1921 Censuses of England, Wales, Channel Islands, Isle of Man on Ancestry

Up until January 6, 2025, the only place you could view the 1921 censuses of England, Wales, Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man from home was Findmypast. This census had been released on the Findmypast site in January 2022. However, to access that census from home, one either had to have what Findmypast currently calls their "Everything" subscription or pay either for the transcription or to see the images associated with a household on a per household view. That all changed earlier this year when Ancestry added that 1921 census to their catalogue since Findmypast no longer had the exclusive rights to host the images online.

Before we look at this census on Ancestry, it might be a good idea for folks to first read the Findmypast blog page "The 1921 Census is now online for the very first time" and also follow the links on Findmypast's help page "The 1921 Census of England & Wales" as a refresher to understand what was captured and how it was taken. I'll let you read it yourself. When that census was released online in 2022 there was also a flurry of blog posts writing about it such as John Reid's "1921 Census Experience" on Anglo Celtic Connections.

However, before jumping into the images on Ancestry, I want to highlight a few things:

The first issue with this census is that it wasn't taken on Sunday, April 24, 1921 like what it written on all the forms. Due to the "industrial crisis" (mass strikes!) happening at the time, the census had been postponed until June 19, 1921. Of course this can throw a wrench into finding your kin since they may have already started their holidays a bit early. That happened to me with one of my distant cousins.

The next is that this census, unlike the 1950 census of the USA and 1931 Census of Canada which were transcribed using AI enhanced handwriting recognition technology, was transcribed by humans. That is why it took about six months for it to be published with a searchable index on Findmypast instead of the days we are now seeing on Ancestry for newly released censuses.

Finally, when you viewed the image of the census page with the folks listed at an address on Findmypast, you also had the option to view the "Extra" images associated with that page:

• "Cover" of the enumerator's book
• "Address", which was written on the other side of the page that had all the details about who resided at that location. The "address" included details to help one to create a "good" citation.
  
• "Map" showing the big picture of the area to be enumerated
• "Plans of Division" that describes that enumerator district

Findmypast made it easy for us to access all those extra images. If you retrieved the image of the page with the people at a place from Findmypast, hopefully you also downloaded the extra images to your computer for safekeeping and later review.

But what it you didn't spend the money from your genealogy budget (yes, I have a budget for my research) on either the "Everything"subscription on Findmypast or buying access to the individual images? Maybe you only purchased the right to view the transcription on Findmypast and didn't pay to view the image.

Well, if you have a subscription with Ancestry that includes the censuses of England, you now have access to the transcriptions and images without paying extra.

Yet like most of our genealogy and family history research, there are a few gotchas with using the census on Ancestry:

The first is there currently isn't a single search page on Ancestry for the 1921 census for England, Wales, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man like we found on Findmypast. But we can use the existing "UK Census Collection" search page like I show here to search for Harry Warrener. I used the "Residence Date" search box at the bottom of the form to limit the search to exactly 1921 (highlighted in a red oval).

Screen capture of Ancestry's "UK Census Collection" search page looking for Harry Warrener with a Residence Date of exactly 1921, taken 14 Jan 2025.

By doing this, you can easily search the individual Ancestry 1921 census collections of

• 1921 Channel Islands Census
• 1921 England Census
• 1921 Isle of Man Census
• 1921 Wales Census

all in one go.

The next thing to understand is the source of the transcription used to create the searchable index.

Here I've recreated the search I used to find the page with the enumeration of Annie Leontine Chipman. I know we should treat each person in our tree equally but Annie has become a favourite of mine just due to the interesting life she led, challenges she presented me in finding her in the records, and what some of those records have taught me in terms of how they were created (Annie Leontine Chipman and a Census Mystery).

Screen capture of Findmypast's 1921 Census of England & Wales search results for Leontine Chipman, taken 14 Jan 2025.

Here are the results of the same query on Ancestry:

Screen capture of Ancestry's UK Census Collection search results for Leontine Chipman with a residence date of exactly 1921, taken 14 Jan 2025.

Everything seems to be same. My guess is that Findmypast, as part of their agreement with The National Archives (TNA) in England, has given TNA the transcriptions and Ancestry is using those transcriptions instead of creating their own.

Why do I think that?

1921 census of England, Devonshire, Coombe House, St. George's Road, Torquay, extract; digital images, Findmypast, Findmypast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 30 Jul 2024); citing RG 15/10483 Sch 53, registration district 272, sub district 6, enumeration district 31.

In looking at the entry for Leontine Chipman on the image of the occupants of "Coombe House" on St. George's Road in Torquay, Devon we can clearly see that the birthplace for Leontine is "Cornwallis Nova Scotia". I'm suspecting the transcriber tried to fit a square peg in a round hole and selected "Cornwall, England" from a drop down box. 

In a chat with John Reid, he asked Gemini what was written in that box in the image and Gemini came back with:

"The image appears to say:
Cornwallis
Nova Scotia
Let me know if you have any other images you need transcribed!"

This transcription error made it a bit of a challenge to find her initially since she should have been in Northumberland County, England instead of holidaying in Devonshire. I had initially discounted that index entry since it stated Cornwall and not Nova Scotia or Canada as her birth place. If it hadn't been for the kindness of a stranger who had a full subscription with 1921 census access on Findmypast to quickly check the image from the record for me I would never have found her. But this quirk also seems to indicate that the transcriptions on Ancestry originally came from the work done by Findmypast.

When it comes to viewing the images on Ancestry, if we want to see almost all the same images that are pointed to on Findmypast, we need to do a bit of work ourselves.

Screen capture of the top part of Ancestry's page from the 1921 England Census for Leontine Chipman, taken 14 Jan 2025.

When we look at the details page for Leontine Chipman and click on the image shown, we are brought to the page in the census with the details recorded for everyone at the location as of midnight 19 Jun 1921.

To view the other side of that page with the street address, registration district number, registration sub-district number, and enumeration district number we need to go to the next image. On Findmypast, this is the image they labelled as "Address". 

If you are like me and save any of the images you find about your kin to your computer, make sure you also save this one too.

