Miles Fitzhenry, cowkeeper in Birmingham (Fites Henry - another deviant spelling of the surname)

From the Wright's Directory for Birmingham 1869
FITZHENRY Miles, Cowkeeper, 68 Warwick Street

So where was he in the 1871 census?
Firstly in the intervening 2 years he had moved - to King's Norton in Worcestershire.
Secondly, the enumerator had written his name (in beautiful handwriting) as
Miles FITES HENRY, and all the other members of the household as "(Forename) ditto".
Ancestry copied this inaccuracy throughout the family.
When FindMyPast got hold of it, Fites became Miles' middle name so he is found indexed as
Miles Fites HENRY, with all the other members of the family indexed as (Forename) Henry.

So where had this variant spelling come from?
Looking at Miles' marriage to Betsy Young in the 1st quarter of 1859, his surname is correctly spelt as Fitzhenry.
Their eldest daughter was also born in the 1st quarter of 1859 and she is registered as Esther FITESHENRY
The next child is Edward and I can't find him registered under any variant of Fitzhenry, but putting "Edward" and "Aston" as the registration district (which was where all the subsequent children were registered) I found an Edward MILES registered in September 1860 (Aston 6b page 224 if anyone has the certificate and wants to share). The other children were all registered as Fitzhenry (when there is a registration listed for them).

Here's the corrected version of the census entry.
1871 census England
FITZHENRY, Miles
Head M 35 1836 Ireland county Galway milkman

FITZHENRY, Betsy (nee Young)
Wife F 32 1839 Worcestershire Northfield

FITZHENRY, Esther
Daughter F 12 1859 Worcestershire Northfield Scholar

FITZHENRY, Edward
Son M 10 1861 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, William
Son M 9 1862 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, Thomas
Son M 7 1864 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, Jane
Daughter F 4 1867 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, George
Son M 1 1870 Warwickshire Birmingham

FITZHENRY, Betsy
Daughter F 3 months 1871 Warwickshire Birmingham

RGnumber:RG10 Piece:3080 Folio:118 Page:13
Address: 52 Thomas Street, Kings Norton County:Worcestershire

Missing from this list are 2 children who died in infancy:
Mary Ann Fitzhenry born and died in the 4th quarter 1867
John Fitzhenry born and died in the 1st quarter 1869

Miles Fitzhenry himself died in the 2nd quarter of 1893. His age of death was given as 68 which would have actually made his date of birth 1825 rather than 1836 as was stated in the census.

Are any of these Fitzhenrys your family? Drop us a line and let us know.

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Deviants and variants

It turns out that the transcription errors in the 1841 and 1881 censuses that I called "variants" are in fact "deviants".

What's the difference?

A variant is a local change of surname spelling. It may start out as a spelling error when a member of the family or a clerk spells a name wrongly, but if it becomes the accepted local or family spelling, then it becomes a variant. The surname Fitzhenry started out with a hyphen after the Norman conquest, but lost it in most cases. There is a family in the US called Fitzsenry which undoubtedly started out as Fitz(-)henry, but got spelt that way during the immigration process in the 19th century and the spelling stuck.

A deviant is a mis-spelling. It's just plain wrong. Just like those census transcription errors. Speaking of which, I was emailed today by Val from Liverpool who had spent ages looking for her Fitzhenry family in the 1841 census, only to find them indexed as Fitzhenay!

And we've also been contacted by Kim, whose Fitzhenry line in the US dropped the Fitz several generations ago and are now officially just Henrys. Which does make them an extreme variant.

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More "extreme variants" from the 1841 census

On the Findmypast.com website, members of my own family are variously named Fitzberry and Fitzhoney. If I hadn't known they were there, I never would have found them. These names go right under the variant radar....

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The English 1881 census - the "extreme variants" named

So here are those twelve Fitz(-)henrys that take a bit more effort to find and my thoughts about where they fit in.

Miles FITZ HENRY OR HENRY Lodger U Male 20 Bham, Warwick, England
11 Garrison Lane, 3 Ct 3 House, Aston, Warwick, England
Family History Library Film 1341722
Public Records Office Ref. RG11 Piece / Folio 3022 / 95 Page 4
This man is likely to be the son of Miles FH of Albion Street, Yardley, Worcester.

Henrietta Fitz HENRY Lodger U Female 26 Jersey, Channel Islands Schoolmistress
High St, Carisbrooke, Hampshire, England
Family History Library Film 1341288
Public Records Office Ref RG11 Piece / Folio 1176 / 104 Page 8
This is the eldest daughter of William Fitz-Henry of Winchester, Hampshire and Ashtead, Surrey. Although the county is given as Hampshire, Carisbrooke is on the Isle of Wight. Carisbrooke was a very trendy place in this era as Queen Victoria had her summer retreat there.

John FITZHEURY Patient U Male 22 Grimsby, Lincoln, England Seaman
Dreadnought Seamens Hospital Greenwich S E Kent, England
Family History Library Film 1341169
Public Records Office Ref RG11 Piece / Folio 0727 / 116 Page 2
This may be the future husband of Tasmania Palfrey. Grimsby was a busy fishing port but is not a town that has "native" Fitzhenrys. On the marriage certificate of Tasmania and John FH, his father is also noted as a seaman, so this may be the reason he was born there.

William FITZHENNY Lodger U Male 34 Pimlico, Middlesex, England Music Librarian
29 Gt James Street London, Middlesex, England
Family History Library Film 1341074
Public Records Office Ref RG11 Piece / Folio 0339 / 77 Page Number 64
This man is a member of Lesley Champion's family.

John W FITZHENNY Head M male 25 Middlesex St Pancras Solicitors general clerk
Honoria J. FITZHENNY Wife M female 24 Middlesex Hoxton
Emily M. FITZHENNY Daug U female 8 mon Middlesex St Pancras
9 Warner Street, Islington Middlesex
Family History Library film 1341052
PRO ref RG11 Piece / folio 241 / 100 Page 4

Edward FITZHEURY Head M Male 41 Liverpool, Lancashire, England Coppersmith
John R. FITZHEURY Son Male 13 Liverpool, Lancashire, England Scholar
James FITZHEURY Son Male 9 Liverpool, Lancashire, England Scholar
Daniel FITZHEURY Son Male 6 Liverpool, Lancashire, England Scholar
Matthew FITZHEURY Son Male 4 Liverpool, Lancashire, England
18 Back Blake St, Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Family History Library Film 1341867
Public Records Office Ref RG11 Piece / Folio 3621 / 33 Page 28


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