there is a matching family on the 1841 England Census.
Edward MITCHELL, Elisabeth MITCHELL and three children George, Caleb and Charles. The fourth child must have been born after the 1841 Census date of 6th June 1841. They were living at thelittle Hamlet of Dingleden in the Parish of Benenden, Kent. Edward was an "Ag Lab" (Agricultural Labourer).
There is a birth record that "could" be the fourth child - but this is NOT guaranteed. You'd have to order the actual certificate to be certain (this would also give you Elizabeths maiden name). The reason I think it is possibly your missing fourth child is that he is named Edward after his father and thebirth occured in the same registration district as his brother Charles, which is Cranbrook (Benenden in Kent falls under this district). He was regsistered in Jul-Aug- Sep of 1841 (which was after the Census date).
There is a death record for a Caleb MITCHELL in Australia 17th June 1926 (it doesn't give any connecting information, but this could fit your Caleb - he would have been 88 so it could be the same man).
Thank you very much for that and it sounds correct. I just have one question how do I go about getting birth certificates and marriage certificate etc ?. ( Who to contact ? )
Hi Jillian - you're very welcome - glad I could help.
You can order certificates from the UK very easliy. It costs 9.25 (GBP - or sterling) per certificate including postage worldwide. I use the service all the time and have had much success with it.
Go to the GRO web site here: http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/ then click on the "Order Certificates Online" link and away you go - you'll need to register etc (Register/Log in link). Have a read and you''ll become familiar with how it works.
The freebmd website at http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ is where you can search the index of England and Wales Births, Marriages and Deaths occuring between September 1837 (this is when civil registration became mandatory) through 1982. Before that we rely on Parish records kept by the church - so your Edward will be the only child of the couple that "had" to be registered. This is where I found Edwards birth. You can even view the original image of the index to be sure the transcription is correct and save any errors (I checked Edwards already and it's fine).
So - what you need from the freebmd site to order Edwards birth from the GRO site is the following:
You will be asked to select whether a Birth, Marriage, or Death - birth obviously, then...
Name: Edward Mitchell
District in which the birth was registered: Cranbrook
Quarter in which the birth was registered: September
Year in which registered: 1841
Volume number: 5
Page Number: 73
It's really very easy and will probably be with you in about three weeks. I usually get mine within two weeks to Canada. :)
