A question which probably can't be answered!

[Merry]

BK6 updated from this thread

Why would an old married couple have a young visitor if they are not related?

In 1851 Isaac and Mary Moule are living in Cambridge and are aged 72 and 80 respectively. Both of them were born in villages close to the city and their 55 year old daughter was b in Cambridge and is living with them. Isaac had been town crier for the city for about 30 years by 1851, so it would seem they probably had never moved from the area.

On that 1851 census they have a visitor called Isaac Farnes (spelled Farns on the census) aged 3. His parents (Joseph Farnes and Catherine Elizabeth nee Chartres) and siblings were all born around London. One of the siblings was baptised Joseph Moule Farnes in 1843, so there must have been some connection between the families by that time.

By 1861, Joseph, the father of the Farnes children had died (I think) but their mother is nowhere to be found on the census (Catherine E Farnes b 1815 Paddington - she didn't die until 1891) and all but one of the children are living in Whittlesford Cambs (about 7 miles from Cambridge) on the same census page (though not the same household) as Isaac Moule's nephew, Nathan Maynard, who is my 2xg-grandfather. None of the Farnes stayed in Whittlesford and it seems they ended up scattered all over the place by the 1871 census.

So, why would the aged Moules have a three year old visitor if they were not related, given there's no apparent connection to Cambridgeshire on the Farnes side? Do you think I should continue trying to find a blood connection?

[Margaret in Burton]

Merry, I haven't a clue but have a similar situation with my grandmother on the 1881 census. She is 6 months old and seemingly a visitor in the household of a couple I can find no relationship to. She is only about 3 miles from her parents home in Burton on Trent. The only connection I can see is that the family she is with are from Suffolk as were her parents.

I have given up on finding out why, just assumed they were good friends and this couple were baby sitting on census night.

[Merry]

Isn't it frustrating, Marg?

My Maynards are the most annoying family in the world and I have an absolute mesh of a tree for them because they don't want to conform to the normal being born, baptised, married, dying and being buried, and they give little clues as to who is who in letters and other bits and bobs and I nearly always find out something new by totally obscure means!

I have just been given the creeps by one of these Farnes (Horatio :rolleyes:) as he appears in the Missing Persons as Listed in the Salvation Army 'War Cry' 1890 as having been missing in New Zealand since 1874!! In fact, reading most of the list was quite horrifying....

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~dchamber/mp1890.htm

[ElizabethHerts]

Merry, it wasn't unusual for small children to be sent away from their parents. There might be a connection to be found, because of the "Moule" element in the name, however I have found with some of my family they used the surname of a friend, or in one case of the minister who baptised the father!

When I wrote an article on Robert Heath, a Hatter, who lived at St George's Place, Hyde Parke Corner, I found that in 1861 his two youngest children, Arthur and Minnie, aged 4 and 2 respectively, were staying with a woman in Twickenham, no relation. This was the conclusion I came to:

"I can only speculate as to why Robert and Jane felt it necessary to send them away from home at such a young age. It might have been to avoid disease. The Heaths had good reason to be fearful – in 1854 Anne Jeffcoat, Jane’s mother, succumbed to the cholera epidemic at 18, St George’s Place, the home of Robert and Jane Heath. Daniel Jeffcoat died just six weeks later of “Anaemia”, at 9 Middle Buildings, Brompton, which I believe to be the home of Joseph, his son, who would marry Emily Heath in 1858. The Heaths must have been concerned then with two young children at home and another child due to be born at the end of 1854."

So I believe they were sent away on purpose to avoid the dreaded cholera. Jane stayed behind - she was involved in the business and was "Hat maker to the Queen" at one stage.

Who knows what the reason was in your case! But I know you will keep ferreting away and the brick wall might just come tumbling down. :)

[Merry]

But I know you will keep ferreting away and the brick wall might just come tumbling down. :)

lol Elizabeth - I wish!!

My Maynard walls have mainly stayed firmly up for the last 20 years or so. I have probably chipped out about a half-brick.

What I need is a month at Cambs CRO and Saffron Walden museum where, between the two, there are 14 volumes of diaries and scrapbooks left by the family which I'm sure must hold some clue or other, even if they were not started until around 1830, whilst the most major wall is in the 1760s.

[Olde Crone]

If there had been a census taken in 1929, lol, it would declare my 7-year old father to be a visitor at the home of an unrelated lady and her husband, some 60 miles away.

The lady was a school friend of my grandmother, and my father had been sent to stay with her while his mother gave birth to her second child.

OC

[Terri]

I've had several like that.

The most interesting turned out to be the illegitimate child of one of the family's sons! I would never have guessed that.

So you never know ..............!

[Uncle John]

If there had been a census taken in 1929, lol, it would declare my 7-year old father to be a visitor at the home of an unrelated lady and her husband, some 60 miles away.

The lady was a school friend of my grandmother, and my father had been sent to stay with her while his mother gave birth to her second child.

Or in my case, being looked after by my aunt's parents in the north of England while my father was finishing his tour of duty in Africa, where my brother was born.

[Merry]

Solved!

Isaac and Mary Moule had one son, also Isaac b 1806. On the 1851 census his wife is Georgiana and also in the house are single sister-in-law, Eliza Farnes, and a niece, Kate Farnes. So, these Farnes are presumably closely related to the boy in the house of the senior Moules. I remember he had a sister named Georgiana Farnes (different one to the one who married Isaac Moule junr)

The next question is, who (in the same house) is Susan Wilson, widow, 20, born Cambridge, occupation Lady!!! No relationship to head of house given....

*sigh*

[Uncle John]

Find where Posslan is and you've cracked it!

[Merry]

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: