For roughly 100 years (from 1750 to 1850), the homebase of my Randall family line was Huntingdon, England. My 4th great-grandfather Charles Randall was born in 1784 and baptised at All Saints church in Huntingdon. In 1806 he married Mary Pattison, who was from the nearby town St Neots. When I started my genealogy journey, I thought Mary Pattison was the mother of all of Charles’ children. So did everyone else researching this line. But I soon noticed some red flags that led me to dig deeper.
St Mary’s church, Huntingdon
Charles and Mary (Pattison) baptised their first child at St Mary’s church in Huntingdon. It was a boy named Henry Randall, born in 1807, but not baptised until January 1809. Later in 1809 Charles and Mary baptised a girl named Mary; she died a few months later. Then there is a gap in the baptisms for children of Charles Randall until the baptism of Charles Jr in 1815 at All Saints, Huntingdon. These records do not include the maiden name of the mother. It sure would help if they did. But it is important to note that on these later baptisms the mother’s first name is recorded as Mary Ann, not Mary.
The 1817 baptism record for John Randall (sometimes called John Henry Randall) at Huntingdon All Saints (second line). Image from FamilySearch (Parish registers for All Saints' and St. John's Church, Huntingdon, 1558-1876).
In total, Charles and Mary Ann Randall baptised 8 children at All Saints, Huntingdon. The youngest child, Phillip, used the name Phillip Allpress Randall throughout his life. Where did this middle name of Allpress come from? It didn’t come from Mary Pattison. There was no one named Allpress on her side.
I also saw the Allpress name listed in a transcribed death record for Fred Randall, who died in 1885 in Maldon, Victoria, Australia, at the estimated age of 65 (Australia Death Index, 1787-1985, Ancestry.com). Father’s name? Charles. Mother’s maiden name? Allpress. This death record didn’t include a birthplace, but it was a match for Frederick Randall, who was baptised at All Saints, Huntington, in 1822, to parents Charles and Mary Ann.
I searched for a marriage of Charles Randall to a Mary or Mary Ann Allpress in Huntingdon but did not find it. I did, however, find the marriage mentioned in a newspaper.
The marriage of Charles Randall and Mary Ann Allpress noted in the Stamford Mercury, 31 Jul, 1812
I expanded my search area and found the parish record for their marriage in Potton, Bedfordshire. I had never heard of this town before, but I would later learn that the Randalls have roots in Bedfordshire. Potton was the hometown of Charles’ grandmother Martha Edwards, who married John Randall, of nearby Sandy. Mary Ann Allpress was originally from Fenstanton but was probably working in Potton as a servant. Why Potton? Her father’s cousin John Lucas lived there with his wife Mary Randall. Mary (Randall) Lucas was Charles’ aunt. Now it starts to make a bit more sense why a man from Huntingdon met and married a woman from Fenstanton in the completely different town of Potton.
The 1812 marriage record of Charles Randall, widower of St Mary’s Huntingdon, and Mary Ann Allpress, spinster of Potton. Image from FamilySearch (Parish registers for Potton, 1614-1948).
So what happened to Charles’ first wife Mary Pattison? She passed away in 1810 of an unspecified “lingering” illness and was buried on the 25th of February at St Mary’s Huntingdon. She was just 25 years old.
Mention of the death of Mary (Pattison) Randall in Drake’s Stamford News, 23 Feb, 1810
Thus, the mother of Charles’ oldest son Henry was Mary Pattison (1785-1810), but the mother of his other surviving children, including my direct ancestor John Henry Randall, was Mary Ann Allpress (1786-1830). These findings are backed up by the wills of the children’s grandparents (as found in Probate Records of the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon, 1585-1858). Mary Pattison’s father Robert passed in 1821 and mentions grandson Henry in his will, while Mary Ann Allpress’s father Phillip died in 1838 and mentions in his will his various grandchildren with the surname of Randall. (Lucky for me, the grandfathers in this case lived long enough and had sufficient means to leave something to their grandchildren in their will.)
Thankfully I had not researched the Pattison line in-depth before realizing that I was instead an Allpress descendant. After I got my tree sorted and assigned Mary Ann Allpress as the mother of my ancestor John Henry Randall (1817-1849), I was able to embark on research of her paternal (Allpress) and maternal (Taylor) lines, which I will present in a future blog post.
If you are working on your family tree, make sure you properly record all of the marriages of your ancestors. Be sure to differentiate between birth parents and stepparents. If parish records do not state the maiden name of the mother on a child’s baptism, it is up to you as the researcher to uncover the mother’s identity.
Things to look out for in a family’s baptism records:
Gaps in time
Changes in baptism location (switching to a different church)
Changes in the mother’s first name. For example, Mary and Mary Anne are not the same name. Eliza and Elizabeth may be different women as well.
Unusual or uncommon first or middle names given to children. These are often a surname from the mother’s side!
Other Records to check:
Newspapers
Grandparents’ wills for mentions of their grandchildren.
Burial records for the family’s surname in your place of interest to find wives and children who passed away. Best care scenario: a child’s burial record lists both parents’ names (e.g., “Robert, son of John Parker and his wife Anne”) or at least the name of the father. A married woman’s burial record will (hopefully) list the name of her husband (e.g., Anne Parker, wife of John). For UK research, I prefer to do these searches in Find My Past, but parish transcripts may be available in FreeReg and at local archives and family history societies.
Look for subsequent marriages of your ancestors after the death of a spouse. Expand your search area to include marriages that took place in another town.
Sources
As of early 2025, transcribed parish records for Huntingdon All Saints and Huntingdon St Mary’s can be found on Ancestry.com, FindMyPast, and FreeReg. Parish images can be viewed on FamilySearch, but only from an Affiliate Library.
Transcribed parish records for Potton can be found on Ancestry.com or FindMyPast (they are not on FreeReg). Parish images can be viewed on FamilySearch, but only from an Affiliate Library.
Huntingdonshire wills (pre-1858) are available on FamilySearch and are easier than ever to locate with the new Full-Text Search.