Thanks to the free Fold3 access for this weekend, I’ve been able to pad out a bit of the extended EBBANS tree.
A blanket search for ‘Ebbans’ threw up the name of Annie Ebbans. It turns out she was listed as wife on the WWI military file of Edward Williams, which also gave their marriage date and place as well as their present address (33 Portland St, Walsall). The file also listed names of nine children. A goldmine, right? But was this Annie Ebbans actually linked to my focus Ebbanses?
Ebbans is a fairly uncommon name but is also very often recorded under a wide variety of spellings or just plain mistranscribed so can be difficult to research. It has appeared as Ebbens, Ebbins, Ebans, Evans, Ettans, Hebbans, Ebbon and Ebben; to name just a few.
There was an Ann Ebbans, born circa 1874 on my tree who was a sibling of a more direct ancestor. Until now I had been unable to find any info on this Ann Ebbans after she stopped appearing on her parents’ census records. Now this military record led me to her marriage record where she had been recorded as Ann Evans. Luckily ‘findmypast’ hold the Staffordshire parish registers which showed her father’s name, William and residence, 20 Augustus St. These details both match information I hold so I can safely say this is indeed the sister Annie in my Ebbans tree and am able to trace her life further. Viva la free record weekends!
