E - Enumerator

Being an Enumerator is by no means a full time role or a career with long term prospects for the majority. It's an opportunity which comes around once every five to ten years in most countries when the government sets the date for a national or state census.

These days I guess Enumerators are mostly sitting at a desk in front of a computer, entering or manipulating data. Our census forms have like many aspects of life become an online paperless exercise. It wasnt that long ago though that forms were delivered door to door by hand, one for every person living in the house with instructions to complete the form on the given night. Then over the next few days or a week the Enumerator would return to collect the completed forms and begin their task of documenting the data before submitting their completed enumeration district to their superior.

Even earlier on, when literacy levels were not as high as today, the Enumerator might have been responsible for completing the data, not just collating it onto a summary sheet. I have studied the census' for the parish of Raddington in Somerset for each decade between 1841 and 1911. It is a small parish so has been quite easy to map. I've placed markers for each farm or cottage and below I have listed the names of the Enumerators for each census and the route they took (or is it just the order they transferred the information to the summary sheets ? If it was the route they took, many of them are very higgledy-piggledy. Of course they may have found nobody home on their first visit and needed to double back at a later time. Who knows ?

Several of the Enumerators for Raddington are members of our family, I have included their relationship to me. I have also noted the name of the place of residence for each Enumerator and listed the route they took or the order they added the information to the summary sheet. No Enumerator was named in 1851. James Nicholls the Enumerator in 1861 was the only one who did not live in the parish.

6 June 1841 John Yeandle, 1C5R, Upcott.

Upcott, Moorhouse, Blackwell, Mill, Parsonage, Poor House, Kingston, Batterams, Chubworthy, Notwell, Littlewilscombe, Battscomb, Waterhouse

30 March 1851 not named

Upcott, Kingston, Chubworthy, Littlewilscombe, Waterhouse, Poor House, Moorhouse, Blackwell, Batterams, Notwell, Parsonage, Batscombe, Spring Cottage, Smiths Cottage, Lower Mills

7 April 1861 James Nicholls

Higher Batiscombe, Lower Batiscombe, Chubworthy, Spring Cottages, Bathams (Batterams?), Kingston (Manor House), Parsonage, Church House, Waterhouse, Washer's, Raddington Mill, Blakewell (Blackwell), Upcott, Notwell, Little Wiveliscombe.

2 April 1871 John Palfrey, Notwell

Little Wilscombe, Chubworthy, Battscombe Cottages, Spring Cottages, Church House, Parsonage, Washer's, Raddington Mill, Blakewell House and Cottages, Upcott, Notwell. (Kingston, the Manor House was not enumerated so presumably nobody was living there, while the Davys family were in Bedminster. They appear on the census there with most of their children employed in the Drapery business.)

3 April 1881 Thomas Davys, 3xG Uncle, Kingston

Church House, Parsonage, Washer's, Waterhouse, Raddington Mill, Smiths Cottage, Blakewell Cottage, Upcott, Notwell, LittleWilscombe, Chubworthy, Spring Cottages, Battiscombe Cottages, Batterams Cottages, Kingston.

5 April 1891 John Yeandle, Grandson of John Yeandle & husband of  1C4R, Upcott

Kingston, Church House, Batrums, Rectory, Batrums, Spring Cottage, Lower Battiscombe, Higher Battiscombe, Manor (Chubworthy), Little Wilscombe, Notwell, Upcott, Blakewell Cottages, Washer's, Raddington Mill.

31 March 1901 Tom Tarr, Notwell

Notwell, Chubworthy, Upcott, Blakewell Cottages, Little Wilscombe, New Cottages, Battiscombe, Kingston, Kingston Cottages (Batterams ?), Parsonage, Washer's, Raddington Mill, Church House, Spring Cottages, Blacksmith's Cottage.

2 April 1911 Arthur Heywood, Chubworthy

Kingston, Buttersham, Parsonage, Washer's, Raddington Mill, Blakewell Cottages, Notwell, Little Wilscombe, Manor House (Chubworthy), New Cottages, Spring Cottages, High Batscombe, Upcott.

It is census night here in Australia on 10 August 2021, I wonder who might be looking up family in a hundred or so years after they have sifted through our social media footprints in their genealogical journey.

#52Ancestors, Week 5, In the Census

Searching for connections and reconnecting

Back in the early 1990’s when the 1881 UK census was the only census available freely to researchers with roots in the United Kingdom, (and only on CD or microfiche) many researchers spent hour upon hour trawling through fiche after fiche in darkened Family History Centre rooms and libraries.

