RootsChat.Com

This mystery concerns my 3x great-aunt Catherine Morris, who was born in Kinnersley in 1849 and died in Burghill Mental Hospital in 1928. Until recently I had managed to locate her on every single census except 1871, the year before she married Henry Hodges in Linton (Herefs), with whom she was living at the Alma Inn, Linton in 1881. It turns out that in 1871 Catherine was living at the Alma Inn already, but was wrongly recorded as Catherine Davis because she is given the same surname ("Ditto") as the head of the household (John Davis) and his wife Catherine. While the younger Catherine's surname is wrong, her age (21) and place of birth (Kinnersley) are spot on. But here is where the problems begin: she is listed as the head of the household's "niece" - and I have not been able to find a family link between her and John or his wife.

John Davis is listed as being 59 and from Kinnersley (same birthplace as hsi niece Catherine Morris), while his wife is slightly older (61) and from Canon Pyon. I do not know of any family links to Canon Pyon. I am therefore led to believe that Catherine's relationship to John and his wife Catherine came through John rather than his wife - though this may be entirely wrong.

John Davis, who I presume to be the same John Davis who was baptised in Kinnersley in 1813, the son of another John and his wife Ann, is listed on the 1841 census with Ann (presumably his mother), someone called called Ann Tyler, a man called Edward Moore and a younger man called Thomas Davis (who could be a relation of John's).

In 1851 John, 37, is now living with his wife Catherine and a lodger called Edward Moore (presumably the same as above). John's profession in both censuses as a colt/horse breaker match.

By 1861 he and Catherine were living in Norton Canon with two servants - one of them, Thomas Seaborn, was the father of Thomas Seaborn Jr., who (perhaps not coincidentally) had married my Catherine's aunt in 1853!

John and Catherine were living in Linton with their niece (i.e. my Catherine Morris) in 1871. By 1881 John was a widower and had moved to Upton Bishop.

My goal is to find out how Catherine Morris (b.1849) is related to John Davis and his wife Catherine. I have not been able to find a likely marriage for John and Catherine, and the fact that they do not seem to have had children makes tracing her maiden name, and therefore her origins and parentage, much harder... 

I'm going round in circles trying to pin down the origins and ultimate fate of William Cartwright, who married Mary Harpur in Kington in 1746. They had eight children, all born in Kington: Monteleon (1747), Alexander (1748), Mary (1751), William (1753), Henry (1756), a second Mary (1759), Anne (1760) and Jonathan (1762). William's wife Mary Harpur was likely the daughter of Jonathan and Mary Harpur who was born in Kington in 1721.

I don't know what William's profession was, nor can I be certain whether he was from Kington or elsewhere.

I did momentarily think he could be the William Cartwright born in Leominster in 1713, son of William and Victoria, but this William was probably the same William Cartwright who lost his first wife Anne in Leominster in the early 1750s, remarried to Sarah and left her as the sole heir and executrix of his will in the early 1780s in Leominster (therefore this William Cartwright does not seem to have connections to Kington).

The names of my William's two eldest sons, Monteleon and Alexander, aren't common in the area. Several descendants bore variations of the name Monteleon (Mantilian, Montilion...) but I have no idea where the name came from or why my ancestors would have chosen it for their first-born.

I can only assume both William and Mary died in Kington sometime after 1762, when their son Jonathan was born, but any guidance you can offer would be much appreciated!

Thanks Garstonite  Someone with full access had a look, and it's basically the same data (and no image) as on Ancestry, FindMyPast and FamilySearch. And again, it's daughter Elinor's baptism - Elizabeth being the mother - not for a sister called Elizabeth. So it's back to square one. I've e-mailed Herefordshire Archives in the hope that they might send me a digital copy of the baptism. I've also asked them if they can look up a possible marriage for Humphrey and Elizabeth, although the Herefordshire FHS Marriages index (pre 1837) that I have does not appear to list a marriage between an Elizabeth X and a Humphrey Croft, no matter how creative I am with the spelling. Talk about a brick wall...!

I'm looking for information about the parents of my ancestor Elinor (or Eleanor) Croft, baptised in Hope-under-Dinmore on 21 November 1689. FamilySearch and Ancestry state her parents are Elizabeth and Humphrey Croft, and yet I cannot find any other children born to parents with this name combination. Moreover, I cannot find anything (death, marriage, will...) regarding Humphrey Croft. I've tried several spelling alternatives, to no avail.

I wonder if Humphrey's name may be mistaken (I haven't seen an image of the original record). For instance, there is a Margaret Croft bap 1683 in Eardisland to Herbert and Elizabeth Croft - might they be the same parents of Elinor?

Any help would much appreciated!