Genealogy Chat

THANKYOU FOR ALL WHO HELPED
Hi all,
My Grandmother was born a Marsh and her father was also a Marsh- Sidney Marsh b1889 in Hove. His father was a George Marsh b1859 and my Grandmother confirmed that he came from Partridge Green which on census records is listed as Horsham with occupants stating that they were born in West Grinstead.
I have worked my way back from 1901 to 1851 where I had trouble once I got to George's childhood and birth record. Something I saw a while ago prompted me to look the surname up as Mersh and so found the family in the 1861 and 1851 census records under that name. George's father is a Maurice, which has been mistranscribed as Morris and Morice and he detailed himself as being born in Billingshurst. According to FreeBMD, George and his siblings were born as Mersh.This is something my Grandmother was unaware of. The name was written down as Mersh up until the 1871 census where the name change occurs. According to IGI, the marriage record (1839) for Maurice and his wife Emily states that he was a Marsh and on FreeBMD Emily (Woolger) is listed but I think that the Marsh who is female should be him and has been mistranscribed.
My question is- should I have the family down as Mersh or Marsh as it has now confused me. I haven't been able to locate them in 1841 either and I have yet to find a birth record for Mauriceso obviously can't get any further back.
Thanks
Krystyna

1851 is this the family?

Name: Morris Mersh
Age: 36
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1815
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Emily
Gender: Male
Where born: Billingshurst, Sussex, England

Civil Parish: West Grinstead
County/Island: Sussex
Country: England

Street address:

Occupation:

Condition as to marriage:

Disability: View Image

Registration district: Horsham
Sub-registration district: South Horsham
ED, institution, or vessel: 1b
Neighbors: View others on page
Household schedule number: 3
Household Members: Name Age
Ellen Mersh 11 West Grinstead
Emily Mersh 36
Emily Mersh 2 weeks
Fanny Mersh 16 West Grinstead - looks more like 6
Jane Mersh 6
John Mersh 9
Morris Mersh 36

Hi,
Yes that is correct. If you view the image it definitely says Mersh.
Krystyna

1841 poss

Name: Ellen Mush
Age: 2
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1839
Gender: Female
Where born: Sussex, England

Civil Parish: West Grinstead
Hundred: West Grinstead
County/Island: Sussex
Country: England

Street address:

Occupation: View Image

Registration district: Horsham
Sub-registration district: South
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members: Name Age
Ellen Mush 2
Emily Mush 20
Moris Mush 25

Looks like Mersh on image

OMG!!!! Thankyou.The one variant I missed. But do you think they should be a Mersh or Marsh??Krystyna

I have this trouble with my Packham bunch who sometimes pop up as Peckham. I tend to use whichever name is prevalent at the time. If I have certificates saying Packham and one census return which says Peckham I leave them as Peckham. When I'm back into parish registers they do often show as Peckham more often than not so I use that name. It's a majority thing generally for me.

Jill

Thanks for your input Jill. Much appreciated.

Krystyna

While you're looking at alternative spellings, I think this may be Ellen's birth:

Births Sep 1839 (>99%)
Merth Ellen Horsham 7 338

The image definitely looks like Merth.

The other births all seem to be registered under Mersh.

Hi,
Yes I must admit that I did have trouble finding her birth record. Out of all of them hers was the nly missing one. It was on IGI though.
Thanks for your trouble. That's another mystery cleared up.
Krystyna

Hi Krystyna,

Apologies for reopening your sorted thread - I had missed this thread and am just catching up now.

The name sounds slightly foreign to me (as did Mauriceso, until I realised it was two words, lol), and I thought other Mersh families may have come from abroad. This does not seem to be the case at all.

Looking at the earliest census to give precise origins, the 1851 England census has only 58 individuals surnamed Mersh (as listed on Ancestry). All are born in England.

It looks as if this might be a case of vowel shifts as families move around the country - the locals hear the name differently until the family settle in and start using the local accent. (I once, to my chagrin, asked a lady wanting directions what "the rices" were - she only wanted the racecourse!)

The 58 people are from several counties in 1851 - perhaps worth checking out whether any of these are separate families with the distinct surname Mersh, or whether they all end up being Marsh as time flows (either forwards or backwards).

All the best

Hi Ivy,
You put a very interesting thought to it. I will certainly make some checks, although at the moment I still have to find a birth for my Maurice. There do seem to be some Mersh's in Billingshurst and that is all I have to go on at the moment so it might be painstaking. I have read on the trying to find board that there are some Mersh's from Surrey who were originally Marsh. There are quite a few variants for the name also.
Thanks for your interest.
Krystyna

Billingshurst baptisms don't appear to be on the IGI site yet, but they have been filmed by the LDS, so you could order the microfilm from your local LDS centre.

Hi Mary, Krystyna,

Thanks for the updates. I see from the 1851 census that there is a John Mersh also born in Billingshurst, who may be a relation.

Mary, where was the info about filmed baptisms not yet on the IGI? I do seem to have quite a few relatives from parishes not on the IGI.

(Apologies, will not see the reply, am on my way home now).

All the best

If you look at the LDS catalogue:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp

you can do a place search for the parish you're interested in. Click on "Church records" and look for parish baptism, burial and marriage registers.

You can find the address of your local LDS centre here:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp

Give them a ring and tell them what you're interested in - if they don't have the microfilm they'll order it for about £2, and you can then look at it on the microfilm reader at the centre and photocopy anything interesting.

Order the parish register for the period you want if it's been filmed, rather than the bishop's transcripts, which usually contain less information.

If you happen to be in the area where the baptism or whatever took place, you can go to the local Records Office instead of the LDS centre.

To check whether something's on the IGI you can look for the parish on the Hugh Wallis site:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/

However, it hasn't been updated for a couple of years, so there may be parishes that are on the IGI which don't appear on the Wallis site.

Hi Mary,

Thank you very much indeed for this. I have just had a happy time finding all the methodist chapel batch numbers in the Prescot district, just as you said, under the church records section - this'll keep me busy for a little while finding my Smiths!

Many thanks

Thankyou everyone for all your input. I will certainly look at the LDS and order the microfilm. That's the only way of confirming my suspicions as I do think that John Mersh might be Maurice's father. I also have a couple of people who might be siblings so hopefully I can now start to knock down my wall. Thanks again all.
Best regards
Krystyna x