You will also probably want to go to the first image of the image filmstrip for that Enumeration district to get the other details about the enumeration district and also the "series piece number" for your source citation. The series piece number is the number after the RG15 that was written on the page when it was archived at The National Archives.

Cover page for Registration District 272, Registration Sub-district 6, Enumeration District 30 & 31 with the RG and Series Piece Number written on the page.

What about the "Plan of Division" pages that were linked to on Findmypast? They are from RG114 at The National Archives. That takes a bit more effort to locate on Ancestry since they are stored a bit differently. On Ancestry we need to browse the images, pick the county we are interested, select the appropriate name of the registration district, and then select "Not Stated" as the Sub-registration district.

In the case of where Leontine was residing when the census took place, on that "Cover" page from the enumerator's book, we can faintly read "Newton Abbot" beside the number 272 as the registration district. Next we need to walk through the images to find the "Plan of Division" page for 272 number 6. On Ancestry's filmstrip, that was found on image 203 of 278. Finally we want to location the page for Enumeration District 30 and 31 which is located on images 255 and 256 where we learn the boundary descriptions of those two enumeration districts.

As for the maps of the registration districts provided by Findmypast as one of the "extra" images, those appear to be from The National Archives RG 18 (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C16337741) but they don't seem to have been added to the Ancestry collection for the 1921 census. Using The National Archives site I as able to quickly browse through the descriptions to location registration district 272 to find that RG 18/1103 is a "Collage of Ordnance Survey map sheets cut, mounted and annotated to show the following registration districts as used for the 1921 census...District 272, sub-district 6: Torquay" (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C990371). Alas, I've also not been able to find these maps on sites other than Findmypast. So if you know of a site with the TNA RG 18/830-1465 collage of maps, please let me know!

Hopefully with the information I've provided, you will be able to better document in your tree on Ancestry all your kin who were in England, Wales, Channel Islands, or Isle of Man when that 1921 census was taken.

Have fun in your noble quest to learn more about your family lines!

Finding a Will of an English Earl or What's in a Name?

In our genealogy and family history research we've all probably come across challenges with finding someone in the records when searching for them by their name. The issue could be a problem with the transcription used to create the index such as what I found for the household of Thomas S. Pattillo inthe 1911 Census of Canada where the surname was originally transcribed as "Pattires" by the folks at Ancestry.

1911 Census of Canada, population schedule, Nova Scotia, Colchester district (41), Truro sub-district (25), p. 13, dwelling 113, family 125, household of Thomas S. Pattires [Thomas S. Pattillo], digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 13 Nov 2024); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-20358.

Maybe the civil or church authority who recorded the name in an official document spelled the name as they heard it. I came across that challenge for the household of John Haughton in the 1881 Census of Canada where the enumerator recorded the name as "Hutton".

1881 Census of Canada, population schedule, Ontario, Simcoe North district (139), Tiny sub-district (H), division 2, p. 61, dwelling 250, family 254, household of John Hutton, digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 13 Nov 2024); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-13251.

We might even come across cases where a nickname or diminutive of the name is recorded. Possibly someone was named after their great-aunt Agnes but they go by the name Nancy since they think that Agnes sounds old-fashioned.

Then there is the interesting case a patron at a recent joint Ottawa Public Library - Ottawa Branch of Ontario Ancestors Genealogy Drop-In brought to the group. She was looking for help in locating the will of the 12th or 13th Earl of Derby as part of her efforts to confirm a family story of a possible undocumented child of one of those two Earls.

It should be easy to find the will I thought.

The first thing I did was to look up the details about the 12th and 13th Earls of Derby using Wikipedia to find out their birth names and when they died. I could also have looked up the entries in Burke's A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage. 

I learned the following details:

• 12th Earl of Derby: born Edward Smith-Stanley and died 21 Oct 1834
• 13th Earl of Derby: born Edward Smith-Stanley and died 30 Jun 1851

Since both of the Earls died before 1857, I can't use the "Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales)" site. At the drop-in, John Reid, one of our subject matter experts, suggested that we need to look in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) records since they cover the years 1384 to 1858. Since Ancestry has indexed and made available the images from the PCC wills in their "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" collection that's where I started.

And got absolutely nowhere!

I searched for any "Edward Smith-Stanley" who died around 1834 or 1851. I even searched for Edward Smith Stanley". I searched for all kinds of variations on the name and expanded the year range but there was no one who matched what I was looking for.

Since we only have an hour to help those dropping in, I put the searching aside and the group continued with the next question. But this was an itch that I just couldn't scratch. So at around 11 p.m. that night (it was one of those "I can't sleep" research itches) I dived back in this problem.

Might the will had been proved in another court such as the Prerogative Court of York or at a local court in England?

But first there was one other place I wanted to check for the Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills. That is The National Archives (England) "Wills 1384-1858" research guide since it has a search box. Instead of searching by name I searched for the keyword "Earl of Derby" (without quotes). I got back 18 results and two results got my immediate attention:

Reference:     PROB 11/1853/415
Description:     Will of The Right Honorable Edward Earl of Derby of Chester , Cheshire
Date:     25 November 1835
Held by:     The National Archives, Kew

and

Reference:     PROB 11/2140/271
Description:     Will of The Right Honorable Edward Earl of Derby of Angel Inn, John Street, Minories , City of London
Date:     22 October 1851
Held by:     The National Archives, Kew

So it seems that the wills for both the 12th and 13th Earls of Derby were proven in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. I could even download a digitized copy of both of those wills for free from The National Archives if I sign in with my free account.

Yet why couldn't I find these wills on Ancestry?

I puzzled over that for a few minutes and then noticed that nowhere in the description is his birth surname "Smith-Stanley" recorded. Could Ancestry have taken his title and used it as his last name?

In searching for any "Edward" with the last name of "Earl" who died around 1834 only one entry was returned in the results:

Screen capture of the entry from Ancestry of the "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" collection index page found by searching for the first name "Edward", last name "Earl", who died around 1834.

Same with searching for any "Edward" with the last name of "Earl" who died around 1851:

Screen capture of the entry from Ancestry of the "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" collection index page found by searching for the first name "Edward", last name "Earl", who died around 1851.

After reviewing the images, I was certain that was them. It only took me less than two hours of effort to find the will and to understand why I couldn't find the information during our drop-in.

