Wordless Wednesday - Gertrude Constance Musk and her grandchildren

The Ashtons Keep Their Secrets

I've been making such good progress with the Ashton family in the censuses of England and Wales; I did a search of the 1861 Census: the criteria entered were John Ashton, b. abt 1827 (+/-2) in Wales, spouse Jane, lived in Walker, Northumberland.

The first result was, at first glance, a good match: John Ashton, wife Jane Ashton, b. abt 1826 in Llanwnog, Montgomeryshire, Wales, resident at the time of the 1861 census in Weeg, Montgomeryshire, Wales. However the couple have several children already; children who should have been born at this time (using info from the 1871 Census) are Martha (who would be three) and Elizabeth (who would be eight) and neither of them is listed on the 1861 Census result.

The second result didn't have a match for birth place, even though the name was a match, and had children that didn't match my guy; the third guy didn't have a match for birth place, even though the name was a match, and was listed as living with Jane Ashton and his 62 year old father, also John Ashton, in Stockport, Stockport, Cheshire (this result may be worth investigating at a later date); there was another match further down the list for a John Ashton, b. abt 1829 in Southwark, Surrey, and living with his wife Jane Ashton in Lambeth, Surrey with their son Thomas Ashton, however the child is 13 - all-in-all not a good match; even further down the list is another John Ashton, b. abt 1828 in Wales, but married to a Mary Ann Ashton and living in Walker, Northumberland with their 6mo child Thos Wm Ashton - I wasn't particularly happy about this match either, but it may be worth investigating at a later date should discrepancies arise.

I refined my search for John Ashton, b. abt. 1827 in Wales, to include Martha and Elizabeth in the search criteria as children. I also changed the criteria to search for only one year on either side of his approximate birth year, and stipulated that his spouse's name had to be Jane. This reduced the results to 37.

I still wasn't happy with any of the results and finally decided that I would have to consider this a brick wall and come back to this family with further information, perhaps obtained from vital records.

I am hoping vital records will provide me with a marriage date for John and Jane Ashton, as well their full names, and that this fruther information will lead me to their birth information and parents. At the moment, however, I am resigned to letting these family members keep their secrets and will try tracing another branch. 

I have been working on a Research Worksheet to track my findings, which I will blog about in a few days. I am determined to backtrack and use the information I do already have to build a good solid foundation and then start my research again with the vital records I am expecting to receive from the GRO sometime next week (so exciting!). 

New Answers, New Questions

My current task, as I attempt to trace the Ashton family, was to try and find Thomas William Ashton (at ten years old) in the 1871 Census of England.
What I'd found so far:

• 1911 census: Mark's maternal grandfather, John William Ashton, and maternal great grandfather, Thomas William Ashton;
• 1891 census: Mark's maternal grandfather, John William Ashton, and maternal great grandfather, Thomas William Ashton; and
• 1881 census: Mark's maternal great grandfather, Thomas William Ashton; no father listed for him - his mother, Jane, is a widow(at 55 years old).

The 1871 census brought a whole slew of people into the frame, after the small family of four I discovered in 1811.
At first wasn't sure this was my family, despite the fact that the name (Thomas Ashton), birth county (Northumberland) and mother's name (Jane), as well as his birth year (1861) all tallied. Part of the reason for this uncertainty is that the birthplace is listed as Benton. However a search on the web revealed a GenUKI article on Long Benton parish which "comprises the townships of Killingworth, Long Benton, Walker and Weetslade" and is bounded "on the south by the Tyne, and on the east by the parishes of Tynemouth and Wallsend." (This information is from a publication from 1855, which explains why I have been searching Google Maps and Google Earth, to no avail, for Benton, Northumberland. As Mark pointed out: Benton is probably long gone, amalgamated with a host of other small hamlets into something new.) This makes sense in terms of Thomas Ashton's birthplace being listed as Benton, Northumberland in the 1871 census and Walker, Northumberland in each census thereafter; it also fits with his mother, Jane, having been born in Wallsend, Northumberland, which is in (I suspect) the same sort of area area (another family member, listed below, was born in South Shields, which is about five kilometres away from Wallsend, and another born in Newcastle Upon Tyne, also about five kilometres away albeit in the opposite direction). So I was now fairly certain the birthplace data was a match for my guy too.
I was also thrown by the discrepancy in Jane Ashton's ages between the 1881 census, when she is widowed (55), and the 1871 census, when she is living with her husband and many children (47); I put this down to Jane wishing to appear youthful and younger, and being a bit flexible with how she reported her age.
I did find Thomas' father: John Ashton, 44, born in Wales, and listed as being a 'Millfurnaceman' (although this is difficult to decipher). Therefore further research is needed to find out how he died, since I now I know that he died sometime between 1871 and 1881.
The rest of the family is a bit of a tangle:

• daughter Martha (b Byker Hill, Northumberland) 13, 
• son Thomas (b Benton, Northumberland) 10, 
• son Robert Gibbons (b So Shields, Durham) 10, 
• daughter Margaret (b Benton, Northumberland) 7,
• daughter Elizabeth Dadds (b Wallsend, Northumberland) 18, 
• grandson John Dadds (b Benton, Northumberland) 2, 
• grandson Robert Dadds (b Newcastle Upon Tyne) 4 months. 

