Cornish Mystery

[Valda]

The 1841 census couple were actually living in St. Giles in the Fields.

http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/HolbornStAndrew/outline.htm

Holborn I associate more with the area around St. Andrew Holborn and St. Giles in the Fields as a parish bordering Westminster.

On the 1841 census adult ages were rounded down to the nearest 5 so the couple would be aged between 40 and 44. George was 36 on his marriage in 1842.
Relationships were not given on the 1841 census so there is an assumption that the 1841 census pair were a married couple, but there is no actual evidence for this on the census entry (I don't remember George Slack saying he was a widower on the 1842 marriage - but then my memory might be faulty on this)??

No occupation/s was/were given on the 1841 census for this couple.

Census night 1841 was 6th June. George married in Truro on 13th January 1842.

On the 1851 census there were 155 Slacks living in the London area. Difficult to say whether the 1841 census entry couldn't be for any one of those couples of the right age.

All in all there is absolutely no evidence for this 1841 census entry being George Slack and what little evidence there is would seem to indicate it wasn't.

Regards

Valda

[JAP]

<snip>
(I don't remember George Slack saying he was a widower on the 1842 marriage - but then my memory might be faulty on this)??
<snip>

Back on Page 1, Deb posted some details from the marriage cert (13 Jan 1842) but did not mention marital status.  Deb, perhaps for completeness you could check back and confirm whether George portrayed himself as a Bachelor or a Widower?

Of course, he might not have told the truth!

Re his age - yes, it was given as 36 on the marriage cert but it seems that he fibbed a little bit about that as we believe that he was baptized at the age of 1 in 1803.  If that baptism is correct, then his age was a bit too low in the 1851 census also (dob ca 1811), though it was pretty right in the 1861 (dob ca 1802) and 1871 (dob ca 1803) and at his death in 1872 (dob 1803).

JAP

[deb usa]

Hi

I have just checked the marriage cert and George Slack/Smith is a 'batchelor'.

Also, he and his two brothers were christened in the same year....in 1803, if  I remember rightly.
If he was 36 in 1842 ( year of marriage ) that would have meant that he was born c 1806...ummmmm

Was he the 1st child to be born ?...if so then maybe he is even older than what we thought. Unless he was a triplet ....

Thanks for staying involved Jap and Valda!

regards
deb

regards
deb

[JAP]

Hi Deb,

The IGI (extracted entries) lists the ages and birth years at the christening in St Andrews, Holborn on 29 Dec 1803 of the three SLACK boys - John b 1796 and aged 7, Charles b 1800 and aged 3, and George b 1803 and aged 1.  It might be of interest to see the actual entry in the parish register.

JAP

[Britgirl]

Hi HSD,

I think you might be the person a lady contacted me about this week, on behalf of a descendant of Ernest Lionel SMITH, whose tree she is helping trace!! If that makes any sense!

We'll get to the bottom of this name change mystery eventually. You're the first to actually have any previous family knowledge of it though, so hopefully the sodium pentathol will work! Lol!

Do you have the birth certs of George and Amelia's children George (1852) &  James (1855)?  We know that by Mary's birth in 1858 he was a Hawker, so they might help with the timeline.

It also seems that all further usage of the name SLACK ended with the death of George Sr in 1872. Certainly when Mary (SLACK) SMITH married John PALMER in 1876 she named her father as George SMITH on the certificate.

Re: the lack of George SLACK in 1841, all I can think of is that he was going under an alias again! Or Ancestry has mistrancribed him beyond all recognition!!   
Unfortunately FreeCEN, which is well covered for Cornwall (possibly even 100% complete), doesn't throw up any likely candidates when just searching for 'George' with an occupation of coach...

Julia


 

[Britgirl]

I just wanted to add a couple of pieces of new information I've recently come across, in case it helps.

Firstly, having learned of Amelia SLACK/SMITH'S marriage in 1869, I just had to order the birth certs of Annie and John PALMER who were supposedly her children.

