On 12 Nov 2010, at 09:54, April Moran wrote: > Thanks Judy, here goes: > > My original query was this, On a baptism image, the words 'of Rate' > were > written after the fathers name but before his occupation, can any > one tell > me what this means? - I think it is probably a shortened version of 'Ratcliffe' then a hamlet of Stepney. There is a squiggle after the 'c'. Notice that some others are of Poplar, not then a separate parish, and others of MENT ie Mile End New Town and MEOT, Mile End Old Town. JH > > I have been looking for a John Wilkinson b.1764 on the Ancestry > site, this > is what I found: > Name: John Wilkinson - baptism date: 9th March 1764, parish: > St.Dunstans and > All Saints, County: Middlesex, Borough: Tower Hamlets, Parents: Philip > Wilkinson, Eliz Wilkinson > > On the image itself it states: > John son of Philip Wilkinson. of Rate~ Mercer & Eliz~. > > I have since found a couple of Burials with this wording, one gives > the > person's name then wording 'of Rate' the other gives the person's > name and > then the wording 'from Rate', which leads me to think that this > wording > could mean the area where they are living? > If so, where is Rate, or is this a shortened version? > > Whilst I have been writing this and looking at the image, I have just > thought - Could this wording be a shortened version of Ratcliffe? > > Pleased to here any ideas any one may have, > April