JEWELL Stoke Damerel

[Rainbow Quartz]

Hello everyone, I have just joined Rootschat, and this is my first post. I hope it is in the right place!
I am researching my family NORTH and my husband's family JEWELL, both in the South West, although both families moved to the North West at the end of the 19th century, and that is where we now live. Today I have a query regarding Elizabeth Ann Jewell, born 1867 in Stoke Damerel, parents Thomas Paul Jewell born 1836 in Stoke Damerel and Elizabeth Male born 1841 in East Stonehouse. On the 1881 Census Elizabeth and her brother Stephen Richard, born 1871, are in Stoke Damerel Workhouse, both their parents having passed away. I have all the information on Stephen, who is my husband's direct relation, but don't know what happened to Elizabeth. I have found two marriage records, one for Stoke Damerel in 1887, to either James Burns, William Clarke or another illegible name, and one for Plymouth in 1888 to Robert Foster or Edwin Jones. My question is, how do I find out if one of these people is my ancestor, and if so, who did she marry?
Thank you for reading this, all help and advice gratefully received.
Kind regards from Rainbow Quartz

[PaulineJ]

So you are looking for an Elizabeth Ann (married name) nee Jewell b 1867 Stoke Damerel, in the 1891 census?

You should be able to eliminate one potential husband by the unusual forename of the other woman on the freebmd page in 1887.
(Wm Clarke & Minnie Blanche)

the other female forename in 1888 is also relatively rare.
I think Robert Foster wed Selina
RG12/1730; Folio: 54; Page: 47

[Rainbow Quartz]

Thanks PaulineJ. I've now found Elizabeth on the 1891 Census in Stoke Damerel, married to James Burns, and with a son, Stephen.  Do you think it's safe to assume that this is my ancestor, or do I need to order the marriage cert, and would this confirm it? I can now carry on researching their family. (might be back with more questions though - I'll see how I get on!)
Thanks again, and thanks to all of you who have read this thread.

[cemetery friends]

I would order the marriage certificate as hopefully it will show the name of Elizabeth's deceased father which will help you to decide if you have the correct Elizabeth. Dropping the middle name always raises a doubt so every additional cross check is more or less essential.

[PaulineJ]

I'd concur in purchasing the 1887 marriage certificate.
It does look a fair bet that it is the correct Elizabeth, but better to be sure.

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/  Follow the "Order certificates online" link

[Rainbow Quartz]

Oh! I've just realised that the 1991 Census gives Elizabeth's husband's name as William S Burns, not James Burns. Must have had too much to drink yesterday! I was obviously getting confused between James Burns and William Clarke, the other possible husband. The plot thickens! Will definitely order the marriage cert and take it from there. Thanks.

[JaneyCanuck]

You look like you could use a bit of a hand.

From the 1888 marriages in Plymouth, Robert Foster married Selina Lock. In 1891, she is mistranscribed at Anc'y as "Selma"; he is 24 (born Devon) and she is 23 (born Middlesex) and they have a 1-yr-old son, so they fit that couple perfectly.

So that Elizabeth Jewell married Edwin Jones. I'm not finding them in 1891 ...

For the 1887 marriages in Stoke Damerel, there are only two couples: Eliza Standing has been mistranscribed somehow (vol or page number), because she actually married in East Stonehouse.

Minnie B Clarke married James E Quirk in Devonport in 1915.
So I suspect that William Clarke married Minnie Blanche Palmer in 1887, and she was widowed.
Nope, amazingly, that's wrong: Minnie Blanche Quirk died in 1987, but she was born in 1893.
Well, I'll bet she was the daughter of William Clarke and Minnie Blanche Palmer! Born 1893, Stoke Damerel.
Minnie B Clarke, born abt 1868, died in Plympton in 1953. I just can't find them in censuses.
... In 1901, Minnie Clarke, aged 32, married but husband not present, in Devonport; daughter is Maggie, but I suspect that's them. (Yes, all perfectly confirmed by later census.)

Which would mean that the 1887 marriage was Elizabeth Jewell and James Burns.
In 1901 there are an Elizabeth and James Burns in Devonport, both aged 45 - no match for your EAJ. Can't find them in 1891, but there is only that one marriage of a James Burns + Elizabeth that fits (barring mistranscriptions at FreeBMD). There are two possible births that could fit: Elizabeth Charity Jewell, 1856 Stoke Damerel, and Elizabeth Hannah Jewell, 1857 Plymouth. The first is an unusual name and the only other record for it is a marriage in Brentford in 1904. For the second, there is a possible Elizabeth Hannah J Jewell marriage in Kensington in 1882 but that seems unlikely. Or, of course, and perhaps more likely, Elizabeth Jewell born c1856 could have been a widow if she married in 1887, with Jewell her first married name.

That seems to leave the Edwin Jones + Elizabeth Jewell couple as the only possible. It would be nice if they could be found!

A problem with that couple is that the 1881 census shows an Elizabeth Jewell in Plymouth, born 1867, daughter of William and Mary, and my money would be on her being the one who married Edwin Jones. Not to mention that, amazingly, there is another orphaned Elizabeth Jewell, also born 1867, in Plymouth in 1881!

So all in all, this hand hasn't offered much help, I'm afraid.

I wonder whether she was a child emigrant, or otherwise emigrated? I checked the Home Children database for Canada, but no record there ...

edit - I think I've found Elizabeth Jewell who married Edwin Jones, in 1891. The "Edwin"s are coincidental!

In Charles, Devon, all born in Plymouth:
Edwin Jewell, head, widower, 43, occupation smith
Elizabeth Jones, daughter, married, 24
Edwin Jewell, son, 21
and other younger children of Edwin Jewell Sr.

The names Edward/Edwin/Edmund were largely interchangeable (I've seen people go by all three in various records, and my grfather Edmund born c1900 believed most of his life that his name was Edward). There was a constant stream of Ed Joneses in and out of the Plymouth area on vessels. But I might think that the Ed in question was Edward Jones, aged 14 in 1881, engineer's servant, living in Plymouth with mother Elizabeth not far from where that Elizabeth Jewell was living with parents Edwin and Sarah.

Anyway, that seems to have ruled out all the possible marriages for your EAJ in those two years, I think, unfortunately.


PS - I've also ruled out the Elizabeth Ann Jewell who married Tom Roberts in Cardiff dist in 1885.
(A move to Wales was not unusual, but subsequent censuses show her born c1865 in Somerset.)


What about the Elizabeth Jewell + Richard Symons marriage, 1892 Plymouth?
(Thomas Turner Wall married Emily Ann Wingfield.)
Blamed if I can find that couple in subsequent records, either ... but I would suspect that in 1891 he was Richard Symons, born c1870 Plymouth, in Charles, labourer.

There are not a lot of Elizabeth Jewells available in Devon to match that marriage.
The chronology of births and marriages for that name seems to go:
Elizabeth Harriet Jewell 1867 Newton Abbot married in 1895 in Newton Abbot.
Elizabeth Jewell 1875 Barnstaple married 1899 in Barnstaple.
Elizabeth Ann Jewell 1872 Bideford marrried 1903 Bideford.
Elizabeth Ann Jewell 1875 Bideford, maybe ...
... or Elizabeth Jewell 1874 Torrington.


Ruled out another one - rats! I saw the birthplace Duloe and blinked ... but that was the other orphaned Elizabeth Jewell in 1881. In 1891 she is Elizabeth Jewels in St Cleer, Cornwall, "housekeeper" to James Mitch, with son John Jewels Mitch, born in Duloe.

One last attempt, to find EAJ by her place of birth: Ford, Devon. I was interested by Eliza Hatch, the right age, wife w/o husband present and then widowed charwoman, but she turned out to be Eliza Jane Kitt who married Richard Hatch in 1898 (Eliza J Kitt in 1871, born c1868, Ford). There's just no match for Elizabeth by date and place of birth after 1881. I strongly suspect emigration.

