English Census 1841

I'm taking a break from the week's projects to get back into genealogy. The England 1841 Census has been published, so I can dig a little deeper into my English side.

Price. I was hoping that this census would catch my great grandfather James Price still at home with his family in Mathon parish, Worcestershire. That way I could nail down which of the old Price brothers was his father. But, from my cursory look, in 1841 18-year-old James had already left home.

Nash. James wound up in Derbyshire and married Ann Nash. The Nashes are an impossible bunch and the 1841 Census only seems to confuse the situation. There were dozens of Nashes in the Sudbury area of Derbyshire. They were servants and laborers -- a mobile bunch with lots of kids. Difficult to get all the connections. Ann was only 11 in 1841 so should still be a Nash, still living with her parents. But I can't find her. A needle in the haystack of Ann Nashes.

Newham. Ann Nash and James Price had a son William, who married Sarah Elizabeth Newham, my great grandmother. Her dad was the master tailor Sam Newham. I couldn't find an 1851 record for him, but now the 1841 Census reveals him living with his mother Charlotte and sister Mary in the hamlet of Middleton in Northamptonshire. His mother was a lace maker. His father wasn't present at the time of the census -- it could mean he was dead or simply away. (English census procedure recorded where everyone spent a specific night -- June 6 in 1841 -- no matter where your permanent residence was.)

Bennett. Sam Newham married Frances Bennett from Market Overton in Rutland. The 1841 Census provided some new information and a little mystery, because this census doesn't list relationships. In the household were Elizabeth (born 1781 in Scotland) and John (b. 1771 in Market Overton) Bennett; Sarah, born in 1801; Ann, born in 1821; and Frances, born in 1831.

Scenario 1: Elizabeth and John are Frances' parent and she was a menopause baby, born when her mother was 50.

Scenario 2: Frances was Sarah's child, born when the unmarried Sarah was 30 years old and raised in the household with her grandparents. Don't make it easy on me: At the 1861 census, Frances' "mother" is visiting her and Sam. Her mother's name is given as "Elizabeth" but her birth year is given as "1801" (which is Sarah's birth year). Are you following?

Interesting the Frances and Sam also wound up raising a grandchild.

Anyway, John Bennett was a "farrier" -- a blacksmith.

I have to go through and revise my family history pages now...

5.4.06

 

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