Diane wynne wrote: > I've been trawling through the parish registers of Harwich and have found > the baptisms of the following children: > > Sarah daughter of Henry and Sarah Deane baptised November 5 1764 > Sarah Maria daughter of Henry and Sarah Deane baptised December 3 1766 > > There is no burial record for the first Sarah and the family didn't move > away from Harwich. > Also there was only one set of parents called Henry and Sarah at the time. > > The question is, how likely is it that parents would have two living > children, one called Sarah and one called Sarah Maria? It could be that the elder Sarah was very ill and not expected to survive at the time her mum had her next child who was also a daughter so the new baby was baptised Sarah Maria. If the elder Sarah then surprised everyone and survived, the family would have two children with the same name living. It's fairly unusual but not all that unusual.