMD mean the entry that has been keyed has a page number that doesn't fit for the reg district listed, rather than that the entry is a duplicate. If one entry is transcribed by two or more people and the entries match exactly, then the FreeBMD record will show one entry in bold type.

Hope that makes sense!

[Rachel A]

It does, thanks Merry :)

[Rachel A]

I received Gideon's death cert yesterday and he died of TB (1 year), which I sort of suspected. Although I had hoped that it was somehow connected to his 'criminal' past, but have enough material for an article, which is why I wanted to research him :)