We had only begun piecing together information in my maternal grandmother’s family from the little information she had given away to us over the years. My Dad and I spent hours in the evenings at the Family History Centre reading church records hoping to find something concrete. Sometimes we went alone.

We knew from Nana that her mother’s family was from the “Black Country” and that she had a brother. We also knew that Nana’s grandfather married three times and that she also had two half siblings. Her mother’s brother and a half-brother (although I don’t think that Nana referred to him as such) had emigrated to the US. We knew their names and the names of their wives. We also knew an elderly aunt had emigrated to the US.

Between 1989 and 1991 some certificates were purchased from the GRO and we discovered that my great grandmother had been born in Wolverhampton on 17 July 1878[1], and that her parents were married in Dudley in a Primitive Methodist Chapel on 23 August 1875[2] (a WHAT !!?? – researching Primitive Methodism soon became another obsession). We also learned that her mother died in Wolverhampton on 5 May 1879[3]. What became of the children ?

I remember Dad’s jubilation when he returned home one day from the library with a piece of paper detailing the residents of one household in Dudley.

Residence: Paradise, Dudley (Worcs), Staffordshire, England[4]
Henry James	Head	Male	62	Leintwardine, Herefordshire, England
Elizabeth James	Daughter	Female	34	Leintwardine, Herefordshire, England
Albert Kelsey	Grand Son	Male	4	Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
Laura Kelsey	Grand Daughter	Female	2	Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
Amnie H Richards	Niece	Female	15	Mold, Flintshire, Wales

So, here she was, living with her grandfather and aunt…and a cousin ? To be fair, we didn’t make much more progress until the arrival of that wonderful phenomenon – the internet. I dabbled, I joined Ancestry in 2002.

One day (5 March 2003) while dabbling, I came across a post on a bulletin board -remember those ? Someone in the US had come across that same census entry. She was looking for more information about the Henry James family, last known living in Dudley with a daughter, niece and two grandchildren. I posted a reply, from work. Could it be ?

On returning to work the next morning there was a reply email. Needless to say, not much work was done that day. I couldn’t wait to get home. I replied, I sent the email to my Mum and Dad, I rang them to make sure they checked and read their email. I was dancing on air. The poster, was the great granddaughter of my great grandmother’s brother Albert who had emigrated to the US. We are 3^rd cousins. We knew they existed somewhere in the US – they had no idea we were down here in New Zealand searching the same tree.

Since then we have filled out the family so much more, broken some brickwalls down and reconnected with other members of the extended Kelsey family all over the planet. There are still some brickwalls to smash, but to think this all began with people on opposite sides of the Pacific, reading microfiche in Family History Centres and libraries.

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[1] Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, Laura Ellen Kelsey, General Register Office, England.

[2] Certified Copy of an Entry of Marriage, Thomas Kelsey and Mary James, General Register Office, England.

[3] Certified Copy of an Entry of Death, Mary Kelsey nee James, General Register Office, England.

[4] "England and Wales Census, 1881," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27F-JV6M : 13 December 2017), Henry James in household of Henry James, Dudley (Worcs), Staffordshire, England; from "1881 England, Scotland and Wales Census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing p. 2, Piece/Folio 2881/23, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; FHL microfilm 101,774,821., accessed 4 February 2018.

UPDATE - One brick at a time

A short update to my earlier post about breaking down a brick wall.

It occurred to me after I had posted the discovery that I now had an alternate (correct) spelling for Mary's surname - Gerrard - and that I hadn't searched the GRO for that combination.

So I went back and looked again and lo and behold there WERE two more children born to Mary and Robert before they emigrated to Australia.

Two baby girls - one who had included in her name, a surname linking her to a previous generation, just so that I could be doubly confident. They lived only briefly though, Ellen 9 months and Lilian for 15 months.

I do have a copy of a photo of one of them....if I could only find the right box, I could include it here, or at least make a better guess about whether it was Ellen (Nellie) or Lilian (Lily). Or maybe it isn't either of them ? Perhaps it is a younger brother ? There are only two children in the photo and at the time both of these babies were born, eldest child Margaret was still alive.So if the baby is either Ellen or Lilian then there should have been three children in the photo. 

Oh well, another day.

One brick at a time...

I have been looking for ages for information about my daughter's 2x great grandmother Mary Millicent (sic) Hogg, nee Barnett or Jerrard/Jarratt. Since before she was born even !! 

When I started researching the family I had married into I asked lots of questions. I have stored all the answers and information, like a squirrel, for safe keeping in my mind. My mother-in-law had told me that her grandmother was a twin, that the twin died and then their mother (her great grandmother) remarried. But there was some confusion about whether the birth name of Mary was Barnett or Jerrard/Jarratt and which name belonged to the stepfather.

