Bahá'í Faith

Hi Malcom,

Good idea! Yes, I think we could do that. Will let you know when it's set up.

Thank you, Malcolm. I posted this reply to the merge request, and copy it here:

It looks like there's a question of how to list his family name (or "Last Name at Birth," LNAB). This would be a key consideration in how to merge the two profiles (which as you note, represent the same person).

My impression was that the LNAB would be "Baker." One notes that his father and some of his siblings also had the surname "St. Barbe" before "Baker," but that his paternal grandfather did not. Was the family name compounded at some point?

Note the difference in treatment of his name by the Bahá'i Encyclopedia and Wikipedia.

I'll pose the question to some who may have an answer and follow up.

As far as I can tell, his LNAB was "Baker".

His World War I service record lists him as Baker, Richard Edward St Barbe , which is also how he appears in the 1889 England civil birth index.

The 1891 England Census has him as Richard St Barbe Baker and his father as John St Barbe Baker, but his mother is just Charlotte S. Baker. In fact, apart from the 1911 census, Charlotte Sophia Purrott Baker is never referred to by "St Barbe" on any legal document.

Richard St Barbe Baker appears to have started using "St Barbe" as a first name some time after WWI. Which is also the same time that his siblings began using "St Barbe" as part of their surname; apart from one sister, none of their birth records list it. I think you may be right that at some point it morphed into a combined surname! However...

His second wife is just Catriona Baker, not Catriona St Barbe Baker. Not sure about his children, who appear to be still living.

And then there are his books. The National Library of Australia has his 1944 edition of "I planted trees" under Baker, Richard St Barbe.

I can't remember it now, but I'm sure I've come across a biography where he or someone else wondered where the St Barbe name came from. His father was John Richard St Barbe Baker, and it was theorised that he was named after Sir Richard St Barbe, who lived in the 13th century.

Apologies for prattling on, but there it is.

Thanks, Vicki, for the added info and the merge. It may actually be worth a "research note" on the profile regarding the family name, as it seems to get complicated. I just came across a website with some background on "St. Barbe," including the fact that RESBB's father had actually registered "St. Barbe Baker." See https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/st-barbe-the-family-name/ (this page also indicates uncertainty over the reason for use of St. Barbe.)

That said, the evidence you cite indicates that the original family name of "Baker" continued to be used.

BTW, the webpage cited also has more info on RESBB's first marriage (apparently 1946, and lasting for ~7 years) and two children.

Also BTW, here is a link to the WikiTree profile under discussion: Richard Edward St. Barbe Baker OBE, MC (1889 - 1982)

Hey Don, thanks for the link and further info.

It's interesting that the blog's author (and others) have assumed that "St Barbe" was part of his surname, but I'm not seeing evidence that Richard actually used it that way! His father may have tacked it on later in life - the 1911 England Census recorded everyone in his household as [So-And-So] St. Barbe Baker (Richard was living elsewhere by that time) - but even that's kind of iffy because his death record and probate are still filed under "Baker, John Richard St. Barbe" and not "St Barbe Baker, John Richard" as one might expect. I haven't looked too deeply into the lives of his siblings, but it would be interesting to see whether it became part of their surnames or just an extra middle name.

Anyway, a Research Note is a good idea and I'll add that one in! I might also put a comment on that blog page as now we know his parents' exact birthdates (vs a range).

To muddy the waters a bit further...

I found a follow-up post on the same blog, dated two years later, with some updated info on the family's history with the St. Barbe name: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com/2018/03/11/st-barbe/

"Many wonderful days filled Richard St. Barbe Baker’s long life. As an adult he was affectionately called by his middle[sic] name, St. Barbe ~ a French surname that had been in his family for generations. His admirers considered him a ‘saint’ because he whole-heartedly devoted himself to helping the planet. He called himself a conservationist and an “Earth Healer. (Malnor. 2009) ”

Richard St. Barbe Baker was the eldest living child born to Reverend John Thomas Wright Baker and Charlotte Purrott. Baker and Purrott were married in 1886, and it was around this time that John Baker added the St. Barbe family name to his surname. In total, John and Charlotte had six children all christened with the addition of St Barbe in the surname ‘St Barbe Baker’ in honour of a branch of the family connected with the St Barbe’s of Romsey [Westender May June 2017. Volume 10 Number 11].

So, what I'm getting here is that RSSB's father definitely used St. Barbe as a surname, but not until after his marriage. Malcom has kindly added RSSB's christening record to his profile (thank you, Malcom!), which is dated 24 January 1910 and does show his surname as a hyphenated "St. Barbe-Baker". However, he was 20 years old by then and, as far as I can tell, he does not appear to have actually used it that way himself, as his military records and even the 1939 E&W Register still puts him as "Baker, Richard Edward St. B". The source in the blog post concedes that St. Barbe was a middle name first.

The post erroneously lists Rev. John Thomas Wright Baker as his father (he was actually RSSB's grandfather).

Thanks, Vicky. I understand that Paul Hanley in his biography of RESBB used "Baker," but perhaps more as a matter of convenience? https://uofrpress.ca/Books/M/Man-of-the-Trees

In any event, it seems that there may not be a clear-cut answer, given evidence of changing usage. It must be hard to amend a family name in this way (at least in Anglophone cultures?), especially when a hyphen is not used to make the change clear and more or less indelible. Easy to truncate and just use the more commonly familiar "Baker" surname in some contexts (might that flexibility have been an intent?). And might the fact that "St. Barbe" itself has two parts have complicated matters?

Hello Malcom, thanks for bringing the St Barbe Baker duplicate to our attention! I've gone ahead and completed the merge.

Also see you've joined the project, so, welcome!

Thank you, Charles, and welcome. Sounds like an interesting and useful project. You are right, of course, that discretion is advised on the topic of living people (personally I never go there except for very close relatives, with their permission). That said, there are privacy controls one can put in place for living people. Anyway, glad to make your acquaintance, and looking forward to communicating further on this and related projects.

Hi Carleton,

Thanks for letting us know about her profile!

To add her to the Knights of Baha'u'llah category, Just put this code at the top of her profile page, above the = Biography = heading:

[[Category: Baha'i Knights of Baha'u'llah]]

You might also add the [[Category: 20th Century Baha'is]] as well.

If you need help, let us know and we can add it in!

Kind regards,

Vicky Majewski

Thanks John, and welcome to Wikitree. If you haven't already, you can check out his profile at Cobb-7592. There is still work to be done on the profile and on filling out his ancestry (esp. his maternal line). Have you done any research on him, or any genealogical work on his family?

Thanks Christine, and welcome to Wikitree. If you haven't already, please check the "to do" page linked above. Have you done genealogical research elsewhere? It's not necessary, just curious. See the "Approach to adding & improving profiles" section just now added above for more info.