The wrong birth certificate ! But.......

[marquette]

A while ago I was searching for the marriage of William Martin and Elizabeth Berwick, (and the baptism of Sophia Linn) with no success.

With helpful suggestions, I thought I had narrowed down the birth registration of their first child to

Martin Male Sep Q 1838 Brighton 7 235

and ordered a copy.

But alas, it is not the right one. This certificate is for a son of John Martin, bricklayer and his wife Mary nee Aikins, and the child was born in the workhouse (registered by the Master of the Workhouse).

Further investigations show that John and Mary were married in 1822 at St Nicholas Brighton and that this child was baptized Lambert James Martin, on 19 August 1838 and subsequently died in January 1839.

HOWEVER, doing a bit further research on John and Mary Martin – it would seem they married at St Nicholas Brighton, on 29 Jan 1822. Her maiden name was Mary Ann Akings/Aikins/Aikin. There is a baptism for Mary Ann Aickin on 26 Jun 1803 at St Nicholas to William and Hannah Aickin.

Now here is the scary bit – William Aiken married Hannah Linn 1797 and I already have them in my tree ! They had a son baptized in 1809 Masters Aiken and also William Linn Aiken in 1813. I had not researched them any further because of the many Aikin spelling variations.

So it looks like Mary Ann Aiken is the grand-daughter of Masters Linn and would be the cousin of my Sophia Linn, if I could prove her baptism !

I didn't get William Martin's birth certificate, but I got a whole new branch to investigate anyway !