Searching for Sarah Ann Jones - My Great Grandmother

The prompt from Diane of "Through Her Eyes" Thursday encouraged me to review my research on my femlale ancestors, in this instance   my great grandmother Sarah Ann Weston, nee Jones. My knowledge  of her early life, prior to marriage  was little more than a name and a few dates, so I set out to find more about her background. 

It proved to be a challenging task which involved a number of confusing relationships, false trails and unanswered questions remaining - not helped by the popularity of the name Sarah Ann Jones in her home county of Staffordshire in the English West Midlands.  I made very heavy weather of this research tale!  

 

 

 

The first clues  came from census returns after Sarah Ann  was married, with  her birthplace given consistently as Penn, Staffordshire, and born c.1851. Staffordshire Parish Records on FindMyPast confirmed her marriage  on 14th December 1875  to John Thomas Weston in Pattingham, Staffordshire, and   revealed the  key fact  - her  father’s name was Joseph Jones, a labourer. The witnesses were both members of her husband's family - so no help there.

I next turned to early census returns.  In the 1851 census  for Penn, I found quickly a  baby Saran Ann, aged four  months at Lower Penn at the home of her  maternal grandmothe, 64 year old Ann Brant, so born c.1787 and described as an Ag Lab.  Success  - I had the name of my great great grandmother.

Also in the household in 1851 were Joseph Jones, aged 26, an Ag. Lab., aged described as"lodger",  and Ann's married daughter Sarah Jones,  aged 27, so born c.1824,    described as "lodger's wife".  So far so good! 

Ten years on and the 1861 census held some surprises. Young  Sarah Ann  Jones was now ten years old, still at her grandmother' Ann Brant's home, along with another child Ernest  Jones, aged 4.  But Ann's daughter was now listed as Sarah Brant and described as unmarried. 

So was this the right family for my Sarah Ann?   For another  1861 census entry in the village of Penn,  Joseph Jones and his wife Mary, and their family including a 10 year old Mary Ann, and siblings James, Ann, and Jane Elizabeth. 

I turned back to the 1841 census for the Brant family of Penn and found that Robert and Ann Brant had two daughters, Sarah Brant,  aged 20  and Mary Brant aged 15 (ages rounded for this census).  

I was very confused!  Who was my great grandmother's   mother - Sarah or Mary?  Who had Joseph Jones married - a Sarah or Mary? 

To get a second opinion, I put a query on the Facebook page of  the Genealogy Addicts  UK and Worldwide Research Group and received some helpful replies, with  pointers for research.  

The GRO Birth Index confirmed that the maiden name  of Sarah Ann's mother  was indeed a Brant  - but no Christian nameswas given.

Parish Records were my next source.
The England  & Wales  Christening Index on Ancestry  recorded the baptism of Sarah Ann Jones on 19th May 1850 at St. Bartholomew's, Penn.  Father Joseph Jones, mother Mary Jones - no maiden name given.

England Select Marriages on Ancestry recorded the marriage at St. Peter's, Wolverhampton on 27th December 1848  of  Joseph Jone. a labourer of Horseley Fields, (father John deceased);  Joseph's wife - Mary Brant.  

Two convincing pieces of evidence  that my great grandmother's parents were  indeed Joseph Jones and Mary Brant.     No entry was found for a marriage between a Joseph Jones and a Sarah Brant. 

But so many questions and puzzles remain?

• In the 1851 census entry  for the Brant family, was it a mistake that 27 year old Sarah (not Mary)  was listed as Joseph Jones' wife?  No other entry has been found for a married Mary Jones, born in Penn, c.1830.
  
  
• If baby Sarah Ann was born in May 1850, she would be more that 4 months old by the time of the next census taken on the 30th March 1851. 
  
  
• Years of birth of the various family members are unreliable guides,  differing between the 1851 and 1861 census returns - a not unusual feature of the times.
  
  
• Where were Joseph  and Mary Jones & family in 1871?   - so far I have  failed to trace them.

But what of my great grandmother Sarah Ann Jones?  
I was unable to trace a census entry in 1871 for a 20 year old Sarah Ann  She could have been the servant,  listed in two possible households around Wolverhampton. 

Four years later   she was living in Pattingham, where she married my great grandfather John Thomas Weston, an agricultural labourer.  The 1881 census showed the family in Mere Oak, Tettnehall, with three children  Albert Ernest, aged 4,  (my grandfather) and Florence Clara Annie aged 2, both born in West Bromwish, plus three week old Frederick Henry, born in Tettenhall.

A rather fanciful thought?  Might Albert Ernest's middle name be after Sarah Ann's young brother Ernest when they were living together at their grandparent's home in 1861?  The Christian name continued down the generations of the Weston family, including my cousin.

By 1891 John Thomas Weston   had left the rural life behind  to work as a general labourer at iron works , near Bilston.  The family was living at the “Back of 2 Salop Street Navigation Inn”, with Albert (here listed as Ernest), 14, Frederick 10 and another son 7 year old Charles, with Florence not at home on census night.  Neighbours  included labourers, a publican/beer house keeper, a steel mill roller, a rudder at ironworks, a steel mill shearer, a tin plate worker,  and a forge mill manager – so very much an industrial community.

In 1901, at the age of 48, John was a brakeman in a colliery, Sarah 50, Albert at 24 was “an engine driver stationary”, Frederick a welder, and Charles a general labourer.  

In 1910 John Thomas  Weston  died , aged 56.   A year later in the  1911 census, his widow,  61 year old Sarah Ann was at the home of her son-in-law George Elliot Howlett,  a railway station manager at Sherstone, Lichfield, Staffordshire, with his three young sons under six years of age.   Their  absent mother Florence was traced to Queen's Hospital, Birmingham as a patient there on census night.  I was confident I had the right entries here, as my father poke of his uncle and aunt George & Flo Howlett and their youngest son had Weston as his middle name. 

Tracing Sarah Ann's death has so far proved a problem.

So from knowing little about Sarah Ann, when  I started this search, I  had found out about her birth,  her parents and grandparents - with the next task to discover more about their lives. Family history never comes to an end!  

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Notes:  

• The place names in this search   - Penn, Pattingham, and Tettenhal  are villages close to  or are now suburbs  of the industrial hub of Wolverhampton and Bilston.
  

• John Thomas  Weston research  - in contrast to the complexity  of his wife's background,  I found little noteworthy  on my great grandfather.  The most interesting discovery on his life was the fact, like many others at the time,   he made the  major shift  from working on the land to working  in a mine - an area worth looking at in more detail.
  
  
• Google provided me with some fascinating information on history of Queens Hispital in Birmingham, where Florence Howlett, nee Weston was a patient in 1911. It wasfounded in 1840, became a Free Hospital in 1875  with many extensions built later,   and only closed in 1993.
  

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Postscript - my first attempt in finishing this post with the  new blogger format -  - and the process was torturous!