Why is a child described as Mrs
in Indexing
UK, England, Middlesex—Parish Registers, 1539–1988 [Part B][MSPD-TYY]
There are instances in this batch where a child is prefixed "Mrs" and also a "young gentlewoman" is pre-fixed "Mrs"; Is this a term of status? Should the term "Mrs" be indexed as the Deceased Prefix when the deceased is a child?
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Answers
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According to Wikipedia
"Mrs originated as a contraction of the honorific Mistress (the feminine of Mister or Master) which was originally applied to both married and unmarried women."
As you have wondered, it is a term of status, so it is is the same as Miss, for a child from a higher status family.
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