I feel that Caleb Cresswell Siviter is worthy of a separate thread, probably in the Staffordshire or Warwickshire forums. To my (limited) knowledge, the Siviters (and variants of the name) are almost entirely based in the West Midlands.
For what it is worth, a Caleb Cresswell Siviter’s marriage is listed by the Records Office at Folio 6d, page 565, and included on
www.freebmd.org. The marriage is in the second [June] quarter of 1890. There is a birth of another Caleb Cresswell Siviter, also at Aston, in 6d.364, and also on freebmd. Unfortunately, the records for Stafford are still a long way from complete on freebmd. Note the Siviters belong to Aston, Birmingham, not the Aston, near Sheffield, which is relevant to Beverley’s thread.
May I be permitted to summarise what I know and believe about Beverley’s original question?
The obituary notice from Hannah’s prayer-book (on the web in its authentic glory at
http://www.pentrich.org.uk/html/cresswell.walters.html) is, for me, the clinching argument.
My great-grandfather was John Whysall. Date of birth is 1843. The 1881 census tells me his wife is Mary, and we know her maiden name to have been Cresswell, born 1844. This is Mary, daughter of Francis and Susannah Cresswell, and sister of Beverley’s James (both christened June 1837, a date from Beverley’s research). These double-christenings (Anglican and Non-Conformist) cause me real problems. Then, there are some pieces of circumstantial evidence which collaborate the relationship:
1. The same birthplace (Denby, Derbyshire);
2. John and Mary Whysall’s first two children are named "Frank" (born 1859, and, I now discover, officially Francis) and Susannah (born 1863, named as "Susana" in the 1881 census, but see below).
3. The Cresswells and the Walters/Cresswells were well acquainted: by 1881 they are living in the same row of cottages (which means working at the same colliery); and Hannah’s obituary shows "cousinage" to the Coundleys and to German Whysall (my great-uncle). Aston Terrace was rows of housing built by The Stavely Coal and Iron Company after the Aston Colliery (more commonly known by its locality as North Stavely Colliery) was sunk in 1864. John Whysall and his family seem to have moved there from Waingroves after 1874.
4. I suspect the obituary misprinted "Coundley" for "Cownley". I have Susannah [sic] Whysall's wedding lines. On 2 June 1884, at All Saints, Aston, aged 21, a spinster and dress-maker, she married James Cownley, aged 24, a miner. Both give Aston Terrace as their addresses. The witnesses are Francis Whysall and Sarah Whysall. James Cownley's father is also named James. In the 1881 census, it is twenty houses from the Whysalls to the Cownleys. The Walters family are sixteen addresses further on.
For me, this is conclusive. As Hannah and her family accepted the relationship with the Whysalls and Cownley’s, the link has to be through James. Therefore, James is Hannah’s ancestor.
Now the problem for me is to certify the link through William Whysall, recorded father of John, to a well-established genealogy. That, like Caleb Cresswell Siviter, is another story.
Poll