Author: Ian Elsom

Top of the League

Rio de Janeiro has been the warmest of my Ten Stations for all but two of the last 22 weeks. Its mean daily temperature above Pre-Industrial (my version) has dipped below the dreaded 2 degrees C and seems unlikely to rise again this meteorological year. Rio and the southern hemisphere are running cooler than the trendlines indicated at the end of August.

Wk46_RioSouthTREND

Below are a couple of graphs that present the Week 46 Mean Temperature in a different way. I have ranked the table from highest to the lowest temperature and added Durham Tees to the Ten Stations to put north-east England into what passes for a global context. I’ve given the ten stations “hemisphere colours” and Durham Tees the indicator colour for the goldilocks zone – not too hot and not too cold (between zero and 1.49°C above Pre-Industrial). You can clearly see the four stations “over the limit” in Week 46. (Mumbai is the week’s elephant in the room.)

Week46_wkplusYTDinsets

Don’t be too complacent that the running average is below two degrees for all my stations as we near the end of the year. Robin at Seemorerocks offers an article by Anton Troianovski from The Independent about the melting permafrost in Siberia. Koltsovo is a long way from Siberia but is catching some of the heat. Climate Reanalyzer shows much of the Arctic Ocean to be over 4°C above average for much of the coming week, though mainland Siberia appears to be cooler.

Should one of my ten stations rise above two degrees next week, I think it will be Sydney. If I had a house, I’d put it on Buenos Aires being coolest. Again.

One Sarah or Two?

The birth families of Job Charles CHAPMAN and the IBBERSON sisters were scattered (and incomplete) on FamilySearch. I wanted to bring them together so that I could attach the photographs of the St Oswald’s memorials to their records on the Shared Tree. I happened upon two Chapman girls called Sarah who were alive at the same time and had the same parents. Or so the records indicated.

Every life is precious and should be acknowledged, but my first instinct was to put just one Sarah on the Shared Tree, to be on the safe side. But then I found that christening sources had generated a FamilySearch record for both, though without placing them in the same family unit. When I brought them together, I triggered a duplicate child warning. In my limited experience, these can be readily dismissed, when weeks, months or years pass between the death of one and the birth of the other. But with these two girls…

Here are the GRO digital records of the handwritten birth register entries: –

CHAPMAN, Sarah, Mother’s Maiden Surname: MEABE (sic). GRO Reference: 1840 S Quarter in FROME UNION Volume 10 Page 346.

CHAPMAN, Sarah, Mother’s Maiden Surname: MEAD. GRO Reference: 1841 D Quarter in FROME UNION Volume 10 Page 388.

Is it safe to assume that “MEABE” is a misreading of MEADE? The mother, Anne, is sometimes Ann, sometimes MEAD, occasionally MEADE. So why shouldn’t she be MEABE also?

Here are the christening records as displayed by FamilySearch.

Sarah1_christening_FST

Sarah2_christening_FST

The census is consistent in giving the birthplace of all the Chapman children as Rodden, a small village just outside Frome. It has a small church (All Saints) – so why would James and Anne take their babies 35 miles to be christened? The answer is – they wouldn’t. There is a Baptism record at Somerset Archives, accessed via Find My Past, giving the same date and the same parents for Sarah 1 but indicating that the family residence and place of baptism was Rodden. It also gives father James’ occupation – Slubber. I can only think that Rodden register entries were collected with those from dozens of other parish churches and placed in a Preston-Plucknett chest. (You may have a better explanation.)

Here is the death registration for Sarah 1: –

CHAPMAN, Sarah, Age at Death (in years): 1. GRO Reference: 1842 M Quarter in FROME UNION Volume 10 Page 297.

This is consistent with a record for her burial at Rodden on 18 January 1842.

The 1841 census records three children at Wallbridge Gate: Phillip 3, Emma 2 and Sarah 1.

In 1851, expecting her to be eleven years old, we find Sarah is aged 10. This would not be a caution if she was the only Sarah in the family but, in 1871, she tells the enumerator that she is 29. This year difference becomes significant if she is a second Sarah. (A record of Sarah 2’s death remains elusive.)

It seems clear to me that two little girls called Sarah were born to James and Anne. So, is the registration of Sarah 1’s death in the first quarter of 1842 and the birth of Sarah Two in the last quarter of 1841 a problem? If you don’t have a death date for someone, reckoning on three days before burial may prove to be correct in more than 50% of cases. But if Sarah 1 died on Christmas Day (say) and December was particularly cold a delay before her burial may have been necessary. The weather was not so inclement that Sarah 2’s birth couldn’t be registered “on time” in nearby Frome. But frozen ground, or a coroner’s inquest, could account for the late registration of Sarah 1’s death. (It isn’t difficult to imagine the family suffering the death of one girl child, quickly followed by the birth of another. The parents’ emotional state may have determined the naming of the newcomer. Sarah could live again.)

As I have been writing this and doing some more online searches, I have found a One-Name Study Tree that includes this Chapman family. It is a joy to behold because it is powered by Darrin Lythgoe’s genealogy software – but it also accepts that there were two girls called Sarah. Here is a screenshot: –

ChapmanFamily_Philo_screenshot

If you want to explore further, visit The Philo Family. And find the Rodden Chapmans on the FamilySearch Shared Tree here.