I need to confirm William's birth to move my search backwards but I'm not sure how to go about it. 1822 fits with all the census entries and his age in 1846 when he married Mary Ann Hall. On the marriage certificate his father's name is given as John Owen, occupation 'Waterman'. I'd like to be able to find out William's mother's name so that I can try and match up the John Owens I've found on the 1841 census with William's father, (supposing they were still alive then!), and find out whether he had any siblings. If someone could point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
Linda

There's only one Owen baptism at Fenstanton - Jane on 9 Sept 1832, daughter of John and Mary. She may have been William's sister, but that's pure speculation. More speculation is that it may have been a late baptism as the only Jane Owen I can see in Fenstanton in 1841 was aged 20, living with Joseph and Ann Mole (in 1851 William and Mary Ann had a daughter named Jane)

There are no Owen burials in Fenstanton 1701-1900

There are the following marriages in Fenstanton
1821 John Owen widower and Ann Stacy widow
1822 Ann Owen widow and John Eden

A John Eden 34 was buried on 21 Jul 1832 at Fenstanton
In 1833 Ann Eden widow married Joseph Mole widower

And finally I'm getting somewhere as Jane Owen age 20 in 1841 was living with Joseph and Ann Mole - so it seems as though Jane may have been the step? daughter of Ann. Also in the same household were Rebecca Eaden 15 and John Eaden 13. William Owen 15 was the previous entry, living in the Hall household.

There's a burial of John Owen age 55 at Bluntisham cum Earith on 11 Jul 1822, but I can't tell if it was the same John. Bluntisham is 5 miles from Fenstanton.

The only Stacy/Ann marriage that fits was at Fenstanton in 1812 between William Stacy and Ann Briers, but I can't see a burial of a William Stacey in Fenstanton 1812-21

You need to look at the parish record microfilms to get further details of the above events, but from dates it fits that Ann (Briers?) was William's mother

The Fenstanton marriages and some baptisms have been extracted onto the IGI, so you can check the dates yourself. But the batch that includes Jane Owen is one of the sexist female only batches, but I took my data from the BVRI which includes males as well!

David

Hi David
I'm extremely impressed that in a little over two hours you've managed to provide so much information. The original Ann Briers seems to have been a busy lady in the husband department.
I had found both Jane and William on the '41 census and did wonder if they were related. I'm sure it's the right William though as his age would have been rounded down from 19 to 15 and on the same page is a William Hurl (who appears as a witness on my William's marriage cert.) And he's living with a branch of the Hall family and five years later marries Mary Ann Hall.
Including Jane, who you mentioned, William and Mary had eight children in Fenstanton and I haven't been able to find baptism records for any of them so maybe they weren't 'regular church' people.
I've been working on the premise that John Owen was alive at the time of William's marriage as there was no (dec) after his name on the marriage certificate, as I've found on others, although maybe this wasn't standard practice at the time, I'm not sure.
I'm beginning to doubt whether the Owens originally came from Fenstanton after all, perhaps they were from a neighbouring village. I'm intrigued by the 'John and Mary on Jane Owen's baptism, I wonder who Mary was?
Now I have to admit my ignorance, I'm aware of IGI but I have no idea what the BVRI is that you mention, and where would I get hold of microfilms of parish records?
You've certainly given me a lot to think about.
Many thanks
Linda

This will be a quicky as I've got visitors from England arriving in the morning and the house is a TIP!

Jane in 1841 was aged 20 ie 20-24, so I suspect she could have been a daughter of John's earlier marriage, bearing in mind that John and Ann didn't marry until Dec 1821. But William born 1822 would seem to have been a son of John and Ann.

Fen Stanton baptisms only go up to 1843 on the IGI and BVRI, so that's possibly why you haven't found baptisms for William and Mary Ann. Hunts FHS sell a transcription on CDrom which goes up to 1990.

The BVRI is a CDrom set produced by the LDS, which is an adjunct. It's good for Hunts where so few parishes are on the IGI

Microfilms are available to order and view at your nearest LDS Family History Centre - list at www.familysearch.org

David

You can't assume that because a father on a marriage cert isn't described as deceased that he's alive.

"Father's name?" asks the vicar
"John Owen" she replied
No-one asked if he was alive or dead so she didn't volunteer the information that he was dead!

Happened often

(Equally you can't rely on the statement that the father was deceased!)

David

Thanks, David, more excellent information for me to follow up.
A quicky from me also as I have to get ready to go out for Sunday lunch.
Go easy on the housework, I'm sure your guests are more eager to see you than how tidy your home is!!
Best wishes
Linda

Hi Mary,

I've done a bit of work on 'your' HALL line in Fenstanton (the line descended from Israel HALL) because I'm descended from the 'other' HALL line down from Edward HALL who was about the same age as Israel. Neither Edward nor Israel (who were not siblings I believe) were baptised in Fenstanton.

I'd be very interested to know about the children of William OWEN and Mary Ann HALL.

cheers,
matt

Hi Matt

Not sure who Mary is? Maybe my Gt.Gt.Gt. Grandma? lol.
We were in touch a few months back, you kindly provided me with lots of nice information about my Hall ancestry but the Owens left me banging my head against a brick wall so in the meantime I've been finding out about another ancestor's adventures in Wellington's Rifle Brigade during the Peninsula wars, (looks like he was the only ancestor who was anything more interesting than a farm labourer!).
I have your email address so will email you later this evening (UK time)after dinner.
Best wishes
Linda

oops sorry Linda (not Mary). Glad the info helped :)