Ann Elizabeth Williams m Edgar Jackson Jones 10.08.1872
Ann Williams has been difficult to track down. I think I have found her but there is a possibility that I have the wrong person.
1. It looks as though Ann and Edgar tweeked their ages when they got married and also in the 1881 census. However, Ann’s ages given in C1891, C1901 and her burial are consistent with her being born in 1854/55.
2. Apart from C1881 where Ann, Edgar and their 4 children all have Wrexham as their place of birth, they are more specific in C1891, C1901 and Ann is recorded as being born in Ruabon.
3. On the North Wales BMD data base there are very few Ann Elizabeth / Elizabeth Ann Williams births recorded in the Denbighshire / Flintshire areas and none in the Wrexham / Ruabon areas with dob anywhere near 1854/55.
4. However, there is an Ann Williams registered born Ruabon 26.10.1854 and baptized Ann Elizabeth in Ruabon church 25.02.1855
5. On her marriage certificate she gives her father as Thomas Williams (deceased) – occupation gas fitter. These details match those of the Ann Elizabeth Williams mentioned in (4) above on 2 of 3 points :
a. Ann’s father was Thomas Williams
b. at the time of her marriage (1872) her father had died (1868 aged 35yr)
The sticking point is his occupation. On his marriage certificate, birth and baptism records for his 9 children and his death certificate his occupation is given as labourer, engine tender, collier, farmer but never gas fitter.All this time he was living at Crimbal – a small farm and cottages on the outskirts of Ruabon. Nowhere, other than Ann’s marriage certificate, is he described as being a gas fitter.
6. The ‘gas fitter’ occupation is a big problem and at one point I gave up my research believing that I had hit a dead end and put it on the back burner for a few months. I began wondering if Ann could have got it wrong – she was 13 when her father died and was likely to be living away from home (possible hit C1861 as servant in Erbistock about 1 mile away from Crimbal).
7. The big (possible) breakthrough came when I realized that her father’s death had been registered by someone named Elinor Richards who was not a member of the family. I wondered what her connection was to the Williams family and looked at near neighbours on the 1871 census where I found her living ½ mile away with her husband William Richards – occupation Gas Man !!Could it be that Thomas helped William Richards when work was slack on the farm (only 12 acres) or did gas fitter sound better than farmer on the marriage certificate ? I was told by the archivist in Wrexham that ‘gas fitter’ was an unusual occupation in the area at that time and the fact that a close friend was a gas man seems too much of a coincidence.
8. I began looking for more links and thought about the names given to Ann’s children : Elias, Albert Robert, Thomas William and Walter. Earlier in my family research I had come across clear cases of recycling names within a family and wondered if any of these had been.
Edgar’s father was called Elias and he had brothers Thomas Elias and William Henry. On Edgar’s side I could find no close connection to Albert, Robert or Walter.
On Ann’s side, her father was Thomas and the family friend was named William. There were a number of relatives named Robert and there was a possible uncle called Walter living in Ruabon. Walter was not a common name in the Ruabon / Wrexham area so this is another possible link to suggest I may have the correct person.
Ann’s mother was Mary Wright and she married Thomas Williams in Ruabon on 21.08.1854. Mary was born in Ruabon on 9.01.1833 and she had a possible cousin Walter Wright, bap 30.12.1838, living in the same area. There is strong evidence to suggest that Mary and Walter were closely related but I have yet to unravel all of the Wright family complexities.
GAJFeb2010
Ann Elizabeth Williams Update
Ann and her husband Edgar Jackson Jones are both buried in a family grave in Wrexham cemetery along with their son Walter and grandson John Herbert Howel. Something that has puzzled me for a while is a fifth family member, Louisa Williams, who died in December 1912 aged 44years. I had thought that this may have been a neice of Edgar Jackson Jones called Louisa W Jones who was born about 1868. She would, of course, have had to have married someone with a surname of Williams. I did look into this possibility but as it was a side issue did not pursue it very deeply.
In November 2010 I was looking at the recently released 1911 census results and came across Louisa Williams (42, single, b Ruabon) living at 23 Town Hill, Wrexham which is the address that Ann lived in up to her death in 1905. I then realised that this must be Ann’s youngest sister who was born in 1868. She may also be the Aunt Lou from Oxford who sent a wreath to Walter’s funeral in 1897.
I feel that this last development is the link I have been looking for that shows this is indeed the correct Ann Williams.
GAJ Nov 2010