Joanne from Australia brought the father and son John Burbidges to my attention. I thought it might be nice to investigate some ordinary people as well as the rich and famous.
I found John Burbidge junior b1829 in Dogsthorpe, in the 1851 census, living in Thorney, at the young age of 22 he is a widow with a daughter called Mary, aged 1, born in Thorney. He is living with his in laws Thomas and Betsy Shivers, which gives us a clue to his wife's maiden name. From this I found their marriage certificates, they were married in Oct 1847 and the wifes name was Jane Shivers.
From there I found Jane Shivers in the 1841 census aged 10, living with parents Thomas and Elizabeth (Betsy) in Thorney.
After this run of good luck I hit a brick wall, no other listings for John Burbidge born in Dogsthorpe in subsequent census. So I checked Death certificates and found John Burbidges had died in 1840, 1843, 1847, and 2 in 1848 in Peterborough alone. Burbidge may be fairly unusual, but they were all called John!
In 1861 there is a 11 year old Jane Burbidge born in Thorney and living with her Uncle and Aunt James and Alice Foster, and their 3 children William, Matilda and Joshua, still in Thorney. In 1851 there was a Mary Ann Foster who was also a grandaughter of the Shivers, which ties in with the Fosters being Mary Burbidge's aunt and uncle, and the fact that there was another Mary in the family would account for the name change, and it was her mothers name.
So a fascinating piece of detective work, but unfortunately only a very minor link to Dogsthorpe.
Joanne's update explains why John Burbidge wasn't in the later census:
"our John came to Australia leaving his daughter Mary Jane behind, he remarried to a Jane Hartley Brown and arrived here in australia 1855 on the Escort, I have tried to establish his father William Burbidge b c 1800, another lovely researcher has thought the family were from Paston"
I received contact from Graham Taylor via my Burbidge tree on Ancestry,co.uk. He is a direct descendant of the Burbidges and has traced them back via the Paston parish records to James Burbidge who died there in 1727.
He has a John Burbidge born in Paston in 1827, whose father was William Burbidge 1792 - 1827 also from Paston, his grandfather was Daniel Burbidge 1749 -1817, and Gt Grandfather Robert Burbidge b1710, whose father was James mentioed above. So although we haven't a direct link to Dogsthorpe the lived in the next village for over 100 years.
Updated 7/8/11