I just LOVE finding connections within families.
In part 4 of ‘The Hannah Chronicles’, Hannah was involved an incident with a man named Samuel Steele. One of the newspapers reporting the incident, mentioned that William Lamb was a cousin of Steele’s wife.
I have since found out that there is another family connection.
Three years after William Lamb’s grandfather Daniel