Stait family - Gloucester

[Jim Davis]

I have been researching my and my wife's family history for about 2 years, almost exclusively in USA and Canada. I am starting to expand to Europe and UK and must admit to some intimidation. Not sure where and how to start. One family I am working on is my wife's gg grandfather. The information I have is

William Stait b. 7 Apr 1813 Gloucester, Glouchestershire
married Mary Norton b. 1818 England.
The family emigrated to Canada in 1851.
Four children were born in England prior to emigration
William Jr. b. 14 Feb 1841, George 1843, Thomas 1845 and Lucy Ann 1848.

Unfortunately there are not a lot of specifics to work with there, but suggestions/assistance will be appreciated.

Jim Davis

[olliecat]

William Stait b. 7 Apr 1813 Gloucester, Glouchestershire
married Mary Norton b. 1818 England.

As a start for you, if you obtain William and Mary's marriage certificate, this should give you the name of their fathers. Looking at the Gloucestershire BMD, they married in 1839...

1839 : STAIT William, NORTON Mary, North Cotswolds, Temple Guiting St Mary

See here for the Gloucestershire BMD...

ww3.
gloucestershire.gov.uk/bmd/MainMenu.aspx

You can order their marriage certifcate through the GRO.

Note: As an aside, if you search the Gloucestershire BMD for births between 1837 and 1851, where the surname is STAIT and the mother's former name is NORTON, there are 7 results, although they may not all be by the same couple.

[janbooth]

I don't know if you have this information already, but this looks as if it could be Mary NORTON's parents & siblings in the 1841 census of Temple Guiting:

HO107/360/0, folios 17/18, pages 8/9

George NORTON 45 Farmer Born in county yes
Mary do 45 yes
Robert do 25 yes
Jane do 20 yes
William do 15 yes
George do jnr 11 yes

On the Canadian 1851 census, it shows that William, Mary, William, George, Thomas & Lucy STAIT's religion is Baptist as is that of William & George NORTON (presumably Mary's brothers) so you may well have to look at Non-conformist baptisms for both William & Mary nee NORTON.

Interestingly, on page 10 of the 1841 census of Temple Guiting is the entry for a Richard STAITE, aged 70, Farmer and a Mary STAITE, aged 75 both born Gloucestershire. Could these be related to your William - perhaps his grandparents??

Obviously, your first step is to obtain William & Mary's marriage certificate as Olliecat has suggested which will then give you details of their fathers, i.e. their names and occupations. However, given that the 1851 census shows William's age as 35, i.e. born c1816 and that one of his daughters is named Lucy, you might like to bear this baptism in mind (source Gloucestershire FHS Baptismal Index 1813-37):

20 April 1817 at Temple Guiting William STAIT son of William & Lucy, Bailiff, Pinnock.

If William & Lucy do turn out to be your William's parents, there is a marriage at Toddington (pretty close to Temple Guiting), by licence, on 17 January 1814 of a William STAITE and a Lucy COOK which could be relevant (source Gloucestershire FHS Marriage Index).

There is no appropriate baptism for Mary NORTON on the Baptismal Index, so it could well be that the NORTON's were Baptist and William STAIT converted after his marriage.

Janet

Census records courtesy TNA

[Jim Davis]

Ollicat & Janet

Thanks for your replies. I have placed an order for a copy of the marriage certificate and am anxious to see what additional information is contained in it. I have not had time to look at much else but would be interested in the website you used to view the 1841 census of Temple Guiting. A quick look did not give me a source.

Thanks again for your help and I'm sure I will be back with other questions as I proceed. Hope you don't mind helping a rookie.

Jim

[janbooth]

Glad to be of help, Jim. We all were "rookies" at some stage.

I have a subscription to both Ancestry & FMP, so if I don't find a name on one site I can search on the other. If you have a sub to Ancestry, the surname as been mistranscribed as NORTE which could be why you did not find it. Another tip for searching in census records, in case the names have been mistranscribed, is to either search just on forename - in this case any George living in Temple Guiting - or use the wild card facility - George NORT* living in Temple Guiting - as there are so many mistranscriptions of census records.

Do get back to us if you have any further queries as I'm sure we will all be only too pleased to help.

Janet

[Peter Goodey]

As the 1841 census of Temple Guiting consists of just two thin enumeration books, name indexing is hardly an issue. We can leaf through them in a few minutes just the way we used to before online name indexing came along.

[Jim Davis]

Janet
In an earlier post you said
If William & Lucy do turn out to be your William's parents, there is a marriage at Toddington (pretty close to Temple Guiting), by licence, on 17 January 1814 of a William STAITE and a Lucy COOK which could be relevant (source Gloucestershire FHS Marriage Index).

Excuse me for getting lost/confused with all of the new terms and sources but what/where is the Glouchestershire FHS Marriage Index??

Jim

And BTW, I just found out from a another Stait relative, that William Stait's father was William Staite and his mother was Lucy Cook. Looks like we may have a match.

[Sue Mackay]

Excuse me for getting lost/confused with all of the new terms and sources but what/where is the Glouchestershire FHS Marriage Index??

FHS stands for Family History Society. You can find information about the Gloucestershire Society and their publications here

[Jim Davis]

Thanks so much Sue.

[Dizzy600]

Hi Jim,

I am about 16 miles from Temple Guitering so if in the future you would like photos let me know and I will attempt to oblige.

Karen