Sloe Gin's Scavenger Hunt....Everyone Welcome To Join In

[Sloe Gin]

Birmingham Burial Records confirms a burial of a Mary Hollioak* at Witton Cemetery in October 1864, but I don't think it's worth paying £20 to see the record as we know most of the details apart from the burial date.  There's also an entry for Emily Hollioak in October - perhaps they were buried together.

* Searching for Mary Ann only turns up results for hyphenated or single word names (eg Maryann), so I'm guessing they index by first name only.

Still considering the possibility that she went by the name Ann, as per that signature "M. Ann".  In which case she might be the Ann Hemus in Great Bow Street in the 1841 census (mentioned very early in the thread).  I found the marriage of that Ann's sister Charlotte, hoping that Mary Ann would have been a witness, but no joy.

[DCAqua]

Hi,

For Henry we only have his parents at the moment. My dad and sister have been researching for a lot longer then me so I will check with them and see if we can find anything.

How did you figure out that someone used an aliases? Sounds interesting.

How did you contact the Register Office? There are a few relatives on different branches who’s records have impossible.

Her going by Ann could be a good angle , I have come across many women only going by one of their two names. I’ll look and see what records I can find. I did a quick search and a few marriages come up and some deaths so it may be a popular name to search.

Might be worth looking up the censuses of the Ann Hemus (who you mentioned) ‘s siblings. As sometimes family visit and appear on censuses twice, or one of her children could visit when they are older. It’s how I have found links in the last.

I have a email account for family tree, if you want to contact me that way too (or on here is fine)

(Edited out email address - sorry)

[Sloe Gin]

I might look into the Ann Hemus family a bit more, but Charlotte married a John Jones  and the only other sibling is a brother Thomas. There are 2 Ann Hemus marriages in the GRO, but neither of them is this Ann Hemus.

There is a Mary Hemus I haven't eliminated.  She is the daughter of Joseph and Phoebe Hemus, bpt 25 May 1825 in Bromsgrove and is with her family on the 1841 census, but not there in 1851. This family is recorded in the census as Emus or Emuss, and are in Bromsgrove.
(Confusingly there is a younger sister named Maria who is recorded as Mary Ann in 1841!  She is accounted for, and is too young to be our Mary Ann.)

In 1851 there is a Mary Hemus working as a servant in Worcester who is the right age to be Joseph & Phoebe's daughter, but her birthplace is given as Great Witley, not Bromsgrove. 

Sad to say Birmingham Register Office is nowhere near as cooperative since John Yates retired.  I found them very frustrating to deal with recently.  They no longer have a genealogist, and it's quite a bit more expensive than it used to be, especially now that the GRO offers the pdf option.  So much better to have the primary version with real signatures though, and you know that any mistakes (or lies!) are original and not down to a copying clerk.

For Henry's ancestors we are back to the 17th century with his paternal lines, and the same with his mother's paternal line, although not her maternal line.  Doesn't help that Etheldra's parents were both Rogers, which is a common name in Shropshire.  I never found baptisms for either of Henry's parents, but filled the gap via the will and marriage allegation as mentioned upthread.  That was a very useful day at Hereford Record Office   

I've made a note of your email address before it gets deleted by the mods    Now that you've made 3 posts, you can use the private message system on here.  But it's good to keep the theories and research on the thread in case anyone else has something to contribute.

[DCAqua]

Thanks for the warning, I edited out the email address. I like emails to send scans and pics when I have things like that available. But these forms are useful, otherwise wouldn’t of found this connection

Wow you’ve been working hard on the family, who did you find as their parents?

I haven’t had a chance to go to any archives yet, most of my research is online or visiting graves. And ordering from the GRO, planing to visit some in future, making a list of who to look up.

Yeah I know some services are now lacking, the old Birmingham library you could go and look up what they have available, now with the new one you have order in what you want, usually one at a time, and its been known that the wrong order has been sent.

🤣 I actually have a John Jones on my mother’s side lol (wife not a Hemus luckily) and a bunch of Harris’s. That was fun to search I’ll see what I can look into and find.

[Sloe Gin]

There is a Mary Hemus I haven't eliminated.  She is the daughter of Joseph and Phoebe Hemus, bpt 25 May 1825 in Bromsgrove and is with her family on the 1841 census, but not there in 1851. This family is recorded in the census as Emus or Emuss, and are in Bromsgrove.

I've found this Mary now.  She married John Rowe (or Roe) Q2 1852 and they are living in Bromsgrove in 1871.  With them is 23 yo Phoebe Emuss "daughter by marriage" who is presumably the 2 yo granddaughter P. with Joseph & Phoebe in 1851.  That whole section of the 1851 census is shoddily written, with almost all forenames reduced to initials, so it's entirely possible that Mary was included on the original form, but the enumerator missed her when copying the returns.
 

In 1851 there is a Mary Hemus working as a servant in Worcester who is the right age to be Joseph & Phoebe's daughter, but her birthplace is given as Great Witley, not Bromsgrove.

Or there's a chance that this could be her.  The birthplace seems wrong, but servants' census details aren't always reliable.  Whoever filled in the form may have made an assumption.

The servant could also be the Mary Ann Hemus who was recorded as a 12 yo ag lab on a farm at Wichenford in 1841.  This is only 5 miles from Great Witley.

Something to keep in mind is that our Mary Ann did give her birthplace as Birmingham twice. I think if she was born elsewhere, she must have moved to Birmingham at quite a young age, otherwise she would have had a better knowledge of where she was born.  Unless of course Henry filled in the form, and was unaware that she had been born and lived elsewhere.  So all these Worcestershire Hemuses (or Emus, Emuss, Omess, Amus, Ames, Emos to give a few of the variations I've seen!) are less likely candidates on that basis.

Still, elimination is progress of sorts!

[Leafygreen]

Hi Sloe Gin, if you ever come back to this thread, I am descended from Etheldra Rogers & Wm Hollioake.

Tired today so will look through your posts properly tomorrow; Etheldra is a dead end for me & Edge looks like a very small place. I did find somebody of the same name going through the courts in Yorkshire being moved from one town to another, though this seems  unlikely to be the same person.