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Hi Sammy,

Did you manage to find anything in the local newspaper archives? If not, the newspaper is the St. Helens Reporter, they have it on microfilm at the main library.
I work just around the corner from there so I could have a look for a death notice if you like.

I have a lookup request for the following marriage:

St. Martin's Birmingham 03 Feb. 1839
Edward Blount m. Ann Hephzibah Dancer

It's interesting because her name was Hephzibah Dancer nee Morrell as far as I know, not Ann. Also in the GRO index she is listed as forename=Ann surname=Hepzhibah 

Thanks in advance. Chris

Is that your Grace in a Bosankoe household in 1841?

Yes, I think so.

Also, there is a Grace Roberts living in Halabezack who I think is John's Mother. It all fits together, just need the last piece of the jigsaw!

Thank you Osprey.

If she was a widow I suppose it makes it more likely that he was a widower also. Ah! That's why I couldn't find the marriage, I was searching for wife's surname = HODGE!

I think John's first wife was Mary Bosanko, they married Feb 1832, and she died Jan 1834. I think they had a daughter Grace, but the only thing that doesn't quite tie in is that Grace was baptised in May, about 4 months after Mary died.

C.

Hello Susan,

You could be right about the first marriage. Mine was an educated guess based on the civil registration index. A John Dancer or Dance definately married an Ann Collis in the Stourbridge area in 1846, plus his eldest child in the 1861 census is called Ann, born 48/49.
I'm pretty sure about Sarah Ann Shenton though. The only John Dancer married in this period in Yorkshire is in 1854, Selby district, spouse name is either Sarah Shenton or Elizabeth Prust; we know they lived in Brotherton (near Selby) and his wife was called Sarah, so this has to be them.
He could have married 3 times, of course. The last 2 being sisters. A check of the 1851 census for Hannah and Sarah Shenton might confirm it.

I just noticed that another brother, Thomas, was living in Hunslet, so that makes 4 brothers who moved to Yorkshire.

St. Helens is in Lancashire (or was, until some fool decided to call this bit Merseyside) between Liverpool and Manchester. It was a boom town in the mid 1800s with new glassworks and coal mines attracting people from all over Britain and Ireland. Daniel's son John Henry, and his son Richard (my Dad) were both glass workers here, so it is possible that we are the longest-running glassworking family in the world, for what it's worth!

Chris

PS. The original Hephzibah, in case you were wondering, was the wife of the prophet Zerubabbel. She was probably mentioned in the Apocrypha.