Hi,
I wonder if anyone can help me with one of my 'brick walls' please? Apologies for the long-winded message but this is quite tricky to explain....
In my tree, I have an Ann Clark bp.17/9/1826 in St George in the East, Stepney. The baptism record gives Ann's dob as 26/7/1826 and her parents are William Clark (a wheelwright) and Elizabeth.
Ann has two older sisters: Sarah b.8/1/1824 and Ann b.27/8/1822. The first Ann presumably dies before the younger Ann is born - there is a potentially suitable record of a burial in Poplar in 1825.
William Clark marries Elizabeth Dunn on 18/11/1821 in St Mary, Whitechapel. Elizabeth hails from East Dereham in Norfolk (b.23/3/1801) and in 1861, Ann is living with one of Elizabeth's sisters (Esther) in Hendon, Middlesex (piece 785, folio 91, page 52). Esther is by now married to Bartholomew Redding/Reading, but she has been enumerated incorrectly as Esther Clark for some reason. Also living at the address is Ann's illegitimate son William J Clark, 10 years old. (When William marries, he gives his name as John William Clark but in censuses he is always William or William J. I have followed him through until the end of his life - he marries twice and has lots of children, but there don't appear to be any clues to his ancestry or wider family after 1861). Ann's death is registered in Q1 of 1871, so she isn't on the census that year. I have ordered her death certificate but it hasn't arrived yet. I have found Ann (enumerated as Anne) in 1851 in Edmonton, Middlesex (piece 1703, folio 529, page 29). William is not with her but she is employed as a wet nurse - so he must have been born already.
There is a William Clark living in St Mary, Whitechapel in 1851 aged between 1 and 4 months (Ancestry has transcribed his age as 1 month but I think the image states it is 4). He was born in St George in the East apparently - which ties in with later censuses, when he says that he was born in either Whitechapel or Stepney. The piece is 1546, folio is 405 and it is page 27.
William is a 'visitor' of John Garmon, age 70 (born in Norwich), and his wife Matilda, age 50 (born in Whitechapel). They have an adopted son John Garmon, age 2 and there is another visitor at the house: 3 year old Eliz Ann Larter, born in Poplar.
I started wondering whether Matilda was perhaps a relative of Ann's, otherwise why would she leave her son with a random elderly couple? I haven't been able to find any records of Ann's parents William and Elizabeth after 1826, so maybe they died?
I had a hunch that Matilda may have been a paternal aunt of Ann's (I know a lot about her mother's family, the Dunns, and there is no Matilda). I just thought I'd see if I could find a suitable birth of a Matilda Clark......it turns out that there is a baptism of a Matilda Clarke on 6/4/1800 in St Mary, Whitechapel! Parents are George and Elizabeth. However, I can't find a marriage of a John Garmon to any Matildas whatsoever - so maybe it was not a formal marriage? I have found John in 1841 (piece 696, book 6, folio 33, page 13) living alone. I can't find Matilda in 1841 (I don't what her surname would be - I've searched Garmon and Clarke/Clark) or 1861, but there is a death of a Matilda Garmon registered in 1863 in Lambeth. The age is right and I've ordered the certificate.
I have found baptism records for 2 more possible children of George and Elizabeth Clarke:
Elizabeth bp.14/2/1802 in St Mary, Whitechapel
William George b.15/12/1803 bp.29/1/184 in St George in the East
Could this William George Clarke be the William Clark who married Elizabeth Dunn in 1821? If so, it would mean that Matilda is his sister and it would help to explain why William's daughter Ann left her baby son with Matilda. But William would be one month shy of 18 at the time of his marriage to
Elizabeth Dunn - is this too young?
There is one other thing to mention: the Eliz Ann Larter who is with Matilda and William Clark Jr in 1851 (aged 3). I haven't been able to discover who this individual is. There is an Elizabeth Ann Larter b.1852 in Poplar but clearly someone born in 1852 can't be on the 1851 census! That person does have an older half-sister also called Elizabeth Ann Larter, but she was born in 1840 and would not, therefore, be 3 years old in 1851.
So I don't know who Eliz Ann Larter is, but I did find a birth of a George Clark Larter bp.18/11/1810 in St Mary, Newington, Surrey to George Larter and his wife Charlotte. Is George's middle name Clark because that was his mother's maiden name?
I just think this is all too coincidental. I think William Clark Jr (b.1851) and Eliz Ann Larter (b.1848) are both related to Matilda Garmon. I think that both are grandchildren of Matilda's siblings: William is grandson of her brother William and Eliz Larter is a granddaughter of her sister Charlotte. George Clark Larter unfortunately dies in 1815, but George and Charlotte have 5 other children - including 4 boys who survive adulthood and produce Larter children.
The only trouble is that I don't have the paper trail to prove anything! I can't find the birth of a Charlotte Clark or a marriage of a Charlotte Clark to George Larter or anything to definitely connect anyone.
Grateful for any assistance.
Thanks,
Pheno
