Discovery of a Marriage and a Birth

This is a copy of my article which was published in the latest issue of the Toronto Tree, Volume 44, Issue 4, July/August 2013, pp. 6-7.   It’s based upon an item that I had posted earlier on this blog.  

DISCOVERY OF A MARRIAGE AND A BIRTH

Marcia Cuthbert

Adapted from a post on my blog, THE HAÁG FAMILY OF BUDAPEST, BERLIN AND LONDON: theodorehaagfamily.blogspot.com

In January 2013, taking advantage of some free credits on FindMyPast, I did a search for some of the unusual names in my family tree, one of them being that of my great grandfather, Theodore Haág. To my surprise, in the Westminster Baptisms database I found a reference to an 1852 baptism in London of a Charles Theodore Edward Haag. My Theodore had arrived in London in 1851 and so it was possible that this could be his child.

When I looked at the transcription of the record, I was amazed to find that the child’s father was in- deed Theodore Haag. Here is what the FindMyPast transcription showed:

First Name: Charles Theodore Edward 

Last Name: Haag 

Record set: Westminster Baptisms 

County: Middlesex

Mother's Given Name: Augustsa 

Father's First Name: Theodore 

St John The Baptist, Great Marlborough Street 

Baptism: 30 May 1852 

Birth: 03 Mar 1852

I suspected that the baby’s mother’s name might be “Augusta” rather than “Augustsa,” but with my computer I wasn’t able to access a copy of the original record. However, my second cousin in England was able to scan and e-mail me a copy and this is what it said (with question marks indicating a couple of illegible words):

BAPTISMS solemnized in the Parish of St. John Baptist, in the German Church, Savoy Strand in the County of Middlesex in the Year 1852

When Baptised: 1852, May 30th 

Born: March 3rd, 1852 

Child’s Christian Name: Charles Theodore Edward 

Parents Names: 

Christian–Theodore / Augusta [not Augustsa] 

Surname: Haag 

Abode: Compton place, Brunswick Square 

Quality, Trade, or Profession–Musician 

Sponsors: Mr (?) Chs. Jacobi & (?) Mother of the child.

The fact that this Theodore was a musician by profession meant that this is definitely my Theodore. His musical career as a violinist and orchestra leader is well documented in the 19th century British newspapers, many now available on line. But because of early deaths of parents leaving only very young children in two generations, we didn’t even know of the existence of Theodore until I discovered him through my family history research.

Of considerable importance is the discovery of the Haags’ association with the German congregation at the historic Savoy Protestant chapel in their earliest days in England, pointing towards a whole new direction for research in Protestant rather than Catholic records on the continent.

Looking up Compton Place on the map, I found that it is within steps of a route I have taken many times to and from a friend’s apartment on Judd Street in London, not knowing that my great grandfather had once lived so close by!

Now that I had the baptism of a previously unknown child of Theodore’s, I checked FreeBMD and found the following entry for a March 1852 birth:

Surname: Haag 

Given Name: Edward 

District: St. James

Could Edward Haag be the same person as Charles Theodore Edward Haag?

I ordered the birth registration and it provided the maiden surname of the mother, Auguste 

Müller. Here is the information contained on the certificate:

1852 BIRTH in the Sub-District of St. James Square in the County of Middlesex

When and where born: Third March 1852; 10 Queen Street, Regent Street 

Name, if any: Edward HAAG 

Name of Father: Theodor HAAG 

Name and Maiden Surname of Mother: Auguste HAAG, formerly Müller 

Occupation of Father: Musician

When Theodore had arrived in London from Berlin via Bremen on the Magnet in 1851, the “List of Aliens” that the ship’s captain was required to provide shows that Theodore had signed the list as “Theodor Haag and Wife.” Until now, the earliest wife I had known about was Mary Margaret Reynolds (my great grandmother), mother of their five children born between 1857 and 1868. But according to the UK 1861 census Mary Margaret was born about 1839, which would mean she was only about 12 in 1851, somewhat young to have been the “Wife” listed on the Magnet. The discovery of Edward Haag’s birth registration, with Auguste Müller as the mother, has provided the solution to the mystery.

A sad postscript was the discovery shortly afterwards on the FamilySearch website by my second cousin and fellow researcher of a Carl Edward Theodore Hagg (misspelled surname), with the following data:

Burial date: 16 July 1852; 

Burial place: St James, Westminster, Middlesex; 

Birth date: 1852; 

Age: 0.

This name also shows up on FreeBMD. The certificate was ordered and its arrival confirmed that this was the much too early death of Theodore Haag’s first son.

Among the remaining questions:

 Where is Theodore and Auguste’s marriage certificate?

 Who and where were their parents? And siblings, if any? All I know of Theodore’s family is that his father was said to be Gustav Haag, a major in the Austrian army, deceased by the time of Theodore’s 1872 third marriage, to Sarah Underwood.

 Who is Charles Jacobi, shown as sponsor at Edward’s baptism?

 And what had happened to Auguste when by 1857 Theodore had started a new family with second wife Mary Margaret Reynolds?

And some tried and true ways of finding answers:

 Take advantage of free trials of databases when they’re available.

 Search for your ancestors’ names under various spellings; for example, Haag, Haág, Hague, Haig, and even Hagg!

 Find a research buddy somewhere in the world, possibly by means of Genforum, which is where I found my second cousin.