Welcome to this weeks Scavenger Hunt. I must say, you'll have your work cut out on this one, but I know you're up to it.
Good Luck and Good Hunting
Barbara
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I’m hoping to work out what happened to my ancestor Frances Frecknall. She was born in about 1803 in Newark, Nottinghamshire, and baptised there at St. Mary’s on 10 Jan 1803. The only other place she has been found in the parish registers is for the birth of her illegitimate son, Henry Frecknall, in 1824 in Upton by Southwell, Nottinghamshire. She is recorded as a “Single Woman of Upton”. Henry became a tailor and his descendants have been traced well through the census and BMD records. I have also not had any trouble tracing Frances’s ancestors. The problem is Frances herself.
Frances appears on the 1841 census, living with her father, David Frecknall, a tailor of King Street, Southwell. Her surname is recorded as Frecknall.
The really tricky part is her father, David’s will, dated 13 May 1841 (about three weeks before the census was taken). All of David’s children are mentioned, Frances being recorded as “the Widow of the late Charles Johnson alias Charles Steward.” I have been unsuccessful in determining who Charles might have been, can find no birth, marriage or death for Charles (presumably before 1841). I doubt they actually married, but Charles may have been father to Frances’s son Henry.
Keeping in mind that Frances may have been using the surnames Frecknall or Johnson or Steward, the only potential census entry found is in 1861 at the Snenton asylum (Ref: RG9/2459, Folio 77, Page 17):
Frances Johnson, Pauper Lunatic, W, 58, Servant, Notts Newark
I don’t know whether this is Frances or not, but it’s hard to know as she cannot be found in 1851 or any future census.
The final possible snippet of information about Frances is in the baptism of her great granddaughter. Emily Frecknall, daughter of Henry Frecknall (son of Henry Frecknall, son of Frances) was baptized on 25 Mar 1888 at Caunton, Nottinghamshire, and one of her godparents was listed as Frances Frecknall. I have done extensive research into the surname and the only Frances Frecknall that could possibly be alive at that time was Emily’s great grandmother. By this time she would be 85 years old though, and again using the surname Frecknall which she hasn’t used for most of her life? I don’t know whether this is a red herring (Frances might have been a nickname for someone else).
It would be great to be able to find out more about where Frances disappeared to after 1841 – and about her elusive ‘husband’ Charles Johnson alias Steward.
For reference, I have posted here on RootsChat once before about Frances:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/089q/