---

Now that we know how those copies of the wills of the peerage of the United Kingdom have been possibly recorded in the index of the "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" database on Ancestry we can try our hand at finding other wills of nobility proven in that court.

We can find other interesting wills of the English and Welsh peerage in this Ancestry collection by searching on the rank of nobility such as Earl/Countess, Viscount/Viscountess, Marquess/Marchioness, or Duke/Duchess, as their last name. But Duke and Earl are also possible actual last names. How do we filter out the non-peerage? By adding an exact Keyword match of "Honorable" or "Noble". You can even leave off the rank of nobility and just search use the exact match Keyword of "Highness" to find wills of some princes and princesses. I even came across the copy of the will of Her Most Excellent Majesty Charlotte, Queen of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland by just using the exact Keyword search of "Majesty" and leaving out all the other details.

Start of the will of Charlotte, Queen of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, probated 26 Jan 1819; "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858," Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 Nov 2024); citing The National Archives (Kew), PROB 11/1612.

So be creative when you are doing your searches by name, especially when it comes to those of who are Peers of the United Kingdom!

Annie Leontine Chipman and a Census Mystery

It has been a while since I last wrote a blog post. Until fairly recently my research has been of the mundane sort of finding and updating information on the many various branches on my tree. 

However, that was until a few days ago when I was waiting for a presentation I was giving on "Chipping Away at the Brick Wall" for the Southeastern Branch of the New Brunswick Genealogical Society to begin. In that talk I give examples of assumptions I've made in my research and Annie Leontine Chipman, my 1st cousin three times removed (and my 4th cousin 3 times removed...in two different ways...yes, my Chipman line is "interesting" at times), is one such example. I also like to periodically look for information about her since she led an very interesting life and constantly challenges any assumptions I've made in my research. Even her grave marker told an interesting tale since she is a recipient of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

 Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/167501062/anne-leontine-chipman : accessed 18 January 2022), memorial page for Anne Leontine Chipman (11 Feb 1864–10 Mar 1937), Find a Grave Memorial ID 167501062, citing Oak Grove Cemetery, Kentville, Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada ; Maintained by LMK (contributor 47573469).

However, this time it is about her being found in two places in census records of two countries almost at the same time.

Early on in my research days I had found her in the 1881 census of Canada in Kentville, Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada. That census was taken on April 4, 1881.

1881 census of Canada, Nova Scotia, district 17, sub-district F-1, Kentville, p. 2, dwelling 5, family 5, Annie L Chipman; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 Feb 2013); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-13173.

There I found her in the household of her father Leverett DeVeber Chipman, her mother Nancy, and siblings Wilford (Wilford Henry Chipman), and Eva (Lena Evangeline Chipman). All simple and very straightforward...or so I thought.

As I mentioned, she keeps throwing me curve balls in my research and she did it again in the 1881 census. While waiting for the meeting to begin I pulled up Annie's profile in Ancestry and clicked on the search button not really expecting to find something. Yet I was in for a shock when Ancestry pointed me to an 1881 census in England for an Annie Leoline Chapman who was born about 1864 with "Nova Scotia Kentville (British Subject)" as the place of birth attending as a student at Kilburn College in Kilburn, Middlesex.

1881 census of England, Middlesex, Parish of Willesden, Kilburn, Ecclesiastical Parish of St Johns, folio 54, page 23, Alice Leontine Chapman; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 18 Jan 2022); citing PRO RG 11/1364.

Once I looked at the image I could see that it wasn't "Leotine" but there was an "n" added beneath that word as a correction so it read "Leontine". The place of birth and the age was right so just how was this possible? The 1881 census of England was taken on April 3, 1881 but she is recorded as being in the household of her father on April 4, 1881. There were no airplanes in 1881 so how did she travel more than 4,500 km in a day?

That is when I recalled Janice Nickerson's great presentation she gave titled "Ontario Census Fundamentals" for the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society in November 2021. She had mentioned that the Canadian censuses use the "de jure system" of enumeration. 

So just what does this mean?

In the "Manual containing The Census Act, and the instructions to officers employed in the taking of the second census of Canada, (1881)", of which a copy can be found on the Internet Archive, they state:

"The principle adopted for the registration of the population is that which is called by statists the population de droit or de jure ; that is, the population legally domiciled within the territory of the Dominion, and including all persons who may be temporarily absent from their place of abode, whether at the fisheries, at sea, or in the forest wilderness, &c."

Great.

But how does this really get applied in Annie's situation?

You have to keep reading further in the Instructions to the Enumerators where it states:

"Therefore, the names of seamen at sea, college students and school children, of the sick in hospitals, of inmates temporarily present in educational, charitable or penal institutions, are to be taken down in their own provinces, at their own domiciles or homes, and not at temporary abiding places or institutions. In other words, all living members of one family are to be registered as being present at the family abode, unless they are settled in homes of their own, or have left the country with intention not to return."

This matches Annie Leontine Chipman perfectly. She was attending school and she had left the country but she was going to return back to Canada after school.

How about the 1881 Census of England and Wales? In the "Census of England and Wales, 1881. Instructions to the Various Officers as to Their Duties in Taking the Census" the census was to be "...every living person who abode in every house on the night of Sunday the third day of April one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one..."

It would seem that Canada and England used different rules for determining who shall be enumerated where. That is how Annie can be in two widely separated places almost on the same day.

Of course, in the 30 minutes before I was to give the presentation I was madly creating a new slide for the assumptions section since this assumption of how the Canadian censuses were taken really bit me!

My Top 10 Fee-Based Genealogy Sites

We all have genealogy sites that are our go-to places when doing any of our research. It has been a long time since I've listed mine so I figured I'd take a stab at it today. There will be two separate posts. The first, that of my top ten fee-based sites, and the second, to be published later, will be the list of my top free genealogy sites that I use often.

As with any top ten list there will be disagreements as to the order or why a site is included or missing. These are my top ten sites that I turn to regularly in my research. Your favourite site might not have made the cut due to various factors such as it was number 11 (or 12 or 13...) or I haven't had a subscription to it in the past year. A two sites that I make use of periodically that didn't make the top ten cut for me are Fold3¹ and MyHeritage³.Yes, they are useful but not vitally so over this past year.

