Thursday 3 May 2007

Mrs Norris Uncovered?

I'm happy to report that I have received further information on the 1816 sketch of East Malling entitled "Offices at Mrs Norris. East Malling". In my original post I asked if anyone knew the location in the photo or the name Norris. Unfortunately, we haven't been been able to pin-point the location, but courtesy of research advice provided by Paula Montandon, it has been possible to produce a list of people with the surname Norris who were christened at East Malling Parish Church. The search was carried out on http://www.familysearch.org/ (I will add this to the links section), which thankfully indexes the parish registers for East Malling (1570-1940).

Therefore, if we assume that the person in the photo is Mrs Norris and that she was christened at East Malling Parish it is possible that it could be one of the two females listed below, i.e. Mary or Elizabeth. However, based on these assumptions and the dates given, it would mean that sketch is of a 74 year old Mary or a 42 year old Elizabeth (if they were christened the year they were born). I excluded Emma on the basis that she would have been approximately 5 years old. If one was to choose between the two, bearing in mind a 74 year old person would have been extremely old in 1816, the likely candidate would be Elizabeth. This conclusion, I realise, is based on a lot of assumptions, but it hopefully may provide some more leads (e.g. one possibly being that I've got it all wrong!).

If anyone has any thoughts on this, please let me know.

1. MARY NORRIS - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Christening: 13 FEB 1742 East Malling, Kent, England

2. EMMA HENRIETTA NORRIS - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Christening: 10 JUL 1811 East Malling, Kent, England

3. EDWARD NORRIS - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Male Christening: 26 JAN 1770 East Malling, Kent, England

4. JAMES NORRIS - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Male Christening: 03 MAY 1772 East Malling, Kent, England

5. ELIZTH. NORRIS - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Christening: 13 FEB 1774 East Malling, Kent, England

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Surely for Elizabeth,Emma and Mary,Norris would have been their Maiden name? I wonder if we can find the marriage dates for James and Edward.
The Mrs.Norris in the drawing looks quite youthful and slim.

DJM said...

Hi Diane,

You're right - a horrendous oversight on my part. As you suggested the marriage dates for James and Edward may be useful.

Another potential lead is that Emma was born on 15 Jun 1811 and her parents are referred to as Henrietta and John Norris. Therefore, a young Henrietta could be a potential candidate.