Stockton Union Workhouse

[MBR1965]

Hello , I am on the track of a very mysterious lady who was my Great Great Grandmother.

She was born in Yarm, Stockton in 1843 as SUSANNA CORFIELD  and appears on the 1851 census living in Cherry Lane Stockton.

In 1861 , she has moved to Darlington , working as a House Servant to a local farmer & his family at Lark House, Low Consicliffe.

Now the mystery begins, she marries a John McKenna on 8th November 1869 at St Mary's Church , Stockton. The registrar has misspelt her name as Scofield but I know it is her as her father is listed as John and a comb maker (as appears on the 1851 census) and on later census she is listed as Susanna McKenna born in Yarm in 1843.

Her husband is listed as born in 1841, a riveter in a shipyard , his father is also called John, profession Joiner but deceased. No idea where he comes from but I have a feeling it is Greenside Durham,and on the 1851 census, there is a father listed as John MCKENNY with an 11 year old son and the father's occupation is "boiler maker" - it sounds like I am clutching at straws I know but in 1872 on the birth certificate of Susanna and John's daughter , Sarah, John Junior's profession is listed as boiler maker ! There is no other census record of a John McKenna having a ten year old son called John in 1851 in the UK. ( for some reason this result comes up immediately on Ancestry but results in a big fat zero on the rubbish find my past census search for some reason !

Now comes the mystery - married in 1869 , daughter Sarah McKenna is born on 19th September 1872 in the Stockton Union Workhouse in Portrack Lane ! John (father) is now listed as a boiler maker like his father before him ( I presume ) so I am thinking he is not dead yet but where is he and why is the mother in the workhouse ? Did people go to workhouses just to give birth or does this mean she was an inmate ?

I can find no record of either parent on the 1871 census nor of the Stockton Workhouse to check.

The mystery deepens as Susanna turns up ten years later on the 1881 census living as a widow in South Shields with Sarah, her daughter and a son (misspelt John Kerfreed) he has her mutated maiden name as a surname (obvious a result of some indiscretion when she was a servant girl on the farm with a lusty farmer ) - I can find no record of when and where John McKenna died although I think it may have been in Sunderland in 1843.

Ten years later,on the 1891 census  she has married the nephew of Grace Darling (the famous lighthouse keeper's daughter) - James Darling and from there on in the trail is easy to follow to my own family.

I guess I am asking you people who are better at this than I am if there is anything else I can do to track down this mysterious missing chunk and the workhouse episode and death of John McKenna - thanks

[Tickettyboo]

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Stockton/

Says that Durham Record Office holds some information on the workhouse, but the admissions and discharge registers don't appear to cover the dates you are looking for.

As a general rule Workhouse hospitals were the only medical care facility unless you were quite well off.

Boo

[MBR1965]

Thanks Boo - so it is possible she went there only to give birth maybe due to some difficulty or the lack of a midwife at the time.
Now I have to figure out why they don't appear on the 1871 census !

[MBR1965]

The whole family is a mystery actually, whether they are McKenna or McKenny, I can find no trace of either John (born around 1840 in Greenside Durham near Gateshead) nor his older brother Miles (born in Gateshead 1838) neither under McKenna or McKenny or variants in either birth or death searches.

Neither can I find the marriage of the parents (althought he wife is also from the area - Winlaton Gateshead, according to the 1851 census)  nor any records of the father's birth in 1813 in Newcastle on ancestry or family search.

They also all disappear from the 1861 census and are not on the 1841 census either.

[Craclyn]

McKenna sounds as though it may have come from Ireland or Scotland. May be worth questioning whether your John was actually born in Durham. Here are a couple of John McK*s who do not fit your criteria exactly but may be worth a closer look.

Findmypast has a 29 year old John McKenna in Jarrow in 1871 but it says he is unmarried. Labourer in ironworks. Born Ireland.

Thegenealogist has a John Mcknon age 30 in Hebburn in 1871. Born Scotland. Riveter. Unmarried.

[MBR1965]

Thanks, I was thinking along those lines and undoubtedly the family originated from Scotland or Ireland which is borne out by the concentration of McKennas in Lancashire & The North East
The strange thing about this family which appears on the 1851 census is that their birth places are very specific :-

John (Newcastle) 38 yrs
Ann (Winlaton Durham) 36 yrs
Miles (Gateshead) 13 yrs
John Jnr (Greenside Durham)  11 yrs

I know how crazy and inaccurate some census returns are in terms of age profession and surname spellings but the birth places listed there don't look like census errors to me, they are too detailed IMHO. .

Like I said though, I can find no birth or death records for either the parents or the kids over the enxt decade yet they have all disappeared by the 1861 census until john junior turns up again to marry my Great Great Grandmother in 1869 and then disappears again a couple of years later ! . 

[MBR1965]

Just reporting back to say I solved the first part of the puzzle - The mother of John McKenna was married before to an Irish bloke called John McGirl and they were living in Winlaton Durham on the 1841 census with Miles McGirl  aged 3 and John McGirl aged 1.

For reasons best known to themselves, after John McGirl senior died in 1848 and the widow went to live with John McKenny on the 1851 census, they decided to report her surname as being McKenny and the childrens' also.

They didn't actually marry until 1853 in Newcastle.

I am now not sure what the actual surname was and maybe they didn't even know themselves in the age of illiteracy, I have seen it written as
- McKenna
- McKenny
- Mckenney

and although the original name of McGirl appears on the 1841 census, on John's birth certificate from 1840, it is written as MACGIRL !!

What a headache !

[Craclyn]

Well done
MacGirl - what a fascinating name.
What is the next stage of your puzzle?

[JenB]

1861 census

RG 9 / 3824/109/37

Dawsons Court, Westgate, Newcastle upon Tyne

John Mc Kenny, head, mar, 50, Boiler Maker, Newcastle upon Tyne
Ann Mc do, wife, mar, 46, Durham Winlaton
John McGirl, step son, unm, 21, File grinder, Durham Ryton
Catherine McKenny, daur, 5, Newcastle on TYne