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  • Help needed please

    Firstly, please excuse me if I'm posting this in the wrong place but I'm very new here.
    I am finding it impossible to trace one of my direct ancestors pre-marriage.
    In 1867 my gx2 grandfather married Mary Hewitt at South Church, Bishop Auckland. Their marriage certificate shows her age as 20 and her father as John Hewitt, engine fitter. All census returns from 1871 to 1911 have her birth place as Leeds.
    I have had no joy with the BMD's. 1 birth certificate I thought to be the right one has the father's name George. I then traced a Mary Hewitt with a father John through the censuses but got to 1871 to find this Mary was at her father's in Dewsbury. She was at the time in Auckland.
    The mystery does however deepen. In 1871 John and Mary had a 2 year old daughter, Lavinia. In 1881, 2 years after her father,s death she was not living with her mother. My initial thought was that she had probably died but I did an 1881 census search for her and found 12 year old Lavinia Race, born Bishop Auckland, living at 24 Back Essex Street, Hunslet in the family of Thomas and Martha Bentley. Lavinia is described as their grandaughter.
    I search of the BMD's proved no other Lavinia Race was born 2 years either side of her birth year.
    I assumed that Martha was Mary's mother who had been widowed and remarried but I have still not been able to find a Martha Hewitt previous to that time in any census.
    I am totally out of ideas now and wondered if anyone can nudge me in any other direction. I have no reason to believe that my 2xg grandfather had ever been to Leeds so have worked on the assumption that Mary and her family at some point came to Durham. There is no clue in the 2 witnesses to their marriage who are Margaret Beeston and Charles Quinn.
    Anyone any ideas?

  • #2
    Postscript

    Just to add to the above. Having read it back I realised I had omitted my x2g grandfather's name. It was John Race, born 24 Mar 1845.

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    • #3
      Hi - could this be Lavinia? Wasn't sure if you had more info on her.

      Marriages Mar 1887
      Hughf Hannah Auckland 10a 213
      RACE Lavinia Auckland 10a 213
      Robson John Thomas Auckland 10a 213
      WALTON Thomas Raine Auckland 10a 213

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      • #4
        There is a marriage in Q/E Sep 1849 in Leeds. If you check in here for the surname Hewitt in 1849 you'll find that it was between Thomas Bentley and Martha Hewitt

        Yorkshire Births Marriages & Deaths

        If this is the marriage for the couple who Lavinia was with in 1881 then Martha could well have been her grandmother.
        Jackie

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        • #5
          On the same site there is a marriage in the same church (St Peters, Leeds) between John Hewitt and Martha Metcalf in 1845 (all speculation at this stage whether they tie in)
          Jackie

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          • #6
            Freebmd and yorkshire bmd - Thomas Bentley married Martha Hewitt Sep Q 1849. Leeds Reg district - St Peters Leeds.

            yorkshire bmd - Martha Metcalf married John Hewitt 1845 St Peters Leeds


            So Martha, maybe, was never Martha Hewitt in a census as she was Martha Bentley by 1851 and Martha Metcalf in 1841.


            Mary Hewitt is not with her mother Martha Bentley in the 1851 census though. I hate that, when they do that - its very hard to pick the thread when the children are not at home in the census !!!

            Di
            Last edited by dicole; 06-11-09, 02:56.
            Diane
            Sydney Australia
            Avatar: Reuben Edward Page and Lilly Mary Anne Dawson

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            • #7
              Durham registers have Lavinia Race as being born 1869
              http://nd.durham.gov.uk/gro/newgro.nsf/search+index?CreateDocument&order=C058187206110611 2009$

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Night Owl View Post
                On the same site there is a marriage in the same church (St Peters, Leeds) between John Hewitt and Martha Metcalf in 1845 (all speculation at this stage whether they tie in)
                Thankyou everyone who responded. Things definitely make sense. If Martha married John Hewitt in 1845 and became widowed, Mary would be a Hewitt whether she was conceived within the marriage or after he had died. I'd say it's odds on that Thomas Bentley and Martha Hewitt were indeed Lavinia's grandparents.
                All I need is 2 marriage certificates and a browse through death indexes and I'll know for certain. I definitely woukd not have got there on my own so many thanks

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                • #9
                  A great result


                  Well. Thanks to some sound practical advice from you all I now know that Lavinia Race married Thomas Raine Walton in 1887 at Auckland, Durham. I had no problem locating them in the 1891 thru 1911 census. Her father,John Race, (my x2 great grandfather), had drowned at sea off the SS Cadiz in 1879 and it was interesting for me to note that her first born son was named John Race Walton. And Lavinia,s hiusband? Yes, another flippin' miner.
                  Once again a huge thankyou all round.

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