Four Gone: A Disappearing Act

I have several people on the family tree for whom there exists just a birth or baptismal record, and nothing else. Yet the most puzzling disappearants, are a group of four. Outside of wartime, you don't expect to lose sight of a whole group: there ought to be a trace somewhere. The cast of four are:

1) Edward Pascoe, who signed his name Pasco. Occupation unknown, son of a butcher. Age unknown. All that is known is he married Mary in 1839 at Golant St Sampsons Church.

2) Mary Pascoe, born Mary Hitchens in 1806 at Gwennap. She had first been married to William Hawkings who was a blacksmith and later a schoolmaster, living in the parish of Tywardreath. I can at least divine that he had an accident, occasioning the change of occupation and likely leading to his premature death. Two friends, perhaps, assist the widow claiming his funds.

Now for the final pair of our party, Edward's two stepdaughters by Mary's first marriage:

3) Elizabeth Hawkings, baptised 1831 at Tywardreath.

4) Ann Hawkings, baptised 1833 at Tywardreath.

The next event we have is the marriage in 1839 and there is no sighting in Cornwall for them in census of 1841. Vanished!

Where could they have gone?

The story is intrigued by the Will of Mary's sister, Ann Hendra (nee Hitchens), dated 1877, some years later. She singles out her two nieces that had the name 'Ann' including Ann Hawkings. Baptised as Ann Hendra Hawkings, she is listed in the Will as Ann H_______ Hocking. Now I have no way of knowing if this is a true transcription, which I'm reading on the 'enrolled copy'. I suspect it isn't as the testator should have known the Ann H_______, as it was her own name! This casts doubt on the 'Hocking' too. Had Ann married, or is this a misreading of Hawkings? The aunt doesn't bother putting the married name of the other niece (Sarah Ann Verran) suggesting she might either not know or care about such details. One of Mary's sisters is named, despite being in Australia (this fact of course not being provided) suggesting that Mary was likely dead prior to 1877.

I have combed records. I have eliminated "Ann Hendra Uren" in Michigan. I have consulted obvious indexes. I looked in Avoca (where two Hawkings relatives lived), the Clare Valley (ditto the Verrans) and Whitby Ontario (ditto more Hawkings relatives). (I may have missed a shipping record). These folks are eluding me.

I glanced through 200 baptisms and 250+ marriages to home in on "John Pascoe the butcher", father of Edward, but he is not becoming apparent.

I wonder a bit about South America. If that was their destination, it will be a hard ride through the records to find them.

I hope to consult the Estate Duty returns for the aunt's estate: massive volumes inaccessible at the National Archives.

It would certainly be a feather in my cap to locate these folks: but it will be a waiting game thanks to this Disappearing Act.

It's a No

Mary Ann Trewartha born 1805 in Redruth, left a widow at 22, and infant son dying shortly thereafter, where does she go. For awhile the lure of Mary Davey (nee Trewartha), who died in 1891 in Long Gully, Victoria, appealed. She was alleged to be 85. Although she marries as Mary Andrawurtha, her children all have the mother's maiden name of Trewartha. Curiously though this Mary never uses the 'Ann'.

That's because It's a No. Mary Andrawurtha is not (of course) Mary Ann Trewartha, she is a girl born at Gwithian 4 years later, whose sister, Mrs Bray also registers children with mother's maiden name 'Trewartha'. Mary Ann is still out there.

...

Mary Ann Trewartha born 1805 in Redruth, left a widow at 22, could have children in Redruth registration district in the late 1830s, early 1840s, who would be registered with mother's maiden name Trewartha. I go through all 56 births and eliminate each and every one.

It's a No from the birth and marriages indexes.

...

William Hunter baptised in 1828 in Camborne, might have died in 1882 in Bendigo. I get his death certificate and he's from Northumberland. No-one yet has put this information on a family tree, but then, neither have I.

So that was a No.

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William Hunter baptised in 1828 in Camborne, could possibly be the 'Frederick William Hunter' born about 1828 in Cornwall who dies in 1900 in Balmain, NSW, being previously based near Geelong.

But it's a No.

Looking at the evidence it's apparent that he's from London with a brother named Charles, as shown in this dear little announcement in the Argus of 3 February 1853: 'Should this meet the eye of Charles Curtis Hunter, per Sir Francis Ridley, he will hear of his brother Frederick William Hunter, by applying at the Freemason's Tavern, Geelong...'

...

I wonder which theories will get exploded next?

We are Abroad

Hugh Hunter, the reliable mine carpenter in Redruth, had four sons: William, Hugh junior, John and Jabez. All four went aboard, but the manner of our knowing this differs. No shipping records. (Hugh is granted an interview in a biography of Richard Trevithick who was about his age, but whom he outlived four decades, still working.)