Counting down from number ten...

10. The New York Times TimesMachine

In my research of a branch of my extended family that originally settled in New York City in the late 1800s the ability to read the death notices and even a few marriage announcements has answered a quite of few questions when trying to locate the next generation. As long as I've had the death date from a death index or registration more often than not I've been able to find a notice in The New York Times fairly quickly.

9. American Ancestors by New England Historic Genealogical Society

I don't have a current subscription but when they have had their free access periods their databases have shed light on a number of my early European settlers in the United States. Even their free databases have been useful to point me to documents I need to find and read at a later time.

8. Genealogy Quebec²

If you have ancestors that resided in Quebec then this site needs to be in your genealogy toolkit. They are constantly adding new images from various parishes in Quebec that you probably won't find any where else. They are also the home of the Drouin Collection Records. Yes, the Drouin Collection is available on other sites but Genealogy Quebec I consider the master source and all others will be behind the times when it comes to new additions. The site also has The LAFRANCE collection with early Quebec parish records starting from 1621. There is also a large obituary collection and a notarized documents collection. If that's not enough they have a collection of marriage and deaths records recorded in Quebec between 1926 and 1997 collected by the provincial health services.

7. The National Archives at Kew, England

The National Archives (TNA) in England (not to be confused with the other national archives around the world) has both free and fee based access to records. With the restrictions in place due to COVID-19 The National Archives has opened up their digital record downloads for free when normally some of these records could only be retrieved for free at their site or by paying a nominal fee. That is why they are in this list and not in my top ten free list. That said, this site is an important one for my British Isles and early Canadian research. Why Canadian? Prior to Confederation, many of the records headed back to England for government use and storage and thus ended in TNA. If you have come across WO or AO record mentions in your Loyalist research, those are collections originally held by The National Archives. Some of those collections are also held by Library and Archives Canada but it is always good to check the TNA site too.

6. General Register Office of England and Wales

We are all probably familiar with the various England and Wales birth, marriage, and death (BMD) indexes available on many genealogy sites. However, in order to make sure you have the right person you really need to order the certificate and, for England and Wales, this is the place to do it. It isn't inexpensive, £11 for a BMD certificate sent by post, but they do offer £7 for a PDF of a birth (1837-1919) or death certificate (1837-1957) sent by e-mail. One new feature is when you search the birth index on the GRO site the mother's maiden surname is now provided in the results. This can save you money or even provide a clue that helps you in your research without paying a penny.

5. GenealogyBank

This newspaper site is invaluable if you have branches of your tree that lived in the United States of America. This site has digitized newspapers that can't be found on other sites. In addition to digitized newspapers, some going back to the early 1700s, the site has a searchable copy of the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), an obituary collection from modern newspapers, some digitized books, and census records. All searchable by name, keywords, date ranges, and location (where applicable).

4. Newspapers.com¹ Publisher Extra subscription

Edging out GenealogyBank for newspaper collections is Newspapers.com with the additional Publisher Extra add-on. Much like GenealogyBank, the primary focus is on US newspapers but with the addition of the Publisher Extra add-on one has access to a number of Canadian newspapers too. The Canadian newspapers are heavy on the western side of Canada especially British Columbia but any indexed and searchable Canadian newspaper collection is a good thing in my books. Newspapers.com also has newspapers from Australia, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Panama, Scotland, and Wales in their collection. 

3. ScotlandsPeople

If you have any Scottish roots this is the one site you need to visit to locate the images of birth, marriage, and death statutory (civil) registrations, census returns, and parish registers that can't be found elsewhere online from home. Many sites will have the indexes of those records but not the images. Unlike many other fee-based genealogy sites that are subscription based ScotlandsPeople is credit based. For £7.50 you get a 30 credit voucher. The price for viewing and downloading, if you so chose to do so, is 6 credits for statutory BMD registrations, census returns, and church registers. Other records can be had for between 2 credits and 40 credits, depending on the collection.

2. Findmypast

Findmypast continues to be one of my primary research sites especially for the UK branches of my family. It isn't just because of their wonderful census, parish collections, immigration, and military collections that covers the British Isles and select parts of the world but also for their newspaper collections. With Findmypast I have access to English, Irish, and US newspapers from various other sites. There are also a number of Canadian newspapers buried in their collection.

1. Ancestry¹

There is probably no surprise that Ancestry is at the top of my list of fee-based genealogy sites. Combined with their record collections and DNA testing they have been my go-to site for many years. My primary cousin-bait tree is hosted on that site and I make use of the good...and not so good...user created trees to provide me with clues as to where to possibly look next for records in my research when I hit a stumbling block.

 

These are my top ten fee-based sites and they probably differ from yours. I'd be interested in hearing from you as to your favourites (and why) that I didn't include.

Stay tuned in the coming week or so for a list of my favourite free genealogy sites.

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Full disclosure

1. As a member of the Ancestry Canada Advisory Board this year I have been provided a free subscription to Ancestry, Newspapers.com with Publisher Extra, and Fold3. However, prior to this year I either held my own subscriptions or made use of those sites via other venues such as at my local Family History Center or a genealogy conference.

2. I was provided with a one year subscription to Genealogy Quebec last year. The subscription has since lapsed but my to-do list for that site is growing for the day when I can access those records at my local library.

3. In July this year I won a subscription to MyHeritage when I attended a Facebook presentation hosted by MyHeritage. I had a subscription in previous years but had let it lapse.

Same Name, Different Person?

In my post, Not Trusting Trees -or- Make Sure You Read the Records!, I focused on the parents of Louisa Coulston/Colston Golding and the challenge with figuring out the maiden surname of her mother, Susanna. In this post I will look at the husband of Louisa, one Reuben Charles Short of England later of London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.

According to the chart found in the family bible Reuben Charles Short was born 31 Mar 1807 and died 17 Mar 1880. As I had mentioned in the research concerning the mother of Louisa, charts found in family bibles always need to be taken with a grain of salt and backed up with other documents such as ecclesiastical and government created records. So far the information recorded in this specific family chart actually matches with the other records I've uncovered. So I trust it...as much as I trust any other record.

