Alexander ...what's his last name?

[Anne H]

Hi Andrew,

Wonderful! Thanks for the superscript instructions jun^r ...see, I can do it now.

...and thank you for the rest of the deciphering, as with Frances' post, now that you've pointed it out I can see it quite plainly

Do you know what W N D Ward would mean?

I wonder if the "poor Agnes" label is a gentle way of sympathizing with her at not being married She couldn't have been poor since here parents had an 8 acre farm...don't know why she was a "sometime servant" anyway, I would have thought there would have been enough work to do on their farm.

Anyway, thanks again

Regards,
Anne

[Anne H]

Hi David,

Thanks for the confirmation on Smith and your explanation of the engineman occupation...I learn something new every day on this site...and now I can also see that the registrar's name is Tho Gentles and now I also know when he died.

Thanks again...much appreciated

Regards,
Anne

[AndrewP]

Do you know what W N D Ward would mean?

I wonder if the "poor Agnes" label is a gentle way of sympathizing with her at not being married She couldn't have been poor since here parents had an 8 acre farm...don't know why she was a "sometime servant" anyway, I would have thought there would have been enough work to do on their farm.

Hi Anne,

I am suspecting that W N D Ward (or whatever it says) is the signature of the GROS examiner. All registration books are examined after completion before being accepted as good. Only after that does one copy of the book get sent to New Register House (the second copy remains in that registration office).

I have seen the desciption poor before someone's name on an RCE. I assumed this meant that the person was in receipt of poor releif from the parish. I have yet to find any proof that is the meaning of poor in this context.

All the best,

AndrewP

[LesleyB]

Hi Anne, Andrew & all

I have seen the desciption poor before someone's name on an RCE. I assumed this meant that the person was in receipt of poor releif from the parish. I have yet to find any proof that is the meaning of poor in this context.

I recently downloaded two RCEs to do with paternity and both had that wording, one in 1901, so that would fall after the times that the parish would have been responsible for maintaining the poor & needy - I begin to wonder, from those I've seen if it may have been the standard wording in that context, though why, I don't know....

Best wishes
Lesley

[DavidWW]

....snipped........
I am suspecting that W N D Ward (or whatever it says) is the signature of the GROS examiner. All registration books are examined after completion before being accepted as good. Only after that does one copy of the book get sent to New Register House (the second copy remains in that registration office). ....snipped...........
AndrewP

The clue here is the date after the signature W N D Ward of 22Oct1884, compared to the date of the RCE entry of 21Feb1883, the time lapse being the period that it took the peripatetic supervising registrar to get round to this parish.

There were several such superintendant registrars who spent their time travelling around their area of responsibility, carrying out detailed checks on the performance of the local registrars, and the accuracy of their registers; including, as in this case, "signing off" on RCE entries such as this.

David

[Anne H]

I am suspecting that W N D Ward (or whatever it says) is the signature of the GROS examiner

Hi Andrew,

I didn't think of that, but certainly makes sense. Many thanks

Regards,
Anne

[Anne H]

I begin to wonder, from those I've seen if it may have been the standard wording in that context, though why, I don't know....

Hi Lesley,

It might just be standard wording as you say. Actually, I was really thinking it might have been somewhat of a patronizing way of saying to her "have you no sense girl?"

Regards,
Anne

[Anne H]

The clue here is the date after the signature W N D Ward of 22Oct1884, compared to the date of the RCE entry of 21Feb1883, the time lapse being the period that it took the peripatetic supervising registrar to get round to this parish.

There were several such superintendant registrars who spent their time travelling around their area of responsibility, carrying out detailed checks on the performance of the local registrars, and the accuracy of their registers; including, as in this case, "signing off" on RCE entries such as this.

Hi David,

Many thanks for the explanation...another interesting bit of information

Regards,
Anne