Robert Gibbons is listed here as being the son of John Ashton, but in the 1881 census he is listed as being the grandson of Jane Ashton (John's widow). His brother John Gibbons, who is 12 at the time of the 1881 census, is not listed here at all. What is the true relationship of Robert Gibbons to John Ashton? Where is John Gibbons at the time of the 1871 census?
There are two much younger children, listed as being John's grandchildren, named John (2) and Robert (4mo) Dadds, children of his daughter Elizabeth Dadds. Where is their father, Elizabeth's husband?

Suffragettes & the Ashton Family in the 1911 Census

I've been concentrating on researching Mark's family, rather than mine, as it is so much to find records that pertain to them. I did a little happy dance today when I discovered the family of John William Ashton, Mark's maternal grandfather (father of Constance Mary Ashton), in the 1911 Census of England and Wales!
I had previously found them in the 1901 Census of England and Wales and, following much jubilation then too, I had been able to really increase the number of branches in the Eden family tree: Mary's father had seven siblings! Many Branchings indeed, as the possibility of seven more branches of investigation were opened up to me. I didn't give this aspect of the family much further thought at this point, however I noted that I still didn't have a maiden name for John Ashton's mother, who was listen only as Rachel M Ashton, nor did I know her full name. However I ordered birth certificates for both Mark's grandparents - John William Ashton and Gertrude Constance Musk - from the General Register Office (GRO) on the 15th of May and I am hoping (much) more will be revealed when these arrive (ETA is first week in June!).
The 1911 Census revealed loads more information about the family, including that Rachel's middle name was Mary. This name was passed on to their first-born daughter, Ethel Mary Ashton, and subsequently by John to his daughter, Constance Mary Ashton (who in turn passed it on to Mark's sister). It's so wonderful to see that continuity, and the realisation made me pause for thought and really appreciate the history of this family and the people represented by these names on a piece of paper (or on my computer screen, as the case may be). Interestingly the name that is passed down on the male side of the family, even though it appears to have skipped a generation, is William: it is Mark's middle name, and it was the middle name of both his mother's father and grandfather. More continuity.

I decided to find out what was happening in the UK at the time this family was filling out their census form (and it was so special to see Thomas Ashton's handwriting, as the head of the household, on the form) and discovered that the suffragette movement was in full swing... and getting quite violent! I had already read that some women were refusing to fill out the 1911 Census form as a means of protest, choosing to be invisible in the population count as they were invisible in terms of their political choices and right to vote, but I had no idea how heated and dangerous it became. One article I found particularly fascinating I discovered on website of The Guardian newspaper, called 'When Suffragettes Were Out For The Count'.

A Mystery Child

I have taken to starting my research of our English ancestors in the 1901 Census of England and Wales, despite the fact that most people recommend starting with the most recent census (which, in this case, would be 1911).

One of the first searches I did in the 1901 census was for Gertrude Constance Musk, Mark's maternal grandmother; I found her, age 12, living with her parents Charles (37) and Florence (36), and younger sister Kathleen (7). Charles was listed as a congregational minister, and thus far there were no surprises, although there was plenty of additional information in terms of places of birth for each of the four members of the family, as well as an address as at the date of the census. 

The census conducted ten years later was equally unsurprising at first glance, although it appeared the family had moved home since the 1901 census had been conducted (I haven't yet researched whether they were living at a different address in the same area, or had moved to a different area entirely).  As the two girls were now older I hoped to see some information as to whether one or both of them had started working, and I wasn't disappointed: Connie, as she was known to the family, was working as an elementary school teacher and 17 year old Kath was still at school. 

However the 1911 Census of England and Wales introduced additional questions and this is where the surprise that caused me to catch my breath came in: there had been a third child born to Charles and Florence, a child who, by the time of the 1911 census, had died. 

It's a shame the 1901 census didn't ask the questions as to how many children had been born to the relationship and how many were still living... was this child born between the 1901 census and the 1911 census, meaning it would have been the youngest of the three siblings? According to the 1911 census Charles and Florence had been married for 23 years; was this child born soon after their wedding and, as such, would he or she have a been older at the time of the 1911 than the 22 year old Connie? 

My research plans include: 

• finding out when Charles and Florence were married, and where,
• finding a date of birth for Connie, and then using these two dates to work out the likelihood that another birth may have occurred in the interim (highly unlikely),
• researching births in the areas Charles and Florence had lived between the time of their marriage and the time of the 1911 census, which may list them as parents, to see if I can track down the mystery child,
• conducting the same sort of research with deaths, however perhaps if the child was stillborn the records may be different.