In the parish register for St. Michael Bassishaw in London, England we find a marriage recorded in Ancestry's "London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932" collection between Reuben Short and Louisa Coulston Golding taking place on 24 Mar 1829. 

"London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932," database and images, Ancestry Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 Sep 2020), Reuben Short and Louisa Coulston Golding, married 24 Mar 1829; citing London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P69/MIC1/A/01/Ms 6990/1; Marriage register for St Michael Bassishaw, 1813-1835, p 63.

To add a little bit to the confusion to Louisa's middle name she writes it as "Coston". Why do I think it is her handwriting and not that of the priest or clerk? This is where we have to look at the page as a whole. If she didn't know how to write her name the signature would have been like that of the witness to the following recorded marriage, "Ann Pyatt her Mark X". Also the letters, especially the 'd' in Golding, look different when compared to the rest of the record and page.

Unfortunately, unlike in the civil marriage registrations that started 1 Jul 1837 in England and Wales, the names of any parents are generally not recorded in parish marriage registers. This leaves us with a challenge, who are Reuben Charles Short's parents and where in England was Reuben born?

Once again I turned to the family trees on Ancestry that have been created by users of that site for potential clues. And much like the challenges with figuring out the maiden surname of Louisa's mother, Susanna, we face some in interesting challenges. Here an example of one profile hint from Ancestry:

Screen capture of an Ancestry profile hint for Reuben Edward Short Sr.

A few things I need to address or point out.

• For the profile picture they are using the image of the family tree from the Short bible. That is the same family tree chart that I've also been using as a relatively trusted source. That document has recorded within the names of the children along with dates of significant events for that family.
• Reuben's full name, according to that family chart is recorded not just once but twice as "Reuben Charles Short". The use of the "Sr" (senior) may have been used to distinguish him from his son, Reuben Edward Short especially if only the first name is used in business or in the family. Even his grave marker, as you will read a little further on, records his name as Reubⁿ C Short.
• Reuben was born in London, Middlesex, England. However, some have him also baptized on 5 Apr 1807 in Swanage, Dorset, England.
  
• Reuben's father's name is Thomas Short and mother's name is Sarah Martin.
• Six children are listed: Matilda Susannah (1829-1885), Louisa Susannah (1832-1903), Reuben Edward (1935-1928), Sarah Ann (1838-1913), Eliza Jane (1938-1902), and Fanny Charlotte (1842-1918). However, in the family chart found in the bible there is one other daughter, Elizabeth (1841-?). She is listed under the deaths on the chart but without a date recorded. Possibly the creator of the family chart didn't know when she died.
  

Knowing the dates of when the children were born is another little tidbit that may help us out in locating or even dismissing records in England: Reuben Charles' son Reuben Edward was born in England on 18 Mar 1835 and the next child, Sarah Ann, was born in Canada in 14 Oct 1837 with the remaining children also born in Canada. Reuben is also found in the 1871 census of Canada in the Township of London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada with wife Louisa and daughter Eliza Jane. His entry in that census is sandwiched between the family of his daughter Matilda, now married to William McKnight, and the household of his son Reuben. I've not yet found him in the earlier decennial censuses of Canada West.

So why do some have Reuben Charles Short born in London, Middlesex, England while also having him baptized some distance away in Swanage, Dorset, England. It comes down to two different sets of records. The first is a baptism record for a Reuben, child of Thomas and Sarah Short in 1807.

"Dorset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812," database and images, Ancestry Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Sep 2020), Reuben, of Thomas and Sarah Short, baptized 5 Apr 1807; citing Dorset History Centre; Dorchester, England; Dorset Parish Registers; Reference: PE/SW:RE6; Parish of Swanage.

The other is the entry for Find A Grave for Reuben Edward Short Sr. in Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Crematorium in London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada¹ where someone has written:

REUBEN EDWARD SHORT was born and lived near St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England. He, his wife, two daughters and his son-age one left England in 1836 in a sailing vessel that took 7 weeks to reach America. He settled in Toronto, Canada for four years then went to London, Ontario, where he lived the balance of his life. He was in the shoe making business with his brother and built a log cabin. [Source unknown]

What would have been really nice to read in that Find A Grave memorial page was the source of that information. Also, the memorial page for Reuben on Find A Grave is without an image so how do we know that it is Reuben Edward Short written on the marker? Well, it isn't. The CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project has taken photographs of many of the markers on the grounds of Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Crematorium and Reuben's is one of them. The name engraved on the marker appears to my eyes to be "Reubⁿ C Short"²

If that wasn't confusing enough, some people have linked a 1841 census of England to Reuben in their trees. Yet based on the places of birth for his children, he was residing in Canada by that time. That 1841 census of the Parish of Wimborne Minster, Dorset records a Reuben Short, age 35 years, born in Dorset County. Keeping in mind that in the 1841 census of England the ages were rounded down to the nearest multiple of five for those over 15 years of age, could that entry actually be referring to the the Reuben, child of Thomas and Sarah Short?

Curiously, on FamilySearch there is an indexed entry from the "England, Dorset, Parish Registers, 1538-2001" collection for a baptism of an Ellen Short, daughter of Reuben and Catherine Short taking place on 12 Jul 1840 in Wimborne Minster. In the "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005" collection on FamilySearch we find a Reuben Short listed in the index along with a Catherine Mary Ann Primmer with their marriage registered in the 4th quarter of 1839 in the Southampton registration district.

The tricky part in using church records is that not all the parish registers have survived and not all have been digitized or even indexed. So where else can we turn to in these COVID-19 times when archives and libraries are effectively out of bounds for us? How about online newspaper collections. For this I looked to the British newspapers collection on Findmypast.

In the 19 Nov 1840 edition of the Dorset County Chronicle there is a servant, Reuben Short, recorded as a hedger³ with a master named Mr. Harry Small. He performed his hedging task in 2 hours 33 minutes. This was an actual event offered by the Blandford Agricultural Society in a Ploughing and Hedging competition on 11 Nov 1840. There are also mentions of Reuben Short in Lincolnshire and Wiltshire having to do with various criminal activities...all after when Reuben Charles Short was supposedly in Canada.

