Hi, I am interested in the Langleys for my wife's line, I'm not sure about Edward'd parents - casalguidi, you have a marriage record for him and Maria showing her father as Richard, could you tell me the source of that information please?
1851 census says Edward born in 1813.
The 1851 census for Edward's family shows Edward, his wife, Maria and their two children (Frances (born 1849) and Eleanor (born 1850).
Edward died 5/6/1854 but by that time, the couple had had a further three children.
The registration district on his death certificate is recorded as Lewisham Union.
The death certificate records his cause of death as being Trismus (Lockjaw) Idiopathic (from an unknown source) for 3 days. The name of the person certifying the cause of death is not stated.
His wife was present at the time of death, and she put her mark to the certificate showing that she was illiterate.
The 1861 census has three of the children, Ellen (aka Fanny Helen); Emma Caroline and Edward, living in an institution at 4 William Street. Bethnal Green.
There is no mention of Mary or her three surviving eldest children Eleanor (aged 10/11), Frances (aged 13) or Frances Maria (aged 14) who were all perhaps in the workhouse.
New Zealand death records show that Mary Maria Langley (née Marchant) [1870/3772] was aged 46 at the time of her death on the 21st March 1870 so born about 1824,
I can't find any birth for Mary on the IGI to Richard that matches that year, but did find one on FindMyPast in 1824 in Brighton to Stephen Marchant and Sarah. comments invited!
Mary Maria Langley sailed to NZ aboard the Silver Eagle which left Grenwhich, London on 28/09/1862 and arrived in Auckland on 31/01/1863.
The article in Auckland's Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIX, Issue 1727, of 31 January 1863, at Page 13 shows the passengers in this family as:
Mary M
Fanny H
Helen
Emma
Emma
Edward
is this Helen the missing Eleanor from the passenger list of the Silver Eagle?
There is no explanation as to why Emma should be entered in the list twice, but Frances Maria is not mentioned and I believe this to be a further clerical error by the person who wrote the story for the newspaper. and the seccond Emma is actually Frances Maria, and as Mary was illiterate (as shown by her just putting her mark to her husband's death certificate, rather than signing her name), she would have been unable to tell if an error had been made and her dialect may have led to this error.
The Mrs LANGLEY (bur. 23 March 1870 - aged 46 years) arrived in New Zealand on board the "Silver Eagle" in 1863 with a son and three daughters. She is buried with her daughter Mrs ARMOUR.
I think that this is another example of an editorial error, Mrs Langley arrived with her son and four daughters. but as she was illiterate as shown by her just putting her mark on her husband's death certificate, she would be unable to know if the newspaper had made an error.
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There is no explanation in any records I have found so far as to why three of Maria's children were in an institution at the time of the 1861 census, without their mother and two other siblings, where she, Frances and Fanny were at the time of that census nor how she managed to fund the price of the passage for herself and her five children to New Zealand 18 months later.
