Who Do You Think You Are Magazine Forum

[leohickman]

Hello,

I'm trying to find out more about my 3x-great-grandmother, Jane RICHARDSON (nee CONWAY).

This is the only information I have about her...

She had two daughters, Jeanette Conway RICHARDSON (1848-1890) and Alice RICHARDSON (1851-1885). They possibly had different fathers, although I'm not sure.

The census returns of 1851 and 1861 show them living in Paddington and then Hampstead, each time without a father/male. They suggest a birth year for the mother Jane as 1817 and that her birthplace was "Bloomsbury, Middlesex". The 1851 census describes Jane as a "widow", whereas the 1861 census describes her as "un", I think, which I assume to mean "unmarried".

The birth cert and (first) baptism cert for Jeanette say her father was "Henry Richardson", a printer at 7 Porter Street. (Jeanette's later marriage cert says "name not given" under father.)

But after Alice is born three years later, both girls are baptised together. No father is listed and their mother Jane is described as a "spinster".

And that's all the information I have. It seems very possible due to the sometimes conflicting marriage status that Jane was possibly trying to hide that she had her daughters out of wedlock and possibly with different fathers? I can't find any marriage record of a Jane Conway to a Henry Richardson, for example. Does Henry even exist? Perhaps he was a fabrication?

And why the "double baptism" for Jeanette? Was that normal? They both seem to be CoE churches.

The daughters married soldiers and lived and had children in India. I can't find Jane (minus her daughters) in the 1871 and beyond censuses, assuming she was still alive. Equally, I can't find a death cert.

Any help at all with this would be much appreciated as Jane Conway is turning into a very stubborn brick wall in my family tree.

Best, Leo

[brunes08]

It is not unusual to find siblings being baptised at the same time. Both of my grandmothers were baptised at the same time as a sister. I have also seen 4 siblings baptised together. There was a post recently that discussed this very issue but I can’t offhand remember when.


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[peter kent]

Can you please provide the census references. I can't easily spot them.

[ciderdrinker]

Hi
Have you considered that
Henry did exist but he was a Henry Conway and that the couple weren't married.
It does happen.He may well have paid her bills but had a second life elsewhere.
There is a Henry A Conway printer in the Strand in 1851 with a 'wife 'Emma.
Although the couple didn't marry till 1854 and then out at Greenwich 26 June 1854 St Thomas Charlton. Could Jane be the reason?
He was born 1808 in Clerkenwell

Ciderdrinker

[sdup26]

Could this be Jane?
1871, Bolton Road, St John Hampstead.
Jane Richardson, lodger, widow, 55 (1816) b Middlesex

[leohickman]

Can you please provide the census references. I can't easily spot them.

Here you go, Peter...

1851 Census
Class: HO107; Piece: 1466; Folio: 342; Page: 39; GSU roll: 87787

1861 Census
Class: RG 9; Piece: 91; Folio: 77; Page: 5; GSU roll: 542572

[leohickman]

Hi
Have you considered that
Henry did exist but he was a Henry Conway and that the couple weren't married.
It does happen.He may well have paid her bills but had a second life elsewhere.
There is a Henry A Conway printer in the Strand in 1851 with a 'wife 'Emma.
Although the couple didn't marry till 1854 and then out at Greenwich 26 June 1854 St Thomas Charlton. Could Jane be the reason?
He was born 1808 in Clerkenwell

Ciderdrinker

Thank you, Ciderdrinker.

No, I'd never considered that before. Nice idea. I will dig a little more. The only thing that makes me doubt that is on Jeanette's birth cert its says under "Name and Maiden Surname of Mother"...

"Jane Richardson, formerly Conway".

[leohickman]

Could this be Jane?
1871, Bolton Road, St John Hampstead.
Jane Richardson, lodger, widow, 55 (1816) b Middlesex

Thank you. Yes, I did see this entry. It does seem a strong contender, although it lists her birthplace specifically as "St Albans, Middlesex", as opposed to "Bloomsbury, Middlesex" on her 1861 census return. If these are the two places I'm thinking of as they are today, they are quite far apart, although both in Middlesex.

It also lists her as a "nurse". This is very possible, I suppose, but I've never seen her listed in this way. In the 1851 census, she self-describes herself as "Lodging House Keeper". And it is left blank in the 1861 census (where she has the two daughters living with her, too), although the head of the house is Maria Trinder who is described as a "wholesale confectioner". (I suspect Maria Trinder might provide a clue, but I can't yet find one. Why were they living with her?)

[leohickman]

It is not unusual to find siblings being baptised at the same time. Both of my grandmothers were baptised at the same time as a sister. I have also seen 4 siblings baptised together. There was a post recently that discussed this very issue but I can’t offhand remember when.


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Thank you. Yes, I agree that siblings being baptised together was very common. But what strikes me as unusual is that Jeanette was baptised twice. Why baptise the same person twice?