I know the literal meaning of the word, of course, and can see how it applies to parish record entries. However, does anyone have practical experience of how it was applied. For instance my 3g-grandparents marriage at Christchurch has: "John LANE m Elizabeth WOSSEN on 24 April 1808, John of Chch, she a sojourner" This WOSSEN name has got me puzzled. There is a Betty WOSEN who had a base-born daughter in Milton in 1802. Is nearby Milton far enough away for someone to be called a sojourner ? Francis Auckland, NZ

Hi Francis, my guess is that Wossen is derived from a place-name, probably from Woolston (just across the River Itchen from Southampton [there are others]) - my reason for saying this is that Wosencroft is definitely from Woolstonecroft [i.e., Wolstancroft]). You need only move one parish away to be regarded as a sojourner by the parish authorities, ever-mindful of possible drains on the parish rates (sojourners, rather than residents, could be returned to their birth parish if they turned out to be an expense). Old Milton was more than one parish away so qualifies well. New Milton (1904) even further and Milton proper is in Soiuthampton. Regards, David

A sojourner is a temporary resident so maybe she was visiting at the John and they decided to marry while she was there. Chris . ----- Original Message ----- From: "Francis Payne" <francisp@xtra.co.nz> To: <eng-hampshire@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2008 8:32 AM Subject: [ENG-HANTS] Meaning of SOJOURNER >I know the literal meaning of the word, of course, and can see how it > applies to parish record entries. However, does anyone have practical > experience of how it was applied. For instance my 3g-grandparents marriage > at Christchurch has: > > "John LANE m Elizabeth WOSSEN on 24 April 1808, John of Chch, she a > sojourner" > > This WOSSEN name has got me puzzled. There is a Betty WOSEN who had a > base-born daughter in Milton in 1802. Is nearby Milton far enough away for > someone to be called a sojourner ? > > Francis > > Auckland, NZ > > > ............................................. > Want to contact the local community? > Please visit Hampshire Parish Jottings > http://hants.parishjottings.org.uk > ............................................. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ENG-HAMPSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Francis Payne wrote: > For instance my 3g-grandparents marriage at Christchurch has: > > "John LANE m Elizabeth WOSSEN on 24 April 1808, John of Chch, she a > sojourner" > > This WOSSEN name has got me puzzled. There is a Betty WOSEN who had > a base-born daughter in Milton in 1802. Is nearby Milton far enough > away for someone to be called a sojourner ? Yes. As you know, sojourner just means someone who was temporarily resident in a place other than that in which they had residency. At that time it didn't matter if the place was 100 miles away or a quarter of a mile away, especially if that short distance put them across a parish boundary and thus another parish's responsibility if the sojourner should become a charge on the parish of temporary residence.