Could there be at least two Reuben Shorts born around the same time period in England? One that left England for Upper Canada and others that remained behind? The more I look at the records and explore other resources the more I have come to the option that there are indeed at least two people named Reuben Short.

What have we learned from this little exercise?

1. Family trees may not always be correct. It doesn't matter if they are online trees or books compiled a century ago. The information found within need to be looked at with a critical eye and, where ever possible, verified against surviving records.
   
2. Find A Grave entries or those found on any other grave marker site, unless accompanied by the image of the marker, should be treated as suspect.
3. Newspapers can help when looking for a person. Of course, they may just highlight the issue of "same name, different person" like in this case.
4. Family bibles and family charts can be invaluable but, like online family trees, the events recorded need to be corroborated.
   

So, at least for now, the names of the parents of Reuben Charles Short will have to remain a mystery.

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1.  Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 22 September 2020), memorial page for Reuben Edward Short Sr. (1807–17 Mar 1880), Find a Grave Memorial no. 33292270, citing Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Crematorium, London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada ; Maintained by Find a Grave (contributor 8). 

2. CanadaGenWeb, CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project, digital images (http://cemetery.canadagenweb.org/  : accessed 4 Sep 2020), memorial page for Reuben C Short (1807-1880), citing Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada; photographed by Margaret Yasui.

3. Hedger? What's a hedger? Someone who makes and trims hedges of course! It was considered a skilled art.

Not Trusting Trees -or- Make Sure You Read the Records!

When I'm stuck researching a family line using Ancestry I will often turn to the family trees created by others. Before you get in an uproar over how suspect they may be, take a moment to hear me out. I'm generally not looking at those user contributed trees for answers but instead I'm mining them for possible clues. I approach everything in those trees using my genealogy research mantra of "Trust no one, verify everything, and even if it is written in stone it might be wrong."

So let's take a look at the marriage of Charles Golding and Susanna. This is from a branch of a tree that I'm exploring for a friend and sort of a dead end on this branch for me. I wanted to learn what the maiden surname is for Susanna.

First I need to take a step back and start with their daughter. Initially all I had was the name Louisa Colston/Coulston Golding. According to the family chart of the Reuben Charles Short found in the family bible she was born 25 Aug 1802 and died 4 Sep 1873. Now blindly trusting family bibles can be fraught with challenges. However, I've been able to corroborate the information recorded on that family chart with parish and civil records so I'm trusting that document as much as I would any ecclesiastical or government generated record.

Here is her 1802 baptism record from Upper Maudlin Street church in Bristol, England, a Moravian church which means this is a nonconformist church, a non-Church of England church.

"England & Wales Non-Conformist Births And Baptisms," database and images, Findmypast, Findmypast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 7 Sep 2020), Louisa Colston Golding, born 25 Aug 1802, baptized 12 Sep 1802; citing The National Archives (Kew, Surrey), RG/3/1361B; Upper Maudlin Street (Moravian): Births, Baptisms and Burials.

In the baptism record the minister was kind enough to state where and when Louisa was born. It is really nice that the date of her birth matches what is recorded in the family chart. in the baptism record Louisa is recorded as the daughter of Charles and Susanna Golding. Unfortunately they don't state her mother's maiden surname.

As an aside, the place of her birth, Kingswood led me down some interesting paths as I tried to place it into a county. Some sites had it in Gloucestershire, others in Wiltshire, and one in both. That had me scratching my head. So I turned to GENUKI to see what it stated. The reference on that site for Kingswood in Wiltshire stated, "... Previous to 1844 it formed part of the county of Wilts, but is now annexed to Gloucester."¹ Prior to 1844 Kingswood, Wiltshire was an enclave completely surrounded by Gloucestershire. This means that when Louisa was baptized she was born in Kingswood, Wiltshire, England and not Kingswood, Gloucestershire, England. It is a minor but important distinction when one strives to record where an event took place at the time.

I now know the names of her parents, Charles and Susanna, along with the general location where she resided and the religious following of her parents. This helps quite a bit when it comes to researching in parish records. Of course, this led me down another path where I needed to learn more about the Moravian church in England and how it affected finding records. The one important item to note is that between 1754 and 1837 only Church of England marriages had been legal (Quakers were exempt from this law)². This means that I should probably not limit myself to Nonconformist records when looking for a marriage between the parents of Louisa.

This is where the various user contributed family trees on Ancestry come into play. Practically all of the trees have her parents as Charles Golding and Susanna Coulston or Colston Here is an example of one of the family tree profile hints for Louisa.

Screen capture of an Ancestry family tree profile hint for Louisa Coulston Golding (1802-1873).

The profile has a number of sources and records attached to it. However, generally when I see a profile hint on Ancestry with one more source than the number of records that's a good indicator that other family trees many have been used as sources. That is exactly what has happened here.

Since I've not found the maiden name of Susanna recorded in the documents I had come across I wanted to find out where these Ancestry members got their information. So I looked at each tree hint for Louisa and followed their tree to her mother, Susanna. For the associated sources for Susanna's name they all came from baptism registers and only had her first name mentioned. However, there was a marriage registration between Charles and Susanna that everyone pointed to. Even better, the source had an image connected to it. That's always a win!

"Bristol, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935," database and images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Sep 2020), Charles Golding and Susanna Golding, married 9 Oct 1793; citing Bristol Archives; Bristol, England; Bristol Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: P/B/R/3/c; Parish of St. Mary, Bitton. 

Only one little itsy bitsy problem. That record doesn't state Coulston or Colston but Golding!

One Ancestry tree profile even commented on that recorded fact with the statement:

"Susanna's name on Marriage Record is listed as Susanna Golding. Assuming since Louisa was her only daughter and she gave her the middle name of Coulston that that [sic] could be her maiden name."

They read the evidence but just didn't believe their own eyes and came up with an explanation of their own.

It just wasn't in the recording of the names of the parties but in the place where the parties signed their name. Maybe she couldn't write so the priest made the same mistake twice. This is where looking at the whole document is important since the next marriage, that between John Bush and Ruth Gunning, for the husband the signature is "The mark of  + John Bush" and the next marriage record one after that has "The mark of X Ann Bryant". So it appears that Susanna could write her own name and knew what it was.

