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Hi

I just found this (better late than never!). I have a lot of research on the Smith family of Coven, though many generations of John Smiths is a challenge -there are a lot of Smiths everywhere! They are a most interesting family - the people’s story and the Industrial Revolution and Methodism. I am not sure I can help on the Yates connection if that is still of interest, as nothing leaps out straight away, but I will have a dig around my tree to see what I can find.

As an aside, and not wanting to derail the thread, I believe John Smith Jnr (the 1826-1879 one) did have children but it all happens in a short window in the last five years of his life. The whole thing is very intriguing.  The sequence is:
8 Sept 1874 - John Smith Snr dies in Coven and the business is being wound down (plant auctioned off).
18 Nov 1874 - Annie Whittingham, illegitimate daughter of Mary Whittingham born in Shrewsbury (50m away from Coven). Mary was a servant from Horsebrook, near Brewood. Place of residence for Mary on Annie’s birth cert is Coven.
9 Sept 1875 - John Smith marries Mary Whittingham in Shrewsbury. He was 48, she was 20.
13 January 1876 - John Clayton Smith b Shrewsbury.
5 Oct 1877 - Henry Cartwright Smith, b Wolverhampton
19 Jan 1879 - Elizabeth Jane Smith, b Saredon
2 Feb 1879 - John Smith jnr dies aged 51, Saredon, between Elizabeth being born and registered.

1881 - Mary is a widow, aged 26 in Coven with the 4 kids
1891 - Mary is a housekeeper, two kids living with John Birch Higgs (John Smith’s business partner), two kids at Orphanage/Industrial School.
1901 - Kids grown up. Mary Smith in Light Ash, Brewood and “Living on Means”
1940 - Mary dies aged 85 -Standeford, Brewood. 

Perhaps Mary moved to Shrewsbury “for her confinement” to avoid a scandal? Why Shrewsbury? Can't find a link. I am fairly sure that Annie was John’s child too but not done any DNA or anything so don’t know for sure. I have not found a will for John Smith jnr and there must have been some kind of inheritance issue for Mary and the children in the years following John’s death. John Smith snr left a will in 1874 which mentions John jnr, so not sure what happened there. Perhaps there were debts?

I am sure this is the same John Smith. His widow Mary and son J. Clayton Smith help write an article about him and the Village Foundry which is later published in 1948.

Open to corrections or other interpretations/ideas or anyone else with links to the family. 

PS Paul - is your book still available anywhere. Amazon has one v expensive copy!

Hello
Please can you help me identify the name of Mary Wilcox' birthplace in the 1861 census. She was born in Wales but was in the Southwark area from at least 1814 onwards.

Mary Pugh - 1783-6 ish, born Llan...(??), Montgomeryshire. Ancestry thinks it says Llanwehyn but that doesn't seem to exist.
other refs:
1814 Married James Willcocks in St Mary Newington, London. He was a Tanner from Totnes in Devon.
1841 census (Mary Willcox, 55), St John Horsleydown, Southwark
1851 census (Mary Willcocks, 66) - St John Horsleydown, Southwark. Gives place of birth Montgomery, Wales
1861 census (Mary Wilcox, 78) -St John Horsleydown, Southwark.  Place of birth: see attached.

I thought maybe they kept details of dependents (so wife and children's date of birth) in the event of pension and disability payments etc.

I would guess though that they had some kind of check so you couldn't claim for more children than there were, so it was the children's birth certs rather than the one for the man himself.

However, I really don't know for sure.

I would put Doris as younger than 7 here if she is the little girl standing. She doesn't look 7 - more like 5/6 maybe. I think she is still quite little.

I'd put them at 5ish littlest one standing, 7-10ish seated, 12-13 standing, dog - no idea

I'd put them as the older girls (so before Olwen) because there is a bigger gap between the seated and standing.