[Rainbow Quartz]

Wow! Thanks Janey for all this research on my behalf. My Elizabeth Jewell is certainly being elusive!
What do you think about the 1991 Census return:
     Surname       First name(s)       Rel       Status       Sex       Age       Occupation       Where Born       Remarks   
        BURNS       William S       Head       M       M       30       Private Soldier(Em'ee)        Unknown - Newcastle           
        BURNS       Elizabeth A       Wife       M       F       24               Devon - Devonport           
        BURNS       Stephen O       Son       -       M       1               Devon - Devonport

This is the one where I mistakenly read William for James, because I was getting confused between James Burns and William Clarke. There is a record of Stephen Owen Jewell's birth Q3 1889, and death Q1 1892 in Stoke Damerel. I haven't been able to find any records of their marriage though, or any further records in fact! There are a few further birth records for Burns in Stoke Damerel, but I don't know if they are for Elizabeth and William. My instinct tells me that this is my Elizabeth Jewell, the location and age are right, the surname fits with the marriage record and their first born is called Stephen, a name which appears in every generation of Jewells. But who is William S ??
I've sent for the marriage certificate for Elizabeth Ann Jewell, born 1867, so hopefully this will help. Have to wait a few days now though!
Thanks again for your help
PS sorry the census fomatting has gone a bit wrong and I don't know how to fix it.

[JaneyCanuck]

I just hate a person who refuses to be found!

Well -- had I known that about the son -- yes indeed, I would say odds are almost perfect that this is your Elizabeth. (But hey, all that tracking and tracing to rule out the others was good practice for me -- January is my slow period for work so I have to find something to occupy myself!)

Hang on, though -- the birth was Stephen Owen Burns, not Jewell. Still, Stephen is not a common name. (Fortunately for me too -- finding my ancestor's brother Stephen with a dirt-common surname, in 1841, finally found me what became of his parents, good old James and Ann, when I found him with his remarried mother.) Mind you, the 1891 William's middle initial was "S".

"I've sent for the marriage certificate for Elizabeth Ann Jewell, born 1867" -- not sure what that is, as ages don't show in the marriage index. The one to James Burns?

It seems likely that one or the other of that Elizabeth and William was already married, maybe -- likely him, given that he is several years older than her and from another place altogether.

Found a William Smallwood Burns born in 1860 in West Derby and married in 1888 in Toxteth Park ... but he died in 1918 in Toxteth Park ...

The censuses have a William Burns born in Newcastle in 1860, son of Joseph and Mary and married to a Mary, and accounted for in all censuses as a saw sharpener/sawyer, including 1891. There isn't another one in the censuses. (There's a William F, born c1864 Newcastle, also married to Mary, also accounted for.) Widening the place of birth to Northumberland (people generalized their place of birth to major centres when they moved away), still no luck.

There were actually two William Burns births in Newcastle around the right time: one in 1859 and one in 1861. Hard to tell whether either died in childhood as age at death isn't shown until the mid-1860s, but there is a death in 1862. There was also a James Burns born in Newcastle, birth reg Jun quarter 1860. Hard to identify him for sure in censuses as there seem to be a couple (the one born in early 1861 in Glendale may be shown as born Newcastle in censuses). The 1891 William was in the military; it's possible he was in the second Anglo-Boer war ...

With the talk of Burns, I had looked at this Elizabeth Ann Burns in 1901 yesterday: aged 33 (c1868), born in Devonport, single, occupation nurse (domestic), in the household of a clergyman in Shephall, Hertfordshire. If she had been going by the surname Burns without being married to William, it would be logical that she would keep the name but call herself single. Ditto if she were estranged from her husband -- to get a job, calling herself single might have been wisest. She is still a domestic nurse in Hertfordshire in 1911. However, an Elizabeth Ann Burns was born in Stoke Damerel in late 1867, and that is probably the EAB in question. No Elizabeth Ann Burns died in Devon 1891-1911, and no Elizabeth A Burns the right age after that (one, aged 78, which is close, in Exeter in 1943, but she seems to be accounted for in 1911, married to Philip).

I think what you really need in this case is the birth certificate of Stephen Owen Burns! That looks like the only thing that will tell you who the 1891 EA was.