Since the marriage was performed after the Banns of Marriage were read I searched for the record of banns. Maybe they would clarify the matter and give a different surname for Susanna. I got lucky and found them relatively quickly in the same collection.

"Bristol, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935," database and images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Sep 2020), Charles Golding and Susanna Golding, banns read 15, 22, 29 Sep 1793; citing Bristol Archives; Bristol, England; Bristol Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: P/B/R/3/c; Parish of St. Mary, Bitton.

Even that record had her surname as Golding. In both the marriage and banns records it is stated that she is a spinster. So Golding would appear to be her maiden surname.

But is this the right Charles and Susanna? I think so. Bitton is in the same neck of the woods as Kingswood, only about 3.8 miles apart so it is possible. According to Wikipedia (yes, taken with a grain of salt), until the early 19th century there was no Church of England church in Kingswood and they were served by the parish in Bitton. Also, remember that little detail about nonconformist marriages being not legal? St. Mary's in Bitton is a Church of England parish so it would make sense to get married there to be legal in the eyes of the government.

A further search of the nonconformist baptisms, using both Findmypast and Ancestry, revealed a number of children born in Kingswood to a Charles and Susan/Susanna/Susannah Golding:

1. Jeremiah, 1794-1803
2. Edward, 1796-
3. Daniel, 1797-
4. Philip, 1799-
5. Ebenezer, 1801-
6. Louisa Colston/Coulston, 1802-1873
7. Jeremiah, 1804-
8. Ephraim, 1807-1812

Yes, there are two Jeremiahs. The first was born just over a year after Charles and Susanna were married but died as a young child. I haven't gone down the branches of the various siblings of Louisa but in just glancing at the records there are some neat finds including that of Ebenezer Golding, boot and shoe maker, being admitted to the Freedom of the City of London on 8 Oct 1835 at Guildhall.

Just wait though, there is more to mess people's trees up when documenting this family group...

To add to the confusion in the records and what is recorded in various trees, I had found the baptisms recorded under "RG4: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths ˃ Buckinghamshire ˃ Primitive Methodist ˃ Piece 1361A: Wooburn Green (Primitive Methodist), 1832-1836" in the "England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970" collection on Ancestry. This didn't make sense to me since I expected it to be Somerset, Gloucestershire, or Wiltshire as the county. If one looks at the reference plate included with frame of the original microfilm you will see that the collection is actually RG4/1361B according to the Public Records Office reference number. To really mess things up, "RG4: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths ˃ Somerset ˃ Moravian ˃ Piece 1361: Bristol, Upper Maudlin Street (Moravian), 1755-1837" is actually for the Primitive Methodist denomination in Wooburn Green. Big OOPS on Ancestry's part.

To wrap things up, and assuming that I have found the correct records, it would seem to me that the various trees on Ancestry are incorrect and Susanna's maiden surname is the same as her husband, that is, Golding.

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1. The National Gazetteer : a Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands Compiled from the Latest and Best Sources and Illustrated with a Complete County Atlas and Numerous Maps, vol. 2 (London, England : Virtue & Co, 1868), p. 477, entry for Kingswood; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org : accessed 21 Sep 2020). 

2. The National Archives research guide on Nonconformists.

The Challenge of Being Challenged

Whenever you post a family tree online, whether it be in a one-world tree like on FamilySearch or WikiTree or in a self-manged tree like those found on MyHeritage, Findmypast, or Ancestry, you run the risk of someone saying that you are wrong. Hopefully, that person will provide a list of facts to back up their statement. Sometimes you are right with the information that you have, other times, the other person points out something that you had completely missed and caused you to follow the wrong family line.

Here is an interesting case in my own tree on Ancestry where a claim has been made and one piece of evidence provided that refutes what I had recorded. How you deal with such challenges is up to you but here is what I did in my case.

We need to set the stage first...

In the branch of the Fraser family on my tree on Ancestry I have Jane Fraser, born on 8 Sep 1839¹ in Upper Canada (what later became Ontario, Canada). 

L. A. Milne, Fraser : A Short History of The Fraser Clan and our own Branch of Frasers in Canada and The United States  (N.p.: L.A. Milne, 1943), p 59, photograph of Jane Fraser.

According to the Fraser book I have that was compiled by Louise Agnes (nee Fraser) Milne in the 1940s Jane was supposedly first married to "Manchester" (no known forename) and then to a "Wm Gould". I was able to locate Jane in the 1851/52, 1861, and 1871 censuses living with family in Drummond Township, Lanark County, Canada West/Ontario. In 1881 she is residing in the household of her older brother Thomas in Huron Township, Bruce County, Ontario. Where I next pick her up is in California, USA in the 1900 census. That find was based on a few premises:

• Comment in the Fraser book about after her mother, Sarah, passing away Jane went to California and married.
• Another comment in the Fraser book that stated "Old letters written to her people back home are full of expressions of affection for her husband and stepson."

So finding a Jane Gould in the 1900 Federal census of the United States of America in California living in Los Nietos, Los Angles County, California, USA with husband William Gould and an 18 year old James F Gould, recorded as a son to the head of the household, William, made sense. But then she disappeared.

That is what I had up until now when I started writing this post.

However, I'm in the midst of my review of my Fraser branches descended from Alexander Fraser and Sarah Howell and I decided to chase down Jane, their youngest daughter, before I continued with some of the other larger branches of Alexander's and Sarah's family since Jane didn't have any children listed in the Fraser book. That is when I came across this comment from five years ago attached to William Gould, Jane's husband, that I somehow missed:

"William Gould had only on wife Jane Fraser and James Fredercik [sic] Gould was there [sic] son  See the 1900 and 1910 census, married 24 years"

That comment came about since I had William Gould first marrying an Ellen Mourin before he married Jane.

With the number of records that have be placed online over the past decade I figured I'd have a good look at this family group and see if I could:

1. Confirm that Jane did marry a Manchester, and
2. Straighten out to my satisfaction that James Frederick Gould is a stepson of Jane.

The first thing I did was review the records that I had already found for Jane Fraser and make sure I had all the information entered into my master database in Legacy Family Tree. Just doing this sort of review can sometimes shed additional light on facts and events you missed the first time around.

