Lisa Maturo of the Baur, USA, writes:  I recently found out where my grandmother was from and I am not sure of the town. Her death records say she was from Hertfordshire- I was told she was from Berkhamsted which I see is in the county. Her name was Emily Elizabeth Mason born Oct 28, 1895. Her parents were John Mason and Emily Terry. I was told <heresay> that she was from a family that were servants and left England for Canada and then onto the United States. Would you be able to tell me the best way to find out where she was born and anything else about her parents. I would appreciate any help that you could give or any guidance.

If you know someone's date of birth after 1837 the standard procedure is to get their birth certificate - and if they were born in Hertfordshire you can order the certificate from HALS. In the case of Emily Elizabeth Mason and her parents, they are probably listed in the 1901 census (unless they had already emigrated) which is supposed to be available online - and it should be worth checking once they have sorted out the technical problems - hopefully in the next few months.

Once you have the birth certificate and census information you will be in a good position to get her parent's marriage and birth certificates and to locate them in the 1881 (and other) census.

A quick check of the 1881 census CD shows one possible relevant entry. The following family was living at Bourne End Lane, Northchurch:

Alexander MASON	Head	34	Platelayer	Hemel Hempstead
Emily MASON	Wife	29		Watford
John MASON	Son	11	Scholar	Hemel Hempstead
Alexander MASON	Son	8	Scholar	Hemel Hempstead
Albert MASON	Son	4	Scholar	Berkhamsted
Emily MASON	Daur	2	((Scholar))	Berkhamsted
William MASON	Daur	2 m		Northchurch

The John Mason listed here could be the father of Emily Elizabeth Mason but without more information it would be inadvisable to assume that he is the right John Mason. The census CD lists a large number of Emily Terry none of which were near Berkhamsted in 1881. However I note that the above John Mason had a mother and a sister called Emily and I am wondering if there could have been confusion between the generations.

[A comment on the above census data. If you look at a large scale map such as Multimap you will see that Northchurch is at the North end of Berkhamsted - but (for obscure historical reasons connected with parish boundaries) Bourne End Lane, is at Bourne End - between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead. The double bracketed item represents an "error" in the return in that a 2 year old was considered too young to be counted as a scholar.]

As a general piece of advice, as you clearly were unaware about birth certificates it would be a good idea to have a look at the introductory information about British Genealogy on GENUKI - or get a book on English Genealogy - so you know the kinds of information available.

If you can add to the information given above tell me.

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