Ann ward

[Samiluca]

Hello, I am looking for any help finding when Ann Ward of Benfieldside died. Ann was born 1845 in Lanchester Workhouse and in the 1871 and 1881 census was living in Cutlers Hall Road and Barton Burn. She doesn’t seem to be living with any of her seven children in subsequent years but I don’t know if she died or something else like married or moved away.

[heywood]

Still there in 1891.
1891 4089 /43
Barton Burn
Ann Ward, widow, 46 yrs plus children

Added
Have you checked the various marriages for ‘Annie’ Ward on Free BMD?

[JenB]

Very minor point: the address was Baxton Burn, not Barton Burn 

[heywood]

Very minor point: the address was Baxton Burn, not Barton Burn 

Thanks Jen.
It was transcribed as such in 1891 but difficult to read. (That’s my excuse anyway  )

[Samiluca]

Thank you both.I have been researching the story of Ann ward for some years. It has turned out to be very interesting. She was born in the workhouse to an unmarried mother and had seven illegitimate children 2 of whom were born in the workhouse. I have spent hundreds of hours trying to find any fathered for the children. I then did a DNA test and found out who the father was . He was a man in Benfieldside who had 10 children of his own.

[heywood]

That’s a good result - well done on your research.

[Samiluca]

My quest is to find out where Ann went after 1891. I would love to find out if it was a complete secret that this man was the father. He was big in the local church and Ann would have been ‘lesser’ by societies norms.

[Samiluca]

Thank you Haywood ....sometimes it is good to have an obsessive nature !

[JenB]

It seems she was still alive in 1894 as there is a death announcement in the Consett Guardian referring to the deaths, within a week of each other, of two of her children Mary and William Thomas Ward.

Ann is also referred to in Mary's entry in the Burial Register
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSJW-NR6N?i=525&cat=996903