As you can see in this clipping from the 1900 Federal census of the USA for the household of William Gould, it does state that Jane has 1 child born and 1 child still living.

1900 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Los Nietos Township, enumeration district (ED) 110, sheet 29A, dwelling 676, family 704, Household of William Gould; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Aug 2020); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T623.

What isn't showing but is in other columns is that for the number of years in the USA and her immigration status it is recorded as "unknown". Even the year of her arrival in the USA is blank even though her stated place of birth is Canada Eng. The immigration details for James F Gould, the listed son, are blank and he was born in New Zealand. Something seems to be amiss here. With both Jane and James not born in the USA there should have been additional details recorded.

However, the 1910 Federal census of the USA tells a different story.

1910 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Los Nietos Township (part of Rivera Precinct), enumeration district (ED) 282, sheet 1A, dwelling 11, family 11, Household of Wm Gould; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Aug 2020); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T624, roll 85.

Here it is stated that this is both their second marriage and they've only been married for 10 years. Also no children are recorded for Jane and, although not shown in this snippet from the page, it states that that Jane arrived in the United States in 1882.

Right away we have conflicting information from the census enumerations. Oh, joy! However, there is some hope now that the Fraser book was right and Jane did marry a Manchester before she married William Gould.

How about that supposed son of William and Jane, James F. Gould? What can we learn about him beside that he was born about 1881 in New Zealand.

For that I went to the New Zealand Government site for Births, Deaths & Marriages Online to search for historical records. I entered in the basic information I had concerning James:

• Family Name: Gould
  
• Given Name: James
  
• Search From Date: 01/01/1879
  
• Search To Date: 31/12/1883
  

I gave it a +/- 2 year range for the date of birth just in case and only three names that were registered in that time period were returned. One of them was for a James Frederick Gould, child of William and Ellen registered in 1881.

Wait a second, Ellen and not Jane? It is looking like the 1910 census might be right after all.

Since James isn't in the 1910 census with William and Jane he might have died, married, or moved away. A search for a Frederick James Gould that was born about 1881 in New Zealand find a Fred J Gould born about 1883 in New Zealand living with wife Jessie E in Los Nietos Township, Los Angeles County, California. Also, they've only been married for two years.

The California, County Marriages, 1850-1952 collection on FamilySearch is a wonderful resource for images of California marriage registrations. Keep in mind that not all marriages will be found here and the ones that are, not all may have images. But it is a good place to start to see if I can find a marriage for James F Gould and a Jessie.

We struck gold this time. A marriage license was found and the certificate of marriage include the Personal and Statistical Particulars.

It is a little faint to read but it states that James believed that his mother was Nellie Mourin.

Way back when, when I was doing my initial research, I had come across a mention of a marriage in the Perth Courier between Wm. Gould and Nellie Mourin. It was an interested notice since it stated that they married at Piccadilly, London.

"Gould-Mourin," The Perth Courier, 29 Sep 1876; digital images, PaperofRecord.com (https://paperofrecord.hypernet.ca/default.asp : accessed 9 Oct 2010).

On Ancestry in the newly available "Westminster, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935" collection there is even a copy of the marriage record from Parish of St. James (Piccadilly) Westminster for a William Gould and Ellen Mourin that took place on 12 Aug 1876.

What about Jane's marriage to William Gould? Well a search of FamilySearch in the "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952" collection didn't uncover a marriage to a Jane Fraser between 1881 and 1900 but there is one to a Jane Manchester. Recall that in the Fraser book they said that Jane first married a Manchester. There a marriage is recorded taking place on 26 Jul 1898 between a William Gould, residing in Rivera, a native of Canada and Mrs Jane Manchester, residing in San Gabriel, a native of Canada.

"California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," index and images, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 11 Aug 2020), entry for William Gould and Jane Manchester, married 26 Jul 1898; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 2,073,995.

 

Curiously the witnesses are a W. G. McMullin, a resident of Los Angeles, and A. F. Mills, a resident of Pasadena. In my tree I do have a William George McMullin/McMullen, a sheriff in Los Angeles, and an Alexander Fraser Mills, residing in Pasadena around that time. Looks like she may have asked her nephews to act as witnesses.

What about a marriage to a Manchester? 

Again, FamilySearch comes through for us with their California, County Marriages, 1850-1952 collection. Here we find the marriage for James S Manchester, a native of Maine and a resident of Los Angeles, to Jane Fraser, a native of Canada and resident of Los Angeles, on 8 Sep 1885 with a George McMullen as one of the witnesses.

"California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," index and images, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 11 Aug 2020), entry for James S Manchester and Jane Fraser, married 8 Sep 1885; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 1,033,135.

The question that then arises for me is did James Manchester die before Jane married William Gould? That was answered through a paragraph in The Los Angeles Times found via a search on Newspapers.com.

"Pasadena - Brevities," The Los Angeles Times, 4 Sep 1891, p. 7, col. 1; digital images, Newspapers (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 Aug 2020).

There is the A. F. Mills that was a witness for his marriage to Jane Fraser and I also have J. S. (John Stevenson) Mills in my tree and they are nephews by marriage to James Manchester.

What about Jane? Why did she disappear from the census records after 1910. A bit of search and I found her death registration in the "California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994" collection on FamilySearch. She had passed away on 31 May 1916 in Rivera, Los Angeles County, California. The only glitch in the record is that they list her father as John Fraser instead of Alexander Fraser. But surprisingly the unnamed informant got her mother correct, Sarah Howell.

Using that same collection on FamilySearch I found that William Gould had predeceased her on 11 Oct 1913, also in Rivera. Their grave markers can be found in the Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.

Jane Fraser had, for many a years, been one of my little annoyances. Until I decided to revisit her and see what new information could be found she had been one of my lost sheep. She is now welcomed back into the flock.

I have sent a reply back to the person that commented on William Gould's profile and included a link to this blog post for their reading confusion/enjoyment.

So take another look at those people in your tree that you had issues with finding more details about their life story. With new collections and records be added monthly on many of your favourite genealogy sites you might just find the answers you could find the first time around.

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1. "Fraser : a short history of the Fraser clan and our own branch of Frasers in Canada and the United States"