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Wales (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Wales => Glamorganshire => Topic started by: Tattyjacket on Tuesday 30 May 17 11:01 BST (UK)
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William Dennis was the man that should have been my grandfather.
This was a story that was never talked about amongst my family. It was my Auntie Doreen that told me this story shortly before she died. Apparently, William married my grandmother, Ann Smith in July of 1900, just a few months after receiving a fine for cycling at 15mph. A few months after that, I was told that he was killed in a mining accident.
It is a really creepy thought, but if he hadn't died, then it is likely that myself, my brother, my cousins, my mother and my aunts and uncles would never have been born.
I've managed to find his obituary, but so far I have been unable to find any mention of his death in newspaper archives.
I discovered a Smith family's census entry in the 1901 census. It was this clue of my grandmother being named as Ann Dennis that led me to believe that she had indeed had a previous marriage.
After William's death, she discovered that she was pregnant. She had a little boy and I believe named him William John Dennis. I'd love to learn what became of him. I thought that he had been given up for adoption but I can't find any details of this. My Aunty Doreen did actually tell me that she met the little boy once.
I have found a William John Dennis on the deaths index for July 1901.
There is also a William John Dennis on the births index for 1901.
I suppose ordering a death certificate for the 1901 William John Dennis might solve the mystery. Tell me, is there another way to order death certificates other than through Ancestry?
Phil
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Have you found the family (William & Ann Dennis) in the 1901 census? If they married in 1900 and he died July? 1901 that was after the census for that year so they should be together as a couple.
I order certificates from the General Register Office site which is online.
It could equally have been the little boy who died as the William John Dennis death September quarter 1901 is aged 0.
Having said that if your Auntie met him that can't be the same little boy.
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Marriages Sep qtr 1900
Dennis William
Smith Annie
Pontypridd 11a 853
DENNIS, WILLIAM JOHN mmn SMITH
1901 Sept Quarter
PONTYPRIDD Volume 11A Page 664
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Just to recap the births and deaths
Birth September quarter 1901 Pontypridd
William John Dennis mothers maiden name Smith
Death September quarter 1901 Pontypridd
William John Dennis age 0
Death March quarter 1901 Pontypridd
William Dennis age 21
Am guessing the above was the father in which case he wouldn't appear on the 1901 census and Ann Dennis should appear on her own as a widow. How very sad :(
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As Milliepede said, order certificates from the GRO they are £9.25 including postage to anywhere.
https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/Login.asp
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I have their wedding certificate from July 1900. I also have my grandmother on the 1901 census as Ann Dennis, living with her parents. No baby listed or mentioned on the census.
Here's some more information.
http://theedwardsfamilytree.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/william-dennis-william-dennis-was-man.html
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I see the 1901 census which gives her age as 17? Awfully young to be married and widowed :(
On the face of it the birth and death for the baby seems to match but without certificates you can never be 100% sure especially with more common names.
Need to rule that one in or out I think because there wouldn't have been time for another baby to be born before William died.
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Doesn't quite match does it. The obituary says he was 26 and the marriage and death say 21.
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William Dennis born 1879 Aberdare He died February 1901 Ferndale
Annie/Ann Smith born 4th October 1883 Pembrokeshire
Ann Dennis remarried George Henry Davies and had seven children
She died 23rd April 1970 Blaenllechau Rhondda.
If you need any photos ect do look at the facebook for this village Sunny Blaenllecau A friend of mine runs it and has so many photograph of people who lived in this village.
Best wishes
Heddwch Glam Fam History and Rhondda Histoical Society
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We record the death of a young friend William Dennis to the place above who died 26th February at the early age of 26 years old.The son of John and Hannah Dennis, Gadlys Street,Aberdare. His mother died when he was just a small child.Soon after this, his father moved to Ferndale to live there and he spent the greater part of his life living comfortably in the house of his aunt,Elizabeth Williams of Taff Street. He was buried the following Saturday at Aberdare public landfill site . The service was carried out by the Reverend D Silent Evans,Aberdare. He left a young widow of six months to mourn him who participated in the ceremony. Let the widows comforter and father of the fatherless look after her in her misery and longing.
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guessing this is a translation of this article in Welsh from Y Celt, 15 march 1901
http://newspapers.library.wales/view/3140945/3140951/37/
Couple of points from reading the image - the OCR of the article is a mess which doesn't help
William Dennis is noted as 21 yrs of age, not 26
He was buried at Aberdare Public Cemetery (not landfill site, which is another translation of the word used)
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Thank you Mabel. Heddwch
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Thanks,
I've tried to visit the grave, but the cemetery is HUGE with no numbers marked anywhere. I've been advised to go back there when the grave diggers are on tea break and to take a large packet of biscuits with me.
Phil
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I've made some progress but I've come to a bit of a dead end.
I was initially told by my aunt that my grandmother Annie Smith had a previous marriage.....one that I didn't know about and neither did any of my cousins. I have now discovered that she married William Dennis in 1900.
My aunt told me that he died in a colliery accident just a couple of weeks later. Shortly after that, my grandmother discovered that she was pregnant.
This wasn't correct. William died in February 1901 from scarlet fever.
Now, my aunt told me that the baby had been 'given away', a baby boy.
I became interested in a baby that was born in 1901 and was named William John Dennis but this turned out to be the baby of William Dennis' brother.
So......question. Could somebody have had a baby in 1901 and not registered the birth?
Or, could it be that my grandmother never actually had a baby from this first marriage and that my aunt had got her facts wrong?
Phil
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Legally she should have registered him - however you get concealed pregnancies and abandoned babies even these days (admittedly rarely) and the mother doesn't register them
If the baby was stillborn there also wouldn't be a record
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Thanks,
I'm getting more convinced that there actually wasn't a baby. There would have been no need for her to conceal or abandon the baby as she had married the father and looking at the dates had there been any baby it would have arrived over a year after their wedding. She also had the support of her parents.