Snowhouse

[Jillianiris]

I have come across a Lydia Snowhouse in my tree, born c. 1777 in Reading.
The only record I have found is of her marriage to James Tagg at Pyrton, Oxford in 1797.
I cannot find any other instances of the name Snowhouse, and wonder if it's a mistranscription or made-up name. Can anyone help, please?
Jill

[Peter Goodey]

The Oxon Marriage Index has it as Lydia SNOWHOUSE of Britwell Salome and James TAGG of Bisham at Pyrton on 20 Nov 1797.

Not much help in the answering the question, though. The surname does seem fairly unique. Might be best to try to track down her baptism record.

[janbooth]

The OFHS sell the Parish Registers of both Britwell Salome and Pyrton on the same CD (OXF-SO03) online. Might be worth investing in it. Good luck.

Janet.

[Peter Goodey]

"The OFHS sell the Parish Registers of both Britwell Salome and Pyrton"

I haven't seen the OFHS parish register CDs but I have seen (and still own) some of the fiches. If the CD content is the same as the fiches, a word of warning - these are all transcriptions and I know from personal experience of several errors in them! And you can bet your boots that the OFHS marriage index was compiled from the transcriptions, not from the original records.

Jill originally picked this marriage up from the IGI. The source of the IGI entry is shown as "Record extracted from Oxfordshire Marriage Transcripts, 1538-1837, compiled by J. S. W. Gibson. (The index was based on the groom index, film numbers 54,396 to 54,397.)". This may or may not be the same animal as the OFHS publication. This means we are talking about at least two transcripts of transcripts - how many previous transcription cycles there had been, we don't know.

Since there is some doubt about the surname, Jill may well be best advised to consult the original records.

[Jillianiris]

Thanks to both of you for your help. I only traced back to Lydia 2 days ago but since then have made contact with two other descendants of hers. Neither has had any luck finding any birth details.
I'll reply via the Oxon forum as well. Thanks, Jill