Lesson 10 - Forensic Genealogy

Lesson 10 – Forensic Genealogy

This may sound strange but sometimes not finding information can be as helpful as finding some.

For this lesson I’m going to use two examples from my own research.

I’m going to start with my great-grandfather Thomas Henderson.

Thomas was born 1829 in Lazonby, Cumberland.

He married in Giles Gate, Durham 1857 to Jane Hepple.

First child Mary Jane Henderson born 1858 Edmondsley, Durham.

Second child Elizabeth Ann Henderson born 16 Dec 1859 Edmondsley, Durham

I expected to find the whole family on the 1861 census.

I found this:

Jane and the two girls are living with Jane’s parents, John & Jane Hepple, with no sign of Thomas.

Next, I find Jane and daughters travelling with her brother and his wife and child aboard ‘Annie Wilson’ in 1862 to Australia. Her fare was paid by her older brother Richard Hepple who was already in Australia.

From the above information the youngest child Elizabeth Ann was born Dec 1859.

Dec 1859 less 9 months = conceived approx. May 1859.

The 1861 England, Wales & Scotland Census was taken on the night of 7 April 1861.

On the above passenger list Jane and daughters are listed under Wives of residents in the Colony and their families.

Therefore, Thomas left for Australia between late May 1859 and 6 April 1861.

Unfortunately, even though I have narrowed down the timeframe that Thomas could have arrived in Australia, I still haven’t been able find any arrival for him. By not finding him on the 1861 census I was able to come up with possible years he travelled to Australia.

My next example is a little more complex but again relies on the census records and people missing from subsequent census’.

Starting with Alice Edwards’ death certificate.

	NSW DEATH REGISTRATION TRANSCRIPTION			REF NO 1941/18384
NAME		-ALICE EDWARDS
DATE OF DEATH		-24/11/1914
PLACE		-CATHERINE HILL BAY NSW
OCCUPATION		-OLD AGE PENSIONER
SEX		-FEMALE
AGE		-75
CONJUGAL  STATUS		-
PLACE OF BIRTH		-CORNWALL ENGLAND
TIME IN AUST COLONIES		-ABOUT 70 YEARS IN NSW  1 YEAR IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
FATHER		-WILLIAM JAMES EDWARDS
OCCUPATION		-COAL MINER
MOTHER		-UNKNOWN
PLACE OF MARRIAGE		-1. ADELAIDE	2. NOT STATED
AGE AT MARRIAGE		-1. 15	2. 17
NAME OF SPOUSE		-1. JAMES LEACHMORE	2. WILLIAM EDWARDS
CHILDREN OF MARRIAGE		-1. SARAH ANN 60	2. LOUISA 56, CATHERINE 46, WILLIAM J 42, 4 FEMALES 1 MALE DECEASED
INFORMANT		-RICHARD HEPPLEWHITE, SON-IN-LAW, CATHERINE HILL BAY NSW
CAUSE OF DEATH		-HEART DISEASE (AORTIC REGURGITANT)
LENGTH OF ILLNESS		-12 HOURS
MEDICAL ATTENDANT		-R E KANE
DATE LAST SEEN		-23/11/1914
DATE OF BURIAL		-25/11/1914
PLACE OF BURIAL		-CATHERINE HILL BAY, NSW
MINISTER & RELIGION		-G H MARTIN, METHODIST
UNDERTAKER		-JAMES MURRAY
WITNESSES		-W CAMPBELL, J BOKENSTEIN
CREMATION DATE		-
CREMATION PLACE		-
CREMATION INFORMANT		-
CREMATION RELIGION		-
CREMATION WITNESSES		-
REGISTERED		-24/11/1914 CATHERINE HILL BAY NSW

NB: THIS TRANSCRIPTION IS NOT A CERTIFIED COPY FROM THE REGISTERS AND CANNOT BE USED IN ANY LEGAL PROCEEDINGS WHATSOEVER

The time spent in South Australia as 1 year was wrong as both marriages and the births of her first 4 children all took place in South Australia.

I searched for any Edwards family arriving in South Australia. One I jotted down on a scrap piece of paper was to prove crucial. Not getting anywhere as I did not know where in Cornwall she came from, I put this aside for a number of years.

About 4 years ago I planned to spend 6 months in Australia and decided to take the Edwards file to work on. Back then I only had some loose papers in a manila folder. I took everything out and spread it out. The scrap piece of paper just jumped out at me. It had this written on it,

William James Edwards

B: 1812 Cornwall                    actual year of birth: 1809

Arrived 29 Oct 1847 South Australia aboard Duchess of Northumberland

With

Mary Edwards his wife and 3 children

Alice b: 1841               actual year of birth: 1835

William b: 1844           actual year of birth: 1837

Mary b: 1846               actual year of birth 1840

Note: They lied about their ages on the shipping records.

Of course, I didn’t make a note of where I found this information and now on every passenger list I find for the Duchess of Northumberland this family isn’t mentioned.

So now I had a family group that should appear in the 1841 census.

William Edwards senior was a Copper Miner. So now I knew they came from Camborne.

I checked the 1851 census and this family did not appear. Making it certain that I had the right family.

I still couldn’t find the birth/baptism of Alice until someone on the Cornwall Roots & Branches Facebook page found her under Edmunds.

It turned out that Alice’s husband William Edwards also came from Cambourne, Cornwall. I now had an Edwards marrying an Edwards, with the same given names running through both sides. So far, I haven’t discovered if they are related to each other.

To help me sort out the different Edwards families in Cambourne and the parishes of Gwinear, Gwennap, and Illogan I made an excel spreadsheet with marriages, birth/baptisms, the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census. I also took all the marriages for any Thomas Edwards, there were a lot of Thomas’ on both sides, and gave them their own sheet.

I always start with the marriages, then the birth/baptisms. I then use the census information to put everyone into family groups. I extract the information from the IGI (FamilySearch) and try to cross-reference it with other sources.

I have uploaded the Edwards spreadsheet that I use. Feel free to download it and use it for your own research.

So sometimes the lack of information can be very useful.