Ann Williams

[Phoenix]

Apologies for the length of this

Ann Williams married John Parsons in 1853 in Cardiff, by Registrar’s Certificate. The witnesses were James Avis, who may have been a colleague of John’s and a John Cannon who I haven’t identified. Ann was living at 5 Christina Street, which I’ve not been able to find on FMP’s addresses in 1851, and her father was John Williams, a gentleman.
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discovery...=successSource
When her daughter, Eleanor Catherine Parsons was born in 1858, Ann was the informant, and gave her name as Lucy Ann Williams. In all other records I have found to date, she is called Ann, or Annie.
Here is the family in 1861:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...8?pId=13487292
They are living at Seniors Place, Old Road, Maindee in Monmouthshire:
John 39 born Devonshire
Ann 30 born London
Owen 6 born Glamorgan [John Henry Owen Parsons]
Ellen 3 born Newport Monmouthshire and
Charles Quick visitor unmarried 36 cordwainer born Devonshire
Something happened during the 1860s. By 1871, John was living with Eliza Steeds as man and wife, the first of their four children had been born, and they were living in Bristol.
Ann and the children are living in a cottage in North Narberth, Pembrokeshire:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...50?pId=7215224
It says defiantly that the head of the house is absent. Ann, now aged 38, is a plasterer’s wife, born London. John Henry, aged 16 is an apprentice plasterer.
John died in a fall from a building he was working on in Aberdare in 1879. Ann moved to London. Here she is in 1881:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...0?pId=15684949
12 Cumberland Terrace. Owen, 26 is a plasterer, now married. Ellen, who has slipped a couple of years is now 20, a domestic. Annie, 48 is an acknowledged widow. Servant is crossed out. Place of birth is now Chippenham, with Wilts added in a different hand.
Annie is bedridden, and appears to die the following year.
There are three things strange about this:
1. I can find absolutely nothing about Ann before her marriage. It seems odd that she says (in Wales) that she was born in London, and that in London her birthplace is given as Chippenham.
2. In 1881 her daughter Ellen is a servant, but in 1889 (saying she is 23) Ellen marries Daniel Baird Baird-Maturin, a wealthy Irish landowner. Ellen died in 1919 (aged 49!) with only a couple of hundred pounds to call her own. None of the Ancestry trees connect her to John Parsons and his complicated life, but her birth certificate proves the link.
3. What happened to Ann’s son, John Henry Owen Parsons? He must be the Harry Parsons who witnesses Ellen’s marriage, but I can find no trace of him after 1889.
Help, please!

[kiterunner]

I don't know that saying the head of the family is absent was "defiant", since there is another such on the same page.

[kiterunner]

In answer to number 1, I think that Ann's birthplace on the 1881 census got swapped with the sister-in-law's.

Edit - cancel that, Elizabeth Bidgood does seem to have been born in London after all.

[kiterunner]

No 3 - there is a Harriett Parsons death Apr-Jun 1886 Brentford district, age 34, which could be his wife, so the death cert might have some info about him, e.g. an address. Or have you already got that? I found a cemetery record but she was not buried with family members:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...rce&pId=614763

[Merry]

Christina St doesn't sound like where a gentleman, or the dau of one, would live. Lots of refs to Cardiff Board of Health in the newspapers. Also info on some people who lived there and in some other connecting streets, but none of them appear in 1851, so the enumerator decided not to risk the area?!!

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Merry

Christina St doesn't sound like where a gentleman, or the dau of one, would live. Lots of refs to Cardiff Board of Health in the newspapers. Also info on some people who lived there and in some other connecting streets, but none of them appear in 1851, so the enumerator decided not to risk the area?!!

That's interesting, Merry. It's not on the 1861 index either. As it was down by the docks, it probably had a very rough, shiftless population with nobody living there very long.



As gentleman is such a flexible term, I did wonder whether Ann was actually illegitimate, or if her father was simply not working.

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by kiterunner

I don't know that saying the head of the family is absent was "defiant", since there is another such on the same page.

I'm not familiar with much of Wales, beyond Cardiff and Newport. But Narberth doesn't look like an automatic choice for a woman and two children to go to. It's impossible to know whether John was supporting two families at this stage, but someone would have been paying the rent on the cottage.

Yes, it looks as if the two heads of household were possibly working together and left their families to support each other.

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by kiterunner

No 3 - there is a Harriett Parsons death Apr-Jun 1886 Brentford district, age 34, which could be his wife, so the death cert might have some info about him, e.g. an address. Or have you already got that? I found a cemetery record but she was not buried with family members:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...rce&pId=614763

Thanks, for that. It looks as if Harriet probably had at least one child, Ann Eliza, but I can't find her either

[Phoenix]

Newspaper reports have plenty on the Baird-Maturin family: attending social events and visiting south coast resorts for the summer. A Welsh plasterer as a brother in law may well have been an embarassment (he's in dock as a young man, attempting to acquire the deeds to properties in Wales)

I did wonder whether Daniel gave him some money to set him up in business abroad.

[Phoenix]

This is the second marriage of Harriet's mother:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...57?pId=1226965


Thomas Bidgood to Eliza Somers Broom nee Grater in Roath in 1874. One of the witnesses was an Alice Williams. Which might be a complete red herring.