I am hoping someone else will have experienced something similar to my search for my G G grandfathers birth.Ideas on the likelihood of my conclusion welcome. My CREEDON family came from Ireland to Bradford before 1840. Two daughters had been born in Ireland and another was baptised in July 1840 in Bradford.My G G Grandfather Michael Creedon was my starting point and I search through the years 1842-1845 on the film indexes. He married in 1867 aged 24 and several census entries seem to support this age. I found several siblings, some short lived.Dennis, James , William were the sons found .Bradford Register office were very helpful with a thorough search. I began to think somehow he had not been registered. However on Michael's first daughters marriage certificate in 1897 as the father he is down as Michael Dennis. I now have his death certificate too with Michael Dennis CREEDON. I wonder if the birth certificate I have for Dennis born 1842, registered a week after birth is really what I have been looking for. I am hoping finding a baptism for the child may show Dennis to be Michael Dennis. I believe at that time a Registrar went to homes of newborns to get the details. The father of this 1842 week old, child was himself Denis so if a name had not yet been chosen perhaps this was almost an assumption Irish family -first son call him after the father. My searching has shown that other siblings births and deaths seem to have been registered correctly. Maybe the baptism will prove my theory. Any advice on what else might prove that Dennis born Nov 1842 is the child who became known as Michael (Dennis) ? By the way there was only the one family named CREEDON in Bradford for a good many years. If anyone has read this far what do you think? Valerie nee CREEDON

Valerie Please may I preface these thoughts by the comment that I am quite new to family history research, so these few ideas might not be good research, but perhaps reasonable..... It seems to me that your reasoning is good, and that your grandfather may well have been registered as Michael Dennis. Perhaps the Registrar asked the father "What's tha' name, lad?" and receiving the reply "Michael Dennis" without the "CREEDON" ever being mentioned, the Registrar then asked "And tha' son's name is to be?", with the informant anaswering "Michael, of course!!" I have a similar situation in my ancestors (I think!) with my illegitimate g-g-grandfather having his father detailed as Nathaniel MOORHOUSE on his Marriage Certificate - MOORHOUSE was his widowed mother's name (her husband having died six years earler), but his father's name actually was, I think, Nathaniel GREAVES. Hope this helps - but perhaps more logically check the original Michael DENNIS Birth Certificate to ascertain if the father was the informant, and if he was Michael DENNIS, and the name of the mother to see if this is correct; and perhaps also the Parish / Non-Conformist Records Best Regards Geoff (in a very wet Sevilla) >From: "Valerie Gilbert" <[email protected]> >Reply-To: [email protected] >To: <[email protected]> >Subject: [ENG-YKS-BRADFORD] Possible solution? >Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:24:29 +0100 > >I am hoping someone else will have experienced something similar to my >search for my G G grandfathers birth.Ideas on the likelihood of my >conclusion welcome. >My CREEDON family came from Ireland to Bradford before 1840. Two daughters >had been born in Ireland and another was baptised in July 1840 in >Bradford.My G G Grandfather Michael Creedon was my starting point and I >search through the years 1842-1845 on the film indexes. He married in 1867 >aged 24 and several census entries seem to support this age. I found >several siblings, some short lived.Dennis, James , William were the sons >found .Bradford Register office were very helpful with a thorough search. I >began to think somehow he had not been registered. >However on Michael's first daughters marriage certificate in 1897 as the >father he is down as Michael Dennis. >I now have his death certificate too with Michael Dennis CREEDON. >I wonder if the birth certificate I have for Dennis born 1842, registered a >week after birth is really what I have been looking for. I am hoping >finding a baptism for the child may show Dennis to be Michael Dennis. > I believe at that time a Registrar went to homes of newborns to get the >details. The father of this 1842 week old, child was himself Denis so if a >name had not yet been chosen perhaps this was almost an assumption Irish >family -first son call him after the father. >My searching has shown that other siblings births and deaths seem to have >been registered correctly. >Maybe the baptism will prove my theory. Any advice on what else might prove >that Dennis born Nov 1842 is the child who became known as Michael (Dennis) >? By the way there was only the one family named CREEDON in Bradford for a >good many years. >If anyone has read this far what do you think? > Valerie nee CREEDON > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >[email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without >the quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ Be the first to hear what's new at MSN - sign up to our free newsletters! http://www.msn.co.uk/newsletters

From: "Valerie Gilbert" <[email protected]> > I am hoping someone else will have experienced something similar to > my search for my G G grandfathers birth.Ideas on the likelihood of my > conclusion welcome. My CREEDON family came from Ireland to > Bradford before 1840. Two daughters had been born in Ireland and > another was baptised in July 1840 in Bradford.My G G Grandfather > Michael Creedon > was my starting point and I search through the years 1842-1845 on > the film indexes. He married in 1867 aged 24 and several census > entries seem to support this age. I found several siblings, some short > lived.Dennis, James , William were the sons found .Bradford Register > office were very helpful with a thorough search. I began to think > somehow he had not been registered. However on Michael's first > daughters marriage certificate in 1897 as the father he is down as > Michael Dennis. I now have his death certificate too with Michael > Dennis CREEDON. I wonder if the birth certificate I have for Dennis > born 1842, registered a week after birth is really what I have been > looking for. I am hoping finding a baptism for the child may show > Dennis to be Michael Dennis. > I believe at that time a Registrar went to homes of newborns to get > the details. The father of this 1842 week old, child was himself > Denis so if a name had not yet been chosen perhaps this was almost an > assumption Irish family -first son call him after the father. > My searching has shown that other siblings births and deaths seem to > have been registered correctly. Maybe the baptism will prove my > theory. Any advice on what else might prove that Dennis born Nov 1842 > is the child who became known as Michael (Dennis) ? By the way there > was only the one family named CREEDON in Bradford for a good many > years. If anyone has read this far what do you think?< It is certainly true that in the early days of civil registration the Registrar or his assistants had to "trawl" for births, literally knocking on doors asking if there were any newly-borns recently in the household. Though technically registration was compulsory from the start, it didn't become compulsory in the sense that people could be fined for non-registration until 1875. It's been estimated that in some areas in the early days of civil registration as many as 15-20 per cent of children weren't registered. There is also the thought that as the family were Irish and relatively recently arrived (presumably) they might well have been wary of authority of any kind - a lot of people (and not just the Irish) were in those days. A further factor is that he might have used two names - again many did in those days. He might have been known as Michael Dennis and/or Michael Creedon and used both frequently. And forgive me, but the whole family may well have been illiterate, so wouldn't necessarily know which to use when confronted with having to give their names. A quick search of FreeBMD and the GRO Indexes at 1838online reveals no-one of either name registered in 1842. However, you say you have a birth certificate for Dennis in 1842 - could be be more precise as to where that came from and what it actually says? GRO or local Register Office? -- Roy Stockdill Guild of One-Name Studies: www.one-name.org Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE