To-day I've been working with members of my Chandler family - rather distant members, I must admit.
Firstly, I was looking at the family of Joseph Ashbee (born about 1800 in Kent) who married Jane Faith (born 1804 in Kent) who was my ½ 1st Cousin 5 times removed (!). Joseph and Jane, who married in 1826, had 6 children, 5 of whom survived to appear with them in the 1841 Census. But then where did they go? I thought I might have found Joseph and 2 of his sons in 1851, but I wasn't convinced and where was Jane?
After a while, I discovered that the family had emigrated to the United States and settled in Madison, New Haven County, Connecticut. I have yet to discover whether all 5 children went with them, but certainly the youngest 2 did. These were James Douglas Ashbee and Emma Elizabeth Ann Ashbee. I still have work to do on this family, but I know that James married and that he and his parents can be found on the Find A Grave website. James must have done quite well for himself because he had sufficient money to make several journeys between England and the United States and a welcome find on Ancestry was his application for a passport, which included a photograph of him. I am always thrilled to find a picture of a relative: it's lovely to know what they looked like.
I then moved on to Jane's brother Francis Faith (baptised 1897 in Denton, Kent.) I had found his marriage to Alice Austen a few years ago, but had not pursued them any further at that time. Francis and Alice are slightly less common names so I thought they should be fairly easy to track. First of all I found them in 1841, living in Denton as expected and Francis described as a Farmer. Living with them was a 6 yr-old child named Mary Faith, This appears to be their daughter, but surprising that they apparently only had one child after about 17 years of marriage!
The baptism of Mary Ann Faith in 1835 to parents Francis & Alice suggests that the Mary of the Census is indeed their daughter, but rather surprisingly Francis is described as an Innkeeper, living "up the hill from Folkestone" and the Baptism took place in Folkestone. I then found what appeared to be Francis's death, but if it is him, he was then living in Canterbury. So then to find Alice in 1851: I was pleased to see her in Canterbury, and with her daughter Mary Ann, but was brought up short when I saw her age of 45, which would mean she was born in 1805 or 1806. I rushed off to check whether I'd made a mistake in the marriage date, which I had recorded as 1817! I knew she had married "with the consent of parents" but even so ...! Yes, the marriage date was correct, so if this is indeed the right person, she followed the well-worn tradition of ladies knocking a few years off here and there.
When she died in 1857, her age was given (in the Death Index on the GRO website) as 56, which seems much more realistic. I have yet to satisfy myself that I have found her Baptism. 1852 in Lenham seems most likely: mnother's forename is Mary and father's is William which ties in with William Austen being one of the witnesses at Alice's wedding, but another witness was an Ann Austen and I haven't found a sister named Ann for Alice. I like to be fairly sure before I add records to my Legacy family file so I won't add the Lenham Baptism to Alice just yet.
Until next time ... cheers!
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