Q&A

KATHERINE COBB is a member of AGRA based in Somerset

EMMA JOLLY is a writer, historical researcher and member of AGRA

JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress historian and portrait specialist

ALAN STEWART is a family history writer, and author of Grow Your Own Family Tree

RUTH SYMES is the author of Tracing Your Ancestors Through Letters & Personal Writings

STEPHEN THOMAS is a genealogist with over 20 years’ experience

PHIL TOMASELLI is a military family history expert, and wrote Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors

Was Victoria Bartram a bigamist?

Q My wife’s great great grandfather was Charles Bartram. His first child, Charles Albert Bartram, was born in Walthamstow on 18 May 1861 to Victoria Bartram formerly Cook. She married John Impey in 1873, but we can’t find a death record for Charles.

Philip Clarke

A The 1861 census records Charles Bartram, a 33-year-old married bookseller, living alone as a lodger in Walthamstow. In the same census, Victoria, his purported wife, is at home with her parents in Great Yeldham, Essex, where she is recorded as “Victoria Barham, unmarried”. The census was taken on 7 April and the couple’s son, Charles Albert Bartram, was born on 18 May 1861, so she would have been obviously pregnant at the time.

There is no registered marriage of a Charles Bartram to Victoria Cook(e) between 1850 and 1861