Well it seems they were John and Mary PALMER'S after all!!! So why say in the parish records that they were the children of Amelia SMITH???  When I found that record very early in my research into this family, I didn't know of any siblings for Mary, so having Amelia's name gave me more to go on in finding her family!

Secondly, and more pertinent to George SLACK's occupation, is that he is down as a Hawker/Pedlar on ALL of his children's baptism records, not just those following the 1851 census in which he said he was a coachmaker!

So to recap, he married Amelia CARNARTON in Jan 1842 and put down coachmaker as his, and his father's, occupation. He also signed his name, which I think is very significant. How many hawkers could write, do you think!

Their first child Ann was born later that year but wasn't christened until 6 Sep 1844, by which time George was  a Hawker.
Three more children were christened before the 1851 census at which George was recorded as being a Pedlar.

Then came the 1851 census, and George was suddenly a coachmaker again?! 
The baptism of the next child in 1852 sees him, once again, as a Hawker, and so it continues!

Another loose end which has been bugging me throughout, is where George was in 1841.
If he was outside of Cornwall then it could be impossible to find him, but I did come across an entry for a George (surname unknown) born about 1801, living as one of 5 apparently single men, in a house with a variety of people, in St Austell!
Better still, he was a HAWKER!!!!    The only downside was that he was also supposedly born in Ireland! 

Anyway, I just thought I'd throw that out in case anyone is interested!

[kmaney80]

Hello all,
I'm a direct descendant of Joseph Antonio Emidy. I have a lot of information on the Emidy line if anyone is in need. I saw some postings about Carnarton. Margery Carnarton married Thomas Hutchings Emidy. He was my 4th Great Grandfather. Joseph was the 5th. They were married in Cornwall and had 6 children. Cecilia, Francis Antonio, Eliza, Joseph Antonio, Richard Samuel, ans James William.

[deb usa]

Hi Kmaney

 We are so happy you found us.... where are you and what can you tell us of the Emidy side .... how fabulous that you are part of the famous Emidy Family ....

deb 

[brissygal]

Hi

Just a quick comment.

I have a full set of the Non-Conformist Registers transcribed and published by Sheila Townsend in 2000 and there are no "Carnartons".

If anyone else wants anything looked up, then just let me know.

All the best

Chris Penrose

Hi - I have just registered with RootsChat after reading this amazing journey - if I can get half the help you guys have given here, I will be ecstatic!    Congratulations to everyone who has had a part.

My search is in no way related - but had to tell Chris I first came across his name in the Penrose section of RootsChat (earlier this afternoon - my first visit to RootsChat). That's the line I need to follow, so maybe I will see you over there. I am extremely interested in the non-conformist register, as I have been trying to find my g-grandparents' marriage for about 10 years now - with no luck. And I do know there were Methodists in the family ... so maybe I will chat with you on the Penrose site.

However, one reason this amazing story has given me hope and driven me to register is that I also have possible 'dodgey goings on' in my story - the g-grandparents. After 10 years of research, I discovered a few weeks ago that the Penrose line I have been following MAY NOT BE the right one - I just discovered he was married to someone else, and disappeared between censuses - his wife is listed as a widow in the following census. Aaaargh!!!!    But did he REALLY die - or did he run away?? There's a family gossip that g-grandmother was a school teacher who ran off with a travelling minstrel - so was g-grandfather the husband who disappeared between censuses, and his ex-wife called herself a widow to cover the shame of being deserted? The g-grandparents had their first child when he was 47 and she was 38. She was definitely still a spinster, living with her sister, when she was 31. AND - both were born in Cornwall (St Agnes & Breage), with first child born in Swansea, Wales. Many years and many miles to trace the marriage.    But YOUR story here has given me new hope and incentive.

Thank you so much for such an interesting couple of hours' reading. (Shame about the neglected housework.) And good luck to you all. I'll check back every so often to see how it's going. 

PS - my grandfather brought my father to Australia in 1923, so I'm trying to do this from a distance. Did spend some time in Truro, St Agnes, Breage, Germoe in 2000, but found NO gravestones, and not much at the registry offices in Truro. Very frustrating.

Bye from Down Under.