William (1805) - the will of his father-in-law Thomas Trevithick in 1846 makes it clear that William's teenage son is abroad somewhere, ergo William is/was too. The implication is that Trevithick knew which part of 'abroad' we are dealing with, even if I don't. I am very inclined to think he was recruited by Robert Stephenson to go to Colombia.

Hugh (1808) - for this character we are obliged to look at the letter from Mr Smith of St Ives (1997) to myself which reports that he came back to Cornwall and never said where he had been. This cannot be any of the others as I know or it was known (distinction needed) where the others went. Hugh, no.

John (1819) - for this we have the probate registry to thank. I found this entry some years ago but the story has twisted and changed shape since. That is for another blog. The Will of John Hunter of the parish of Illogan in the County of Cornwall Carpenter deceased who died 31 January 1861 at Colombia in South America was proved at the Principal Registry (23 October 1861) by the oaths of Hugh Hunter of Illogan aforesaid Carpenter the Father and Edward Bullock of the same place Yeoman two of the Executors. This was linked to the railway engineer, Robert Stephenson, being desirous of recuperating abroad, and selecting the gold and silver potential of Latin America and Cornish wit, for the purpose.

Jabez (c 1821) - we are back to oral testimony for the youngest brother. His son specified the name of the town in Colombia where he had spent his formative years. We are to assume that the father died there, as the son returned to Cornwall and later shared a room with my own Grandfather.

I do not think the bones of any of these sons of Cornwall reside in these isles. We are Abroad.

A break in 1925: no descendants of Queen Victoria born

1925 is remarkable in the twentieth century as not a single one of the descendants of Queen Victoria (and of her husband Albert, the Prince Consort) appear to have been born in that year. In consequence, there is a gap of twenty months following the birth of the younger Lascelles son in 1924, until the birth of his cousin, HM the Queen Elizabeth II (then Princess Elizabeth of York) in 1926. The family were taking a break. However, Margaret Thatcher was born in 1925. Thanks to Susan Flantzer for her work in compiling a directory of these.

You could argue it took 86 years from the date of Victoria and Albert's marriage (1840) to achieve 'genealogical singularity', with every year from 1926 onwards having a descendant being born (as far as is known). I will take a look at an example from my own family to see if that point has been reached.

[Ok so checked and Martha Scott married 1808 in Somerset, has at least a thousand descendants born. She hit the genealogical singularity in 1864 after 56 years. And we're excluding her husband's illegitimate child. I had a note some years back saying 'in 1957, her older sister's descendants overtook Martha's in terms of total number born'. That is not true. Martha has eaten her sisters for genealogical breakfast.]

The genealogist Anthony Wagner counted the first Tudor princesses' descendants and formed some interesting conclusions about the two sisters. He also wrote Pedigree and Progress of which an interesting follow-up is here: https://worldhistoryconnected.press.uillinois.edu/3.1/laichas_column.html

Great-grandmothers who outlived their tribe

Sometimes the generations die in the wrong order. I give some historic examples from the family, below (the last one is a mediaeval Royal example). All of these had other family who did survive them.

1) Catherine Baragwanath born 1701 married age 23 to Martin Trewhella I.

her son Martin Trewhella II, died 1774.

her grandson Martin Trewhella III died 1789

her greatgrandson William Trewhella died 1790

Catherine herself passed away in 1799 in Cornwall aged 97.

2) Ann Dodd born 1758 married age 22 to John Charlton. 

her daughter Ann Charlton (Gibson) died 1831

her grandson John Gibson died 1844

her greatgrandson William Gibson died 1844 (before John)

Ann herself passed away in 1847 in Northumberland aged nearly 90, and was perhaps survived by her elderly husband.

3) Jane Creed born 1830 married age 20 to James Chappell.

her son (Oscar Chappell died 1934) 

her grandson Oscar Henry Chappell died 1916

her greatgranddaughter Gladys Chappell died 1900

Jane herself passed away in 1925 in Somerset aged 95 having survived many other children and grandchildren, and her elderly grandson-in-law (ten years her junior).

4) Katherine Neville born about 1400 married aged under sixteen to John Mowbray.

her son John Mowbray died 1461

her grandson John Mowbray died 1476

her greatgranddaughter Anne Mowbray died 1481 (child bride of a prince in the Tower)

Katherine remarried (the diabolical marriage) age about 65 in 1465 to John Woodville (the Queen's brother) aged 19 whom she also survived. She herself passed away in late 1483, likely in London.

