I am intrigued by a newspaper article I came across by chance on FindMyPast. The newspaper is the Warwick & Warwickshire Advertiser and Leamington Gazette and the article appeared in October 1840. The surname is my family name. The forenames given are family names. But I have never come across any family link to Kettering or Warwick or anywhere in that vicinity. Is the mystery family group connected in some way with mine? What's the story behind the childhood separation? If I'm really lucky it will have been passed down as family folklore and a descendant will be reading this post.
"A person of the name of Joseph DARLING, son of Ambrose and Sarah Darling, and brother of Mary, William and George Darling, then living at Ridge, near Mims, is now about 74, 75 or 76 years of age, if living. He was in early childhood parted from his brother William and sister Mary, and after many years' absence all four met again in London. At that time Joseph was driving the Kettering Fly Waggon. It was about 50 years ago; and from that time they have lost sight of each other. Joseph may find his sister Mary by applying at the Advertiser office, Warwick, and all reasonable expenses will be paid. He must give and remember their first parting. An early inquiry must be made, as she is in a very ill state of health, and in the 80th year of her age."
My first question has to be where is Ridge, near Mims? It would presumably have meant something to readers of the Warwickshire newspaper the article appeared in.
Now my genealogy questions:
From the newspaper appeal we know that Mary was born around 1760 or 1761 and the missing Joseph about 5 years later. Ambrose DARLING married Sarah BISSELL in 1761 at Warwick (IGI) - likely parents. There is an A*y image of this marriage but I've not seen it. If the siblings were listed in birth order (and they may not have been), then William was born after Mary, and George after William, but it's not clear where Joseph fits in. On the IGI I've found a pair of 1770 baps, same day, of J&G to Amb & Sarah at Stamford Baron in NTH. User-submitted. There are images on A*y but again I've not seen them. Stamford Baron is now part of Stamford in modern-day LIN. A Kettering Road leaves the town - coincidence?
The appeal implies that as children, Mary stayed with William and Joseph with George. The two younger ones kept together as were the two older ones? The 1770 baps might have been around the time the family was separated. I wonder what happened and who brought the children up. Although plenty of Williams and Marys, some with father Ambrose and some with mother Sarah, I've not been able to find baps with parents Ambrose AND Sarah Darling anywhere online. I have an Ambrose having children in the 1750s and 1760s but his wife was Mary. His father was William and his paternal grandfather John and they lived and died in BRK/OXF.
If the London meeting was for a marriage, then it presumably wasn't Mary's, as she would likely have been able to give an exact year of the meeting. A Joseph Darling (and it may not have been this one) married Betty Wilby at Marylebone in 1792, again the image is on A*y but I've not seen it so don't know who the witnesses were. There are other potential London matches for both George and William.
It's a reasonable assumption (I think) that Mary probably didn't survive long after the newspaper appeal and that she probably died in the Warwick area (since that's where replies were to be sent) but as we don't know her surname it makes tracking down her burial a bit of a challenge.
So to all you armchair detectives out there - suggestions please!
Jane :-)
