The Mystery of Baby Martha Rawcliffe: 52 Ancestors - Week 32

"The Youngest" is this week's theme in Amy Johson Crow's year long prompt "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks"..

Martha Rawcliffe was my great grandmother Maria's youngest sister, who was born 20th January 1863, and died 22nd May 1863.  Yet her short life led to those perennial mysteries  that make family history. such an absorbing hobby.  

Researching the Rawcliffe family  was my first venture into family history and I was puzzled  by a number of issues. 

Mystery One

Maria's two granddaughters (who are still alive)   always referred to her as "Granny Maria". But there was a puzzle in that many official records, such as Maria's  1877 marriage certificate, the 1881 census entry, her burial record and my grandfather's  1907 birth certificate  all gave her Christian names  as "Martha Maria".   I sent away  to the local Registrar for Maria's  birth certificate c.1859 and outlined my confusion over her Christian name.

To my great surprise the result was two certificates - for Maria, daughter of Robert Rawcliffe and Jane Carr of Hambletlon, Lancashire born 15th January 1859 and another daughter Martha, born to Robert and Jane on  20th January 1863. 

Four months later Martha died.  Maria would only have been just three  years old then, so could hardly have remembered  her youngest sister.   Moreover their mother Jane died two years later, so could not have kept the memory alive of baby Martha for very long for  her other daughters. So why did Maria adopt her name along with her own?  We shall never know

                     My great grandmother Maria  or Martha Maria Rawcliffe (1859-1919) 

Mystery Two   

Early on in my ancestral trail, I turned to Family Search and was delighted to find entries for my  Rawcliffe family, including the name of "Martha Septima .  This intrigued me  - seventh daughter  after Anne, Jane,  Margaret, Alice, Jennet and Maria.  

But how did her Ag. Lab. father  and mother who only could make their  marks on their  marriage certificate in 1846, come to know this Latin tag?    On Maria's certificate of 1859,  Jane again is noted only for making her mark, but there is no such indication  on  Martha's entry. 

These were the days on Family Search when the name was given of the submitter of the information  - an American address and  I suspect a descendant of Maria's sister Alice who emigrated to USA.  I did write  but the letter came back "unknown", so very frustrating.  Many years later I traced the American connection, but no-one has come up with any clue to the "Septima" name.  

The only other record I have found mentioning "Septima" was  on Ancestry in the Lancashire, Church of England Births and Baptism.1813-1911.   

 
Mystery 3

The puzzle does not end there, as both the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk Project (OPC) and Family Search record the baptism of a Peggy Rawcliffe, born 1861 to Robert and Jane, which means Martha would not be the seventh  child but the eighth.   Sadly Peggy survived only 16 days.  

So baby Martha may have had only a short life, but her legacy lived on in the name of my great grandmother.  

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