Where to go when you can't find it

tonyt · Post by **tonyt** » 10 Jan 2007 07:43

Was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on what i could try next on trying to find the family of my gt grand mother hannah cox please?

The only info from the family i have is that she was the only survivor of triplets and was adopted. I don't know if this info is accurate or even if cox was her birth name or adopted name (if she was adopted in the true sense)

I have her burial info and marriage certificate that confirm her dob to be c1874. I'm guessing she originated from london area, but that is only a guess

The marriage cert also says her father was samuel cox, a coal merchant

I can't find anything in bmd index that i could say was defintely her and i can't find anything in the 1881 thru 1901 census returns that i can definetly match (closest is 1881 census with a 10 year old hannah with a father samuel who is a carman)

I have ordered her death cert, but this really won't shed any light on her parents

Apologies for the long post, but am wondering if anyone has any ideas on what i could do next please? Is it time to bring in a professional researcher?

ID:2096

ChrisBowyer · Post by **ChrisBowyer** » 10 Jan 2007 11:10

You've got me curious... who was her husband and when did they marry?

My guess is the name on her marriage is the adopted name if it was done formally.

Where does the triplets story come from? At that time you wouldn't expect adopted children to be able to find out anything about their natural parents, so it'd be unlikely anyone would know this.

tonyt · Post by **tonyt** » 10 Jan 2007 12:18

ChrisBowyer said:
You've got me curious... who was her husband and when did they marry?

My guess is the name on her marriage is the adopted name if it was done formally.

Where does the triplets story come from? At that time you wouldn't expect adopted children to be able to find out anything about their natural parents, so it'd be unlikely anyone would know this.

Her Husband was Arthur Robert Layton b1873 in Wood Green, London. They were married 25/10/1903 also in Wood Green

I agree about the triplet thing. It was something my mum thought she remembered. I'm wondering if the 'adopted' thing was more a case of being farmed out to relatives though...

Thanks
Tony

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 10 Jan 2007 12:50

A triplet birth, might well have resulted in the death of the birth mother as well.

Did you check for an adoption record?

Did you find her on a latter census, what does the 1901 Census give for her place of birth?

There is a Hannah L Cox living of the right age with Grandmother in the 1881 Census in London, so perhaps this might be relevant. You could check back this line for a marriage of Samuel Cox and a Galton/Golton female.

ChrisBowyer · Post by **ChrisBowyer** » 10 Jan 2007 14:55

In 1901 there's a Hannah Cox (27), dom. servant, born in Hackney, living in Hornsey.

In 1891 she's mis-transcribed as Hannah Core (17), dom. servant, born in Hackney, living in Hornsey.

I can't find her in 1881. But if you allow Hannah=Annie, there are 3 Cox girls born in Hackney, Letitia (11), Mary (9) and Annie ( 8 ), presumably orphans, in the Shoreditch Industrial School in Brentwood. Could be the origin of the triplets story?

In 1871 there's a Samuel Cox (33) coal porter and family, born Hackney, living in Islington. I can't find the parents later, and their daughters at least seem to be in service in 1881.

These may or may not be relevant, but in answer to your original question of what to do when you can't find someone... either (a) leave it and look at another branch, something may crop up unexpectedly, or (b) find everyone who may be connected at all on all the censuses they should be on, and don't believe it when it says 'no matches', just broaden the search, they must be there somewhere with the wrong age or place of birth or even name. It doesn't always work, but you never know, you might come up with an aunt or a mother-in-law and open up a whole new line of clues.

tonyt · Post by **tonyt** » 10 Jan 2007 15:30

Thanks Chris / Jane

I did come across most of those items but was only really considering them in isolation, and didn't see a possible match/link

However you've given me some things to think about about how they could maybe link together

Will revist the items thanks

tonyt · Post by **tonyt** » 12 Jan 2007 09:57

ChrisBowyer said:
In 1891 she's mis-transcribed as Hannah Core (17), dom. servant, born in Hackney, living in Hornsey.

Purely a co-incidence i'm sure, but did you notice that the family she's a servant with has a surname of Hayton (i.e. very similar to Layton)...

tonyt · Post by **tonyt** » 15 Mar 2007 06:39

Thanks for the help, i think i'm finally making some progress

I ordered a birth certificate for a hannah cox who i thought was the most likely candidate and her father shows as a samuel!

Also, i decided to ask my mother if by any chance she knew her grandmothers date of birth (don't know why i didn't think to ask before) and she thought it was the 3rd of Jan. Now this birth cert has 2nd jan, so another good indicator

With mothers maiden name i was able to find that hannahs parents married in 1872 and the mother died in 1877. Explains why i couldn't find her on the census sheets and may mean the 'Anna' in the workhouse may well be my Hannah

Still quite a bit of digging and cross referencing to go i think (not least because samuels job changed from accountants clerk in 1872 to coal merchant in 1903, which seems a bit odd?) but we may have a winner

Thanks for all the help

Tony

tonyt · Post by **tonyt** » 15 Mar 2007 06:41

re the 'adoption' thing

My aunt says she'd never heard this story (she has a good memory), so am assuming it's wrong for the time being

tonyt · Post by **tonyt** » 24 Dec 2007 09:46

Just a bit of closure on this

I recently decided to get a find my past subscription and have managed to find Hannah Cox in the 1881 census (not sure why i didn't find her on ancestry)

Seems she was living with her great uncle George Townsend and it turns out she had a brother (a year older) called George Cox

Don't think i'll ever be able to confirm if the 'one survivor of triplets' story is true though
Tony

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » 24 Dec 2007 14:46

Tony,

I don't know if this is relevant, but twins usually have the time of their birth on the birth certificate. I'm presuming that if you can track down a likely birth certificate for Hannah the same might be true for triplets and there could be a time written down in the date column which might help to identify the correct Hannah.

Margaret

tonyt · Post by **tonyt** » 02 Jan 2008 12:30

Hi Margaret,

Thanks for the info. No sign of a time of birth. Am thinking now that the 'triplets' story was just a red herring

Thanks
Tony

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