Graham wrote to me about a "huge
brick wall" in his family tree. I'll give you the facts as he presented
them to me - let's see what you make of them!
"My
Great Grandmother Mary Pike married my Great Grandfather Henry William Coward
in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia on 27 July 1882.
Before that time it appears that she did not exist.
"According
to her marriage certificate, Mary was born about 1855-56 in St Columb, (Major? or Minor?)
Cornwall. Her parents were John Pike (deceased), an Exciseman
and Christiana Hocking. Her name does not appear in any shipping records. I
have not been able to find Mary or her parents in any English records. There
are people who meet some of the requirements but no one I can conclusively
claim.
"One
likely candidate appears in the 1851 and 1861 censuses of St Columb Major. In 1851 a 4 year old Maryjane
Pike, born St Columb Major was living as a lodger
with Elizabeth Harris, a 67 year old char woman and three of her adult
children. She appears again in 1861 as 13 year old Mary J Pike, born St Columb Major. This time she is a lodger with a 40 year old
carpenter named John Barry, his wife and daughter. Thereafter she disappears.
No record of a death or marriage in England can be found.
"Perhaps
there is a clue here: According to family legend, Mary had worked for a wealthy
family as a governess and travelled on the Continent with them. In fact the
family still has a Passport issued by the British Embassy in Switzerland to a
'Miss Mary Pike' on 2 July 1874. There are no stamps or any other indications
that it was ever used. It has not even been signed by Mary.
"On
the night of the 1861 census a 31 year old widow named Christiana Pike, born at
Wimborne Minster was working as a nurse in the London
home of a wealthy merchant named William Angerstein.
On 25 September 1854 at Sturminster Marshall, in the
District of Wimborne, Devon, a John Pike, a Butcher
of Binstead, Isle of Wight married a Christiana Lidford of Sturminster Marshall. Wimborne Minster is only about 5 miles from Sturminster Marshall. In the December Quarter of 1854 a
John Pike died on the Isle of Wight. These records all appear to relate to the
same John and Christiana Pike. Could this Christiana have been Mary's mother?
Could it be that Mary took her mother's job with the Angersteins?
"Neither
the Angersteins, Mary (Jane), nor Christiana appear
in the 1871 census and in 1881 the Angersteins can be
found at their country property at Weeting in
Norfolk. Perhaps the Angersteins were abroad in 1871
and Christiana and/or Mary were with them.
"Interestingly,
a search of Excise Service records reveals that at least two men named John
Pike were officers of the Service in the mid 19th
Century. One was born at Limehouse in Middlesex about
1805. The other was born at Bow in Devon about 1812.
"It
seems that someone was telling fibs. Was it Mary, her mother or someone else?
Any assistance would be appreciated."
I've chosen this example because most of
the parish records for Cornwall are available free at the Cornwall Online
Parish Clerks website - which means that you have access to the same records as
I did when I came up with my solution.
What can you discover? Whilst this isn't
a competition, I hope you'll exercise your skills and judgment and come up with
a theory of your own before you look at the solution below. In compiling
this solution I've added information contributed by eagle-eyed LostCousins members
- all of it taken from free websites.
SOLUTION
Searching the excellent (and free) Cornwall Online Parish Clerks website revealed the baptism at St Columb Major in 1852 of a Mary Jane Pike Hawken, the illegitimate child of Christiana Hawken. The child's date of birth is given as 18 August 1847, which is a good fit for the Maryjane Pike who Graham found on the 1851 and 1861 Censuses, and the address given is Fair Street, which is the continuation of Fore Street, as you can see from this modern map.
What happened to Christiana Hawken - why was her child lodging with someone apparently unrelated in 1851? There are two possibilities that come to the fore when you continue searching the registers at the OPC site - there is a Christiana Hocking who married James Clemens in St Columb Minor on 9 November 1847 (remember that Mary gave the same spelling for her mother's surname when she married in Australia), and there is a Christiana Hawken who was buried in St Columb Major on 31 December 1850, aged 25.
Note: all of these register entries can be seen on the FamilySearch site, although they currently aren't indexed or transcribed, so you'll have to browse until you find the right record.
Another key piece of evidence can be found on the Cornwall Records Office website, where the online catalogue describes an appeal at Bodmin Quarter Sessions on 19 October 1847 by John Pike of St Columb Major, an excise officer, against the decision of St Columb magistrates on 27 July to adjudge him the putative father of Christiana Hawken's daughter, and award her £15 in costs.
Note: Graham purchased the birth certificate for the Mary Jane Hawken whose birth was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1847, not the 3rd quarter, as would have been expected. It transpired that the birthdate shown in the baptism register was wrong - Mary was born in June, not August. Although the writing in the baptism register is clear, the registers were often written up later from notes taken at the time - the number 6 can easily be misread as 8.
LESSONS
LEARNT
This case study demonstrates the importance of discovering what information is available online for the county or area you are researching, particularly at free sites. Don't assume that paying a subscription gives you access to all the information that's online - usually there's little overlap between the datasets at different sites.