In Search of a Glemsford Family

The Smith and Brown Families and the 1861 Census

The 1861 Census has allowed us to add even more detail to the story of George Brown, his parents and siblings, as well as giving us some hints about Susannah.

 

John and Ellen Brown (then aged 31 and 30) were living on Hunts Hill (unfortunately the Census enumerator was not very precise in identifying the exact whereabouts for us).
With them were 6 children:
George (10),
John (8),
Jane (6),
Eliza (4),
James (2),
and William (6 months).
John is recorded as a “Carpet Weaver Cocoa Nut”, Ellen a “Straw Plaiter”.
The two oldest boys are recorded as “Carpet Winders” – this was before education became compulsory.

 

In 1861, only one Susannah Smith is listed in Glemsford, aged 8, the daughter of Charles and Sarah, living on Brook Street with 6 brothers and sisters:
Henry, 22,
Walter 16,
Eliza 13,
John 11,
Susannah 8,
Jane 6,
David 4,
together with Charles Bean a 28 year old unmarried lodger, an Agricultural Labourer.
Charles Smith was an Agricultural Labourer, and the oldest children were silk winders.

 

Forward (again) to 1871

With all the usual “health warnings” (about leaping to conclusions), if this is the right Smith family, in 1871 they were living in a cottage on Angel Lane.

Charles was listed as a “woodman” and his wife a “woodman’s wife”.
The children listed in 1871 are:
Walter, Eliza, John, Susanna, Jane, and David,
together with a lodger called Charles Bain.
The health warning seemed unnecessary – this is the right Smith family -
until I noticed that Charles Smith’s wife is recorded in 1871 as “Mary A”.
Typical.

Family trees have an unnerving habit of throwing out extra roots and false branches.
I suspect this is one such. Without going into a detailed examination of certificates and such-like, I was able to identify a Sudbury (District) marriage in 1868 between Charles Smith and Mary Ann Stiff.
Well, it’s possible. Several Sarah Smiths died in the Sudbury District at the relevant time – in particular one I would like to investigate further, recorded in the December quarter of 1864.

And Tracey confirms that that is what she found, too.

(By the way, I'm saying nothing, but watch out for that surname: "Stiff", later in the story.)

Meanwhile,
we needed to look for
George and Susannah Brown
after 1871

 		  

Follow the search for the
Savage family
of Cavendish, with several twists and turns
or go
straight to the start of our findings.

   

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© Tracey Foulds, Sandra Poole and Stephen Clarke
September 5 2005
None of this material may be published in any form
without the express permission of the authors
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