Delving into the family history on and off for about 20 years has left me hopelessly addicted to the following clues, hunches and inevitable red herrings that are all needed to piece together the bare chapters of someone's life. Unable to resist people's 'brick walls' or an innocent query re the origin of grandparents and those before, there's nothing better than trying to find the unfound.
This is my sudoku, my multilevel crossword, my jigsaw where most of the pieces are missing and there's definitely no picture to start from.
So - to satisfy this addiction, each week I intend to choose someone at random from the 1881 census (checking that their story hasn't already unfolded on ancestry.co.uk) and uncover, piece together what I can from internet sources their untold story.
The puzzling and the unfolding story will be told in this blog.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

First protagonist - Alexander Cowan

With Rotherham so close to Sheffield and Sheffield being a hive of industry in the 1800s with the steel works and silver making, it is likely that the likelihood of work there drew many young men like Alexander. Indeed there are a number of Cowan's born in Scotland in Sheffield in 1881 but no one with an obvious link to Alexander. John Cowan born 1850 and living at 90 & 88 Queen Street Sheffield along with four other young men from Scotland would be a useful link for a publican as he was, as were the other four, a wine merchant's assistants.

 The others living with Alexander at the King's Arms in 1881 were Niel Campbell born 1861 also from Scotland and waiting in the pub; Ann Goy born 1849 in Grimsby Lincolnshire, a widow with her daughter Ann born 1877 in Sheffield and employed as housekeeper; and Ada Littlewood aged 18, a servant. As already mentioned there are many possible marriages for Ada. Niel or Neil Campbell isn't obviously found in 1891 and neither are Ann Goy and her daughter.

 Ann in 1871 had been with her husband William in Nettleham, Lincoln. He was a farmer of 44 acres with a servant girl, Betsy Hird age 13, in the house and three young men employed on the farm: Charles Knott 20, William Gibson 17 and William Lygit 15. They had a son William G age 3 born in Nettleham. 

 Annie, the daughter had been born the December quarter 1876 in Sheffield and it looks like the father William died in Sheffield December quarter 1880 aged 34. William the son, or George William, was boarding with a family in Sheffield in 1881 whilst his mother worked at the King's Arms. George William's story beyond 1881 and his mother's story up 1871 have already been unfolded and told on ancestry... but what of Ann and Annie beyond 1881?

 There's no obvious death between 1881 and 1891 for an Ann (Annie) Goy of either age. An Annie Goy married Joseph Downing in 1888 in Derbyshire, but there's no Ann(ie) Downing born in Grimsby or even Lincolnshire in 1891. A search for any Ann(ie) born 1848-1850 in Grimsby anywhere in 1891 has nothing obvious.
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