Which Parish?

[warncoort]

Folks,
I have a birth certificate for Emily Rosa Varcoe,1843 in Devonport,Plymouth with an address of 4 Mills Street;using Google maps i find St Aubyn as the nearest church but cannot find it on Hugh Wallis or Devon OPC.This is my first foray into Devon so any assistance is welcomed.
Eric

[journeyman]

Hi Eric, I hope this helps - I looked up the registration details of Emily - the birth was registered in Stoke Damerel civil parish (1837-1898) after 1898 the parish was absorbed into Devonport and registers are now held at Plymouth.


try genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/Stoke Damerel for info on the parish.

[Peter Goodey]

GenUKI and the census are your friends here.

Devonport was in the Stoke Damerel registration district.

According to the 1851 census street index, there was one Mill Street in the registration district.

Following through from the index to the 1851 census, we find that it was in the district of St Aubin (you must have known that from the certificate) and in St John ward. According to GenUKI, St Aubin was a chapel which did not become a parish until 1882 and there were no separate registers before that date. It then sheds doubt on this statement.

So it looks to me like the parish of Stoke Damerel.

Why do you ask?

[warncoort]

Folks,
Emily was born VARCOE,arrived in Australia as GOWER,married BARLOW and later JARROLD,but i am satisfied it is the one woman.I have traced her 2 marriages in Australia,the first in 1859 at 16 years of age,though Gower still has me wondering.I had suspected her mother Elizabeth had re-married but have drawn a blank to date.I was planning to check Hugh Wallis batches and archersoftware as another avenue to trace the marriage of Elizabeth and John.
thanks,
Eric

[warncoort]

Folks,
On 1851 census (HO 107,piece 1902,folio 184,page1)in Liskeard,Cornwall she is shown as Gower,no clue as to who the women she is lodging with are.
First reference on census to John and Elizabeth is 1871,though this may not be them.
Eric

[Coromandel]

From Emily's baptism (in Cornwall not Devon!) it seems her mother was unmarried with surname Gower:

Emily Rosa (with 'Vercoe' apparently added as an afterthought as another forename), base daughter of Elizabeth Mary GOWER, abode = workhouse, single woman, born 8 Feb 1843, baptised 31 Dec 1843 at Bodmin.

You can see a scan of the parish register here:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3....-NY6:939848553

[grisel]

It may be a coincidence but in 1841 there is a 20 yr old Elizabeth Gower in Lanivet Cornwall , a tutoress in the household of a 35 yr old married farmer, John Vercoe. Civil parish Lanivet . Freecen ref HO107/150/6 folio 17 p3 (crown copyright)

[Coromandel]

It may be a coincidence but in 1841 there is a 20 yr old Elizabeth Gower in Lanivet Cornwall , a tutoress in the household of a 35 yr old married farmer, John Vercoe. Civil parish Lanivet . Freecen ref HO107/150/6 folio 17 p3 (crown copyright)

That's an interesting find, grisel. I see that a 31 year old Elizabeth Gower (born 'St Austle' Cornwall) was a schoolmistress on the staff at Liskeard workhouse in 1851:

https://
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kayhin/51902d.html
HO 107/1902, f.330

I wonder if she's the same person?

Eric, what exactly does it say on the birth certificate for the parents' names? (Is the father named? Is the mother down as Elizabeth Gower or as Elizabeth Varcoe formerly Gower?) Who was the informant?

[warncoort]

Grisel/Coromandel,
From birth certificate
Father John Varcoe
Mother Elizabeth Varcoe formerly Quiller,i think.
At the time of Emily's marriage,1859,many certificates have next to no detail,so i purchased a copy of the church entry but this only complicates things.
Father John Gower,farmer
Mother Elizabeth Mary Gower,maiden name Quiller.
I have not been able to find a marriage which comes close under Gower,Varcoe or Quiller,so maybe the 1841 census John and Elizabeth were the parents of Emily..Bodmin and Lanivet are only a couple of miles apart.
I might try OPC's for these parishes,but it seems the family had trouble remembering their names and who belonged where.
Finally,why would you send a 16 year old girl to Australia alone?
Thanks for your help,
Eric

[grisel]

a quick post as am off out. From memory from looking around yesterday I think Elizabeth Mary was a daughter of a Richard Gower and Elizabeth Quiller.

my thinking is that Emily is the illegitimate child of John Varcoe (farmer) and Elizabeth Mary Gower (schoolmistress) - Emily's marriage cert then not entirely accurate.

Elizabeth nee quiller remains on censuses in Cornwall and dies there, but I haven't been able to find Elizabeth jnr after 1851 nor a marriage. Could she have gone to Australia with Emily? Which state did emily fetch up in?