LONDON-L Archives

Archiver > LONDON > 2005-03 > 1111616146


From: Eve McLaughlin <>
Subject: Re: [Lon] Child Witnesses
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 22:15:46 +0000
In-Reply-To: <GHEFKPKHFFPHFFDMJKLNIEPFGCAA.jean1.williams@ntlworld.com>


In message <>,
Jean Williams <> writes
>and further to Laura's query, does this also apply to deaths? I have a
>George KINGSTON present at the death of William Kingston. Now William
>married twice and called a son by the first marriage and a child by the
>second marriage George.
A young child might have been accepted as a valid witness to a marriage
(as long as he was capable of understanding what was going on. But I
think that letting a very small child notify a death was less likely,
except in the extreme circumstanmce where every other member of the
family had been wiped out by some epidemic. I would look for an uncle
(or cousin) of the same name/
However, it is not impossible that two sons by different marriages were
given the same forename, if the older one was from home when the younger
was born, or the second wife was nastily determined to have the name for
HER boy, blow the rest.

--
Eve McLaughlin

Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians
Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

This thread: