Mary PRICE ..... or is she someone else?
PRICE is such a wonderful name to research. Much the same as SMITH!
So, having found William and Mary PRICE on the 1871 census with children, Mary, William and Martha A, I thought I would trawl through the births registered to each name for around the time periods that I thought they were born using freebmd.org.uk and then look each one up on the gro.org.uk website to get the mother's maiden name linked to each birth registration.
Having found all this data and put in into a spreadsheet, you can then sort on the mother's maiden name to see if any family groupings emerge. This has worked a treat for me when looking for SMITH births.
So, as a starter, I carefully looked at the ages for each child on the census and came up with a first guess for likely birth dates and places. As I know the ages (and birth places for that matter!) given on the census can be out, I added a year either way.
Looking at the information on the census (William and Mary PRICE on 1871 census), I looked for the following:
Mary PRICE - births in Surrey and London between 1853and 1856.
William PRICE - births in Surrey and London between 1859 and 1862.
Martha PRICE - births in Middlesex, London and Surrey between 1860 and 1863.
Having obtained all these registrations and the maiden names from the gro website, I then sorted these by the mother's maiden name. However, I couldn't find a Mary, William and Martha that had a common mother's maiden name. I even extended the search and looked for Marys and Williams in Middlesex, just in case, but this made no difference.
It then dawned on me that perhaps Mary at the very least was born to a different mother as there is a six year gap between Mary and William. As William and Martha have arrived in quick succession, I wondered if a new marriage happened just before? However, hedging my bets a little, I decided to search on freebmd for a marriage for William PRICE in Surrey between 1859 and 1861 where the spouse's first name was Mary.
This found two entries, both in Lambeth in the June and September quarters of 1861. I then searched at Ancestry on the London Church of England Marriages and Banns and found the two marriages.
The first was on 20 May 1861 between William PRICE Jnr, a lamplighter, and Mary Ann SMITH at St Mary's Lambeth.
The second was on 17 July 1861 between William PRICE, drover, and Mary VALANTINE at St John the Evangelist, Lambeth. William's father is Robert PRICE, a drover, and Mary's father is James VALANTINE, a cutler.
Surely this second one must be them? How many drovers called William PRICE can there possibly be?
I then had a look through the PRICE birth registrations I'd accumulated and, sure enough, Martha Ann PRICE registered in district West London in the 4Q 1861 with the mother's maiden name of BALANTINE. I would have expected the birth to be south of the Thames rather than to the north of the Thames but it is a distinctive maiden surname. Also, interestingly, I've had one of John's VINALL records where the name was BINALL!
Clearly, they only just had the wedding before Martha's birth! However, does this mean that both Mary and William are from an earlier marriage? What is odd is that William PRICE lists himself as a batchelor on this 1861 wedding. Curious! Mary VALANTINE also lists herself as a spinster? Curiouser still!
At this point, I wasn't too sure what to do! However, whilst mulling this over, I thought I would at least try to see if I could find Martha's baptism. Thankfully, I tried a wide time range because I found her baptism on 3 Jul 1864 in St Andrews, Holborn, daughter of William and Mary PRICE, with William listed as a Licensed Drover. Thankfully, the vicar had also given her birth date of 3 Oct 1861, so it's clearly the right one. So Mary was approximately 6 months pregnant when they were married.
As William PRICE (the younger one!) was 10 in 1871, perhaps he was an under one year old on the 1861 census and should be easy to find? But no matter what I tried, I couldn't find one with a William as a father. Then I thought about Mary PRICE. She has been very consistent with her age on the different censuses; 16, 26, 33 (OK one was out!), 46, 56. So from this I thought I should be able to find a 6 year old Mary PRICE on the 1861 census with some certainty over her age. However, again I found nothing that was probable.
This was turning out to be a real brickwall! However, just for curiosity's sake, the name VALANTINE is an interesting one! I wondered if I could find Mary VALANTINE, possibly aged 23 on the 1861 census? This is what I found:
The address is difficult to read but it looks like 9 Upper Greys Lake Place, St Andrews, Farringdon, London (Ref: RG9 218 F105 Pg58).
James VALANTINE Head Widwr 58 Cutler Middlesex, London
Mary VALANTINE Dau Unm 24 Seamstress Middlesex, London
Mary VALANTINE Grand Dau 6 Scholar Middlesex, London
Eureka! Is this Mary PRICE? Mary VALANTINE's illegitimate daughter? However, let's not jump to conclusions! This 6 year old could be a grand-daughter from a son of James?
However, a quick search on the gro website and I can find a Mary VALENTINE (slight spelling difference) whose birth is registered in the 3Q 1854 in Lambeth Ref 1d 238 and the mother's maiden name is blank. Also, I found her baptism where, interestingly, the father has 'stepped up to the plate' and is acknowledging his daughter. The baptism was on 2 August 1854 and on the record it says her birth was on 24 July 1854. The baptism itself took place at the General Lying in Hospital in Lambeth and gives her father as William WILCOCK, a shoemaker, and her mother as Mary VALENTINE, a servant. It gives William WILCOCK's address as (I think, the writing is unclear) 21 Potter Lane and Mary VALENTINE's address as 57 Grays Inn Lane.
So Mary PRICE was originally Mary VALANTINE and took William PRICE's name when her mother married him. I wonder why William WILCOCK didn't marry Mary VALANTINE? A hunt for another day perhaps!
Also, what about William PRICE born about 1860/61 in Surrey according to the 1871 census entry? Was he another illegitimate child of Mary VALANTINE? Another mystery to solve!
So, having found William and Mary PRICE on the 1871 census with children, Mary, William and Martha A, I thought I would trawl through the births registered to each name for around the time periods that I thought they were born using freebmd.org.uk and then look each one up on the gro.org.uk website to get the mother's maiden name linked to each birth registration.
Having found all this data and put in into a spreadsheet, you can then sort on the mother's maiden name to see if any family groupings emerge. This has worked a treat for me when looking for SMITH births.
So, as a starter, I carefully looked at the ages for each child on the census and came up with a first guess for likely birth dates and places. As I know the ages (and birth places for that matter!) given on the census can be out, I added a year either way.
Looking at the information on the census (William and Mary PRICE on 1871 census), I looked for the following:
Mary PRICE - births in Surrey and London between 1853and 1856.
William PRICE - births in Surrey and London between 1859 and 1862.
Martha PRICE - births in Middlesex, London and Surrey between 1860 and 1863.
Having obtained all these registrations and the maiden names from the gro website, I then sorted these by the mother's maiden name. However, I couldn't find a Mary, William and Martha that had a common mother's maiden name. I even extended the search and looked for Marys and Williams in Middlesex, just in case, but this made no difference.
It then dawned on me that perhaps Mary at the very least was born to a different mother as there is a six year gap between Mary and William. As William and Martha have arrived in quick succession, I wondered if a new marriage happened just before? However, hedging my bets a little, I decided to search on freebmd for a marriage for William PRICE in Surrey between 1859 and 1861 where the spouse's first name was Mary.
This found two entries, both in Lambeth in the June and September quarters of 1861. I then searched at Ancestry on the London Church of England Marriages and Banns and found the two marriages.
The first was on 20 May 1861 between William PRICE Jnr, a lamplighter, and Mary Ann SMITH at St Mary's Lambeth.
The second was on 17 July 1861 between William PRICE, drover, and Mary VALANTINE at St John the Evangelist, Lambeth. William's father is Robert PRICE, a drover, and Mary's father is James VALANTINE, a cutler.
Surely this second one must be them? How many drovers called William PRICE can there possibly be?
I then had a look through the PRICE birth registrations I'd accumulated and, sure enough, Martha Ann PRICE registered in district West London in the 4Q 1861 with the mother's maiden name of BALANTINE. I would have expected the birth to be south of the Thames rather than to the north of the Thames but it is a distinctive maiden surname. Also, interestingly, I've had one of John's VINALL records where the name was BINALL!
Clearly, they only just had the wedding before Martha's birth! However, does this mean that both Mary and William are from an earlier marriage? What is odd is that William PRICE lists himself as a batchelor on this 1861 wedding. Curious! Mary VALANTINE also lists herself as a spinster? Curiouser still!
At this point, I wasn't too sure what to do! However, whilst mulling this over, I thought I would at least try to see if I could find Martha's baptism. Thankfully, I tried a wide time range because I found her baptism on 3 Jul 1864 in St Andrews, Holborn, daughter of William and Mary PRICE, with William listed as a Licensed Drover. Thankfully, the vicar had also given her birth date of 3 Oct 1861, so it's clearly the right one. So Mary was approximately 6 months pregnant when they were married.
As William PRICE (the younger one!) was 10 in 1871, perhaps he was an under one year old on the 1861 census and should be easy to find? But no matter what I tried, I couldn't find one with a William as a father. Then I thought about Mary PRICE. She has been very consistent with her age on the different censuses; 16, 26, 33 (OK one was out!), 46, 56. So from this I thought I should be able to find a 6 year old Mary PRICE on the 1861 census with some certainty over her age. However, again I found nothing that was probable.
This was turning out to be a real brickwall! However, just for curiosity's sake, the name VALANTINE is an interesting one! I wondered if I could find Mary VALANTINE, possibly aged 23 on the 1861 census? This is what I found:
The address is difficult to read but it looks like 9 Upper Greys Lake Place, St Andrews, Farringdon, London (Ref: RG9 218 F105 Pg58).
James VALANTINE Head Widwr 58 Cutler Middlesex, London
Mary VALANTINE Dau Unm 24 Seamstress Middlesex, London
Mary VALANTINE Grand Dau 6 Scholar Middlesex, London
Eureka! Is this Mary PRICE? Mary VALANTINE's illegitimate daughter? However, let's not jump to conclusions! This 6 year old could be a grand-daughter from a son of James?
However, a quick search on the gro website and I can find a Mary VALENTINE (slight spelling difference) whose birth is registered in the 3Q 1854 in Lambeth Ref 1d 238 and the mother's maiden name is blank. Also, I found her baptism where, interestingly, the father has 'stepped up to the plate' and is acknowledging his daughter. The baptism was on 2 August 1854 and on the record it says her birth was on 24 July 1854. The baptism itself took place at the General Lying in Hospital in Lambeth and gives her father as William WILCOCK, a shoemaker, and her mother as Mary VALENTINE, a servant. It gives William WILCOCK's address as (I think, the writing is unclear) 21 Potter Lane and Mary VALENTINE's address as 57 Grays Inn Lane.
So Mary PRICE was originally Mary VALANTINE and took William PRICE's name when her mother married him. I wonder why William WILCOCK didn't marry Mary VALANTINE? A hunt for another day perhaps!
Also, what about William PRICE born about 1860/61 in Surrey according to the 1871 census entry? Was he another illegitimate child of Mary VALANTINE? Another mystery to solve!
Comments
Post a Comment