Hi Cindy
I think we've been through the Cornelia/Amelia thing before!
The IGI (controlled extract, therefore reliable) shows:
Cornalia/Cornealia
Hooker chr 29 July 1784 at
Luton, dau of Richard and Mary
and
Amelia
Hooker christened 19 Aug 1787 at
Luton, dau of Richard and Mary
The NBI shows a burial of
Amelia Hooker at
Luton on 3 Nov 1787
The IGI also shows
Cornelia
Hooker married William Young 26 Apr 1803 at
Luton.
The 1830 directory and censuses all show her as
Cornelia, so I think you are on totally safe ground in assuming that it was the
Cornelia chr 1784 who married William in 1803.
Your only problem is the christening of William on 3 Nov 1805 where his mother is shown as
Amelia. As I and others have pointed out in the past,
Cornelia could easily be mistranscribed as Amelia; or it could have been simply an error by the vicar, who actually wrote down
Amelia. I am pretty sure it was an error by whoever wrote it in the parish register - the IGI was transcribed from the parish register, and the transcription made by Beds Record Office (which was compared with the Bishop's Transcript) also has it as
Amelia - as was confirmed to you on Rootschat a couple of years ago. So two sources think it was
Amelia written in the register.
This is an issue that you will probably NEVER be able to prove conclusively. It's a judgement call - on the balance of probabilities was William's mother
Amelia or
Cornelia?
For (
Amelia being the mother):
- the parish register says so. (But with illiterate parishioners the clerk wrote down what he thought he heard. He thought
Cornelia said
Amelia so that's what he wrote in the register. Just because it's in the register doesn't mean it's right).
Against:
1)- there's only one entry in Beds for
Amelia Hooker before 1805, which is the baptism I quoted above. And bear in mind that just about 100% of Beds pre 1812 has been extracted onto the IGI.
2)- this sole
Amelia Hooker was buried a month after she was baptised.
Of course she may not have been
Amelia Hooker, but another
Amelia altogether, BUT
3)- there's no marriage of William Young to an
Amelia anywhere in
England,let alone in Beds - the only one before 1805 was in 1710!
4)- there's no burial of an
Amelia Young in Beds 1600-1851
5)-if you believe that William's mother really was
Amelia then you must also accept there must have been two William Youngs; one who had William in 1805; and the other who married
Cornelia in 1803, but whose first child wasn't baptised until 1807 (unless of course there really was just the one William whose first wife was
Amelia [but see 3 and 4 above]whose son William was born prior to his marriage to
Cornelia and was a late baptism. But I think this is in the realm of fantasy.
I am SURE that William was the son of William and
Cornelia, but I can't prove it.
You could:
- check the microfilm of
Luton parish register to see what YOU think the 1805 baptism says - Amelia or
Cornelia. This can be viewed at your nearest Family History Center of the LDS. Or you could pay
Bedford and
Luton Archives and
Records Service (BLARS) to send you a print of the relevant page
- check the same register (or the transcript would be just as good) to see what the 1787 burial of
Amelia says - probably, and hopefully, simply daughter of Richard and Mary
- check with BLARS to see if either William senior or
Cornelia left a will, which might name children.
Regards
David