Her Australian death certificate has her name as Mary Millicent Hogg nee Barnett – and her mother’s name as Mary Milne.

I purchased her marriage certificate about 12 years ago. She gave her name as Mary Milne Jerrard in 1901 and said she was “over the age of 21”, when she married Thomas Watson Hogg. On most of her children’s birth certificates she gave her maiden name as Barnett.

It was also said that there were more children born in the UK before they moved to Australia, but I’ve not been able to find any registered. Especially now that you can search using the mother’s maiden name which you’ve never been able to do before. On the 1911 census, which was the last one taken before they emigrated, she says she had had 2 children and that they were both still alive (although only my daughter's great grandfather – Robert - was at home with her on census night). The elder child, Margaret, I later found enumerated as a patient in hospital. There are additional deceased children listed on her death certificate – but still no evidence !

On her husband’s Army enlistment papers for WW1 (found on Ancestry) her name is recorded as Mary Milne Jerrard (with Barnett crossed out) with the same marriage date. Just two children are listed, a 3^rd was born in 1914 so not on the census, and the 1^st had already died and was not included. When they emigrated to Australia after the war their 4^th child had arrived.

When I was having a spend up on the GRO in their email pdf trial in November last year, I decided to take a stab at the birth certificate for their first child Margaret in case there was information on there to help. But not really – apart from confirming that the address where they were living in 1902 was the same as in 1919. I found her death in 1913 from TB, aged 10 years. Her death certificate gave her name not just as Margaret Hogg (on the birth certificate) but as Margaret Jerrard Hogg. A clue perhaps, considering the naming patterns that are commonly used in Scotland.

Last night I decided again to see if I could find any additional children born to the Hogg/Jerrard Hogg/Barnett family. Nope.

So I thought I would try again to see if I could find Mary’s birth in Scotland. On the 1911 census (the only official UK document I had found where she had recorded her birthplace) and on her death certificate (where the information was supplied by her children) the place of birth was given each time as Aberdeen.

I’ve looked and looked there so many times !! Even back when one of my nieces was living in Aberdeen - at least 12 years ago, maybe 13. 

Scotlandspeople have updated their website and search function too and things are a little easier to navigate. I tried several searches, changing spelling, looking for the mother’s name as well and then BINGO !! A birth for Mary Milne Gerrard in Aberdeen ! I looked at the birth entry and the mother’s name was Margaret Gerrard (sound familiar ?).

To be doubly sure that I had found the right baby – I looked to see if there was a twin. Yes there was ! James Milne Gerrard, born 20 minutes earlier. (I LOVE the information on Scottish certificates !) They were born in the Poor House in Aberdeen to a single mother. Again, I am wondering if the naming pattern points to their father being a Mr Milne ?

So anyway, still trying to align with the information which I had been told, I looked for a death for the twin, and found one, aged 17 months, in the Poor House from croup. At that point I wondered had she left both of her babies there ? Her occupation on the birth certificates was Domestic Servant, and the same on the death certificate for baby James. How would a young girl look after 2 babies on her own back then in 1882, in a city like Aberdeen ? She would have had to keep working. Who cared for the children ?

The next event I needed to confirm was a marriage. Knowing now that HER name was Gerrard – and that the children’s birth names were Gerrard, the marriage should logically be to a Mr Barnett. And what do you know, there it was, in a slightly different part of Aberdeen. Margaret Gerrard (Domestic Servant) marrying George Barnet (a Paper Mill worker).

I eventually found them living as a family on the 1891 Scotland census, where he was working at a Paper Mill (which is actually still in existence today !) and Mary was listed as his stepdaughter. YAY !! Now I know I have the right people.

In 1901 when Mary and Thomas married, she said she was living in Benwell. I’ve not been able to find her (for sure on the 1901 census) but I did find her mother and stepfather, along with a half-brother and a step-grandparent living in the Benwell area of Newcastle on Tyne. The half-brother, George, isn’t on the 1891 census which is odd. I thought he may not have been born by the time the census was taken, but his birth certificate shows he was born in 1890 – to the correct parents. Maybe the enumerator just forgot to write him down.

Mary’s mother died in 1901 – between the census and Mary’s marriage. She was 38 years old. Her death is registered as Margaret Gerrard Barnet – further confirmation of the naming pattern and correctness of all this searching. Margaret must have been aged about 18 or 19 when she had her twins, and as I suspected Mary was not "over 21 years of age" when she married.

So there you have it, a story passed down which turns out to be true, I love it when that happens.

Very pleased with myself, I am. One brick wall smashed - now to focus back on those other ones. Julius, Mowbray, Charles et al., I WILL find you.