macmarn

[debbie blair]

does anyone have an ancestor by the name of macmarn in their tree in southwark london. my mother ancestors seem not to exist in birth records or marriage although i have them on some census entries.

also looking for gilbert marlow born about 1808-1818 father john married elizabeth bentley in aldham essex they had 5 children but he appears on no census although she does. have their marriage entry for 1840 in fordham. he was a butcher.

[Jan1954]

does anyone have an ancestor by the name of macmarn in their tree in southwark london. my mother ancestors seem not to exist in birth records or marriage although i have them on some census entries.


Hello Debbie and welcome |wave|

Have you looked at alternative spellings of MacMarn? eg McMarn, McMahon, MacMahon etc

Remember, census enumerators wrote down what they heard - and accents played a big part.

[Peter Goodey]

census enumerators wrote down what they heard

Census enumerators copied into the enumeration book what had been written on the householder's return. The enumerator would only fill it in for them if there was nobody in the household capable of filling it in and there was no neigbour prepared to do it.

[Jan1954]

Census enumerators copied into the enumeration book what had been written on the householder's return. The enumerator would only fill it in for them if there was nobody in the household capable of filling it in and there was no neigbour prepared to do it.

Thanks for putting me right, Peter. Would I be right in supposing that in the really early ones (and also depending on the literacy of the populace) they travelled door-to-door recording what they were told? I ask this as in 1841 I have a son (Pharaoh) enumerated as a daughter (Sarah).

[Peter Goodey]

The procedure was fundamentally the same for 1841 to 1901.

For anyone who has never seen one, a tiny number of completed household schedules slipped through

eg (1871) RG 10/4677 folio 76.

[Geoffers]

Would I be right in supposing that in the really early ones (and also depending on the literacy of the populace) they travelled door-to-door recording what they were told? I ask this as in 1841 I have a son (Pharaoh) enumerated as a daughter (Sarah).

Or rather, you should have a male Pharaoh, enumerated as a female Sarah.

In this particular case I wouldn't assume that the enumerator ony wrote down what he heard. This is difficult using typescript rather than handwriting to explain............

S written as a capital in an italic hand is a long looping letter and can be very similar to a capital P. The person writing Pharaoh may have mispelt it as Pharah (allowing for someone spelling a word as it sounded to them - which can give a clue as to accent). It is just possible that the enumerator looked at the schedule and read Sharah and corrected it to what he thought was intended - Sarah.

This isn't to say the above is correct, but it's a possible explanation.

[Jan1954]

Thanks Geoffers.

I had presumed that, in the Essex/Cambridgeshire/Suffolk accent of the day(we're talking the borders of all 3 counties here), Pharaoh (Farer) could be mistaken for Sarah (Sarer)

[debbie blair]

does anyone have an ancestor by the name of macmarn in their tree in southwark london. my mother ancestors seem not to exist in birth records or marriage although i have them on some census entries.

also looking for gilbert marlow born about 1808-1818 father john married elizabeth bentley in aldham essex they had 5 children but he appears on no census although she does. have their marriage entry for 1840 in fordham. he was a butcher.

thanks for your help. i have not found my spelling in ireland but the family maintained it on death entries and the 2 census entries i found. i think i may have found my 1x great granny as macmarr. and my uncle is on a census as macmarron.

[RustyWater]

My grand mother was born Minnie McMahon in Walworth Southwark in 1903. She was later known as Lavinia and then Vin or Vinnie. Her mothers name was Eleonor Louise Smith.

Her fathers name was Joseph McMahon, a ship stoker, who then basically disappears off the face of the planet.

In 1907 Smith married a second time claiming to be a spinster, so whatever happened to Joseph is a mystery. There was only one person on the 1901 census of interest on a naval vessel, born in Scotland but whether it's him or not nobody knows.

My grand mother was always secrative about the whole affair but did mention Kilkenny in Ireland. From what I have seen there were not many McMahons in Southwark in 1901.