Hi Everybody,
I'd like to get the thoughts of all you brilliant experienced rootschatters on the origin of my great great grandmother Hannah Hudson. I'm not asking for help looking up censuses or BMDs - just your thought processes. Bear with me on this, there's a fair bit of it.
The first definite sighting of her is her marriage to my great great grandad Samuel Green in 1852 in Cubbington. After that she's found on censuses in the village, but with ages 34 ('61) 46 ('71) and 50 ('81) which is odd but I've seen the originals and that's how I'd transcribe them. Her husband's age is variable too, as is her birthplace - Bedworth, Foleshill or Coventry - take your pick. I'm sure all these are the right couple because of Samuel's birthplace of Hill Wootton and their grandchild Ellen Skelcy, 3, staying with them in 1881 - (mistranscribed as Skeley) - she's my great aunt who is known about and wasn't at her parents' that year.
The marriage record is not particularly helpful. Both parties are merely "of age" and addresses merely Leek Wootton and Cubbington respectively. The witnesses were the wonderfully-named Worthy Sly and Harriet Batcheldor - not relatives as far as I know, they married each other in Leamington a few weeks later. Sam lists his dad as John Green Ag Lab, which is as expected (except I thought John was dead then) but Hannah just leaves that blank.
Usually that means her father was unknown or maybe deceased, but I can't find a Hannah Hudson to whom that applies. In fact in 1851 the only Warwickshire-born Hannah that year was a Visitor in Leamington, aged 23, a servant as was my Hannah. Unfortunately the three visitors in that house are given only their county of birth, Warks.
The other two visitors were Isabella Knight and her daughter Emma. Isabella is a fairly unusual name, and the only Isabella Knight I found in 1841 was at Southam Union Workhouse, though her birthplace interestingly was Foreign Parts. There were other Knights there who seem to be all the same family (it was a very small workhouse) including Emma and Maria. I think they were in Leamington in 1851 visiting Maria Knight 15 an inmate in the Female Penitentiary on Wise Street.
Maria was given born Lighthorne as are some of the early Knight children (IGI extracted records) although youngest Henry was born Southam. Also in Southam 1841 was Hannah Hudson 11, living with parents Edward and Rhoda Hudson and some of their other daughters. So I thought, maybe Hannah was a friend of Maria's also visiting that census night.
However I tended to ignore this Hannah because a) although she wasn't on the IGI all her sisters were there chr either in Ryton or Ladbroke and b) a Hannah Hudson married John Grigg in 1852 and I assumed that must be her - until I idly looked up the Griggs in 1861 and found that they were much older than expected - in fact the Kenilworth-born Hannah was almost certainly the Hannah Hudson found in Harbury in 1851 (same son John) and born in Kenilworth, and that was why the IGI had her as Hannah Thurley or Hudson - Thurley her maiden name.
So that leaves the other Hannah free to marry Sam Green. OK, the birth place looks wrong but they may have been on a visit to the Coventry area which is why she was vague about where she was born. (Both next eldest sister Mary and next youngest Sarah were baptised Ladbroke, IGI.) More serious is the absence of father on the cert. Her mother Rhoda seems to have died 1848, and Edward seems to have remarried to Rebecca Wiles or Wills in 1854. Perhaps he was already in this relationship in 1852 and Hannah disapproved?
What, though is there to link this Hannah Hudson to Cubbington other than a Leamington domicile in 1851? Just one small clue. In 1851 Edward was living with his married daughter transcribed Ellen Nickel b "Righton" but actually Nickes. This fits with his daughter Ellenor chr Ryton-on-Dunsmore 1825 and her marriage to John Nicks 1850. John Nicks b North End was a visitor in Warwick in 1851, but they later move to Staffs and Yorkshire as Nix, but with tell-tale Warks birthplaces North End and Ryton. North End is in Burton Dassett parish and that's where William and Ann Nicks had their children baptised, they were there in 1841, though not John who was 15 or so - but Thomas was there and in 1851 there's Thomas Nicks b North End a servant at Cubbington Hall.
So it's a bit tenuous, but it's all I have. Much research before 1837 has to rely on assumptions such as this. I know I should search the Ladbroke Southam and Ryton parish records for Hannah's baptism, but it's finding and going through the multitude of greater Coventry ones that's daunting.
What do you experts think? I'm not asking anyone to check records for me, but I have them for the data I've given (omitted to save space) if anyone wants them. All IGI records are extracted rather than the dreaded member-submitted.
Thanks in advance, Chris