Aunts and uncles who emigrated

These are the aunts and uncles who emigrated up until modern times. I have included Sarah as she was a front-runner, and she helped pick up the pieces after the failed emigration to Delaware county 'Delcony' immediately following. No less than half of Thomas Creed's surviving children made their way through the clearing-house of London on their way (mostly) somewhere else.

Stephen Creed's emigration to Tasmania started well - he married a Scots lady there, but owing to an indiscretion on the part of their eldest son, they were forced to leave the island in the 1860s for a fresh start elsewhere.

Each of the other emigrations no doubt warrants a story, which we shall get, eventually.

1820s
Sarah Boyce - to Islington, London
Thomas Creed - to Delaware county, New York (assumed)
Elizabeth Edney - to Montego Bay, Jamaica
Edward Martin - to Jamaica

1830s or 40s
Thomas Creed - to Trumbull county, Ohio
Elizabeth Symes - to Trumbull county, Ohio
Matthew Creed - to Trumbull county, Ohio
Richard Marshall - to Port Hope, Ontario
James Creed - to Hamilton, Ontario
Philip Dawson - to Ste Brigitte de Laval, Quebec
William Bagshaw - to Rochester, New York
Martha Morris - to Brooklyn, New York
David Francis - to Manhattan, New York
Mary Nancollins - to Grant county, Wisconsin
Jonathan Barnett - to Grant county, Wisconsin
Francis Harris - to Grant county, Wisconsin
Elizabeth Scandling - to Jo Daviess county, Illinois
James Harris - to Houghton county, Michigan
Stephen Creed - to New Norfolk, Tasmania
John Shugg - to Yackandandah, Victoria, Australia
Mary Bresinton - to Sydney, NSW
Matthew Bowden - to Real del Monte, Mexico
William Seccombe - to Peru
William Hunter - to (somewhere!)

1850s
Eliza Perry - to Bendigo, Australia (oops missed her off)
John Hunter - to Columbia, South America

1870s
William Smith - to Jamestown, New York
Julia Tobin - to Boston, Massachusetts
Catherine Brodie - to Boston, Massachusetts
Margaret Nagle - to Boston, Massachusetts

1900s
Frank Bayley Lowry - to Westminster, Orange Free State
Leonard Scott Creed - to Cape Town
Edwin Haine Creed - to Fredericton, New Brunswick
Thomas Francis - to Gas City, Indiana
Arthur Smith - to Australia (enquiries pending)
Nance Drummond - to Glasgow
Catherine Bell - to Bangor, County Down

Whither the Blacksmith's Daughter?

Elizabeth Edwards was the blacksmith's daughter. Although hers is a common name, and she was born back in about 1846, I was not content to let sleeping dogs lie. Being the cousin of my Grandpa's grandmother, she needed to be found.

The start is bucolic enough, living at home age 4 and then 14 with her parents, and the younger siblings as they arrived, at the busy blacksmith's shop (Jim's Shop) on the main road perhaps, at Pengelly Cross, in the hamlet of Trenwheal, parish of Breage. There's a lovely retreat in the area now.

This happy idyll down by the water's edge, the River Hayle flowing close by, was doomed to end, of course. Whilst Elizabeth's younger sister (still toddling around) would remain in Cornwall until the 1950s, for the older sister we are looking at a different future.

In May 1866, the banks crashed, and the worldwide price of copper tumbled shortly thereafter, not aided by the earlier discovery of copper in South Australia. The following year, well we shall see.

Let us just reflect a minute on what life was like when Elizabeth was born (1846).

West Briton newspaper, 26 February 1847: I was informed by a respectable person from the parish of Breage, that a family of eleven persons… had scarcely any other food for several days than at dinner time, when they boiled the baking kettle filled with water, which they thickened with a little barley meal, to which they added salt and a turnip.

She had been born into the parish of Breage, admittedly not as poor as just described. Her father being a blacksmith near the main road would ensure a horse needing re-shoeing could pay for a meal on the table. Yet whither Elizabeth - there were several routes to explore what became of her. Could we find a marriage in one of the parish churches in Cornwall? Could we find a mention of her marriage (the blacksmith's daughter) in the newspapers? Were there any suitable death records for her in Cornwall? Did her parents make mention of her in their Wills? Are there traces of her family in the censuses in England, perhaps with aunts or uncles? Were there any unexplained DNA matches which could link to her?

The answer to all of the above was negative. We now proceed to examine the marriages in Cornwall, firstly those in Helston registration district (which included Breage), but first a gratuitous Poldark-themed map of the area:

Firstly, John Jose married in 1862 to an Elizabeth Edwards, most likely in the register office. The couple marrying with them, the Rules, resided at Ashton in Breage, but we cannot find the Joses. They remain possible.

Secondly, John Williams married in 1866 to an Elizabeth Edwards, most likely in the register office. I have not had any luck pursuing them, so they too remain possible.

Thirdly, William Dunn married in 1867 to an Elizabeth Edwards, most likely in the register office (along with the Penalunas from Crowan). An Ancestry tree suggests this couple emigrated to a coalmining county of Pennsylvania, USA, and death certificates for their children there confirm the parents 'William Dunn and Lizzie Edwards'. Importantly, this Lizzie is the right age, though sadly dies in 1897 age about 50 (date not known, year found on gravestone). This needs unpicking further as it might be right.

...

We now try to un-prove the Dunn marriage.

Against the Dunn marriage: what about our Elizabeth's cousin, a girl of the same name just a year younger who is living in Crowan, the very parish where the Penalunas reside? And with a stepmother living next-door to those very same Penalunas in the 1871 census for Crowan?

In favour of the Dunn marriage we have: the naming pattern of the children (slightly favours our Lizzie), Lizzie's age as given in the two US censuses, the fact that Dunn is living very near her in the censuses leading up to the marriage, and the evidence of the baptismal record (to follow).

Suffice to say, we have established sufficient proof, though we may yet purchase the marriage certificate to be certain. And now we return to the fateful years 1866/7.

Be aware that the American civil war, with its demand for brass buttons, copper canteens and bronze cannons and the Crimean war, had both recently finished. 'Copper-bottoming' of boats required less copper and more zinc. The value of copper nearly halved to under £80/long ton (source: wintons.com).

Today, cities, rail networks, wind turbines, solar panels, electric cars all use copper but these things were far in the future.

For now the Dunns were done. In 1866 the price fell, in 1867 Lizzie became pregnant hence the rushed (?register office?) marriage, and in early 1868 their son was baptised at Trenwheal Methodist Church (around the corner from maternal grandparents). She and her small family emigrated that year or the next to Carbon county, Pennsylvania.

The above map confirms that Beaver Meadows, where the Dunns settled, was coal country. This useful map came from Tales of the Towpath learning material suitable for schools in the area.

By 1880, William Dunn was a 'mine boss', later plumber, and his sons would become engineer, miner, public works clerk, moulder (at one of the iron foundries in the Lehigh Valley). Three of their sons died of heart trouble, so it is not unreasonable to assume that Lizzie's death at 50 was from this cause.

One troubling episode would have been the Great Fire of 1875 by which time Lizzie was 27 with four young children. Across the Lehigh valley at Mud Run in the Hickory Hills, a westerly wind caused ten miles of destruction as fire burned mills, houses, logs, timber, and standing trees.

Back home in Cornwall, her little sister was still only sixteen, and was destined to remain there until her death at 95, what a contrast. Her time would come though, called upon to act as mother to their brother's orphan children.

The blacksmith's daughter, whichever one you pick, would not live the tranquil life as depicted in our first link, above.

You can read more about Carbon County, Pennsylvania, where the tinner became coal miner, 'boss' and then plumber at https://culturedcarboncounty.blogspot.com. There are the slightly risical dramas surrounding the naming of the towns of Weatherly and Jim Thorpe (formerly the more historic Mauch Chunk), which can separately be read.

Getting Away with it in Helston?

When Richard Jenkyn died in 1766 he left a Will and much industry, ably transcribed here by St Erth's Dee: https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~sterth/genealogy/wills1764_70.htm#Rjenkyn

Who was that niece Eliza Collins? I gave myself five minutes just to resolve her and move on.

Twenty minutes later, Eliza has been put to one side, as something entirely else is going on. . .

Richard first married Margery Row in the parish church in 1733 and their son was baptised the following year, and I haven't examined dates. The son dies and is buried in 1737 and 1738 (sic). There may be a daughter in 1741, but there will be no surviving children.

(By the way, if you lived in Helston you could choose whether you utilised the church there or the parish church at Wendron.  Eventually Helston would be split off.)

Elsewhere in Helston lived Joan Eva, unmarried, she's aged around 22 and begins to have a large string of illegitimate children each and every one triumphantly written 'Bastard' in the parish registers. These commence in 1738 and continue till about 1751. The inference would be that she had a steady partner, married to someone else.

Coincidentally, Margery Jenkyn dies in 1763 and in January 1764 (or 1765?), her widower, Richard Jenkyn is marrying to none other than Joan Eva!

Richard dies a year or two later, and Joan appears to survive listed as a pauper at her death in the fullness of time.

Her children? Joan junior marries and settles in Newlyn, while Richard (coincidental name?) settles in St Hilary. Neither probably will have much to do with their birth mother. The remaining siblings die soon after birth, although the eldest is not traced.

I'll not exactly sure what I think. Innocent til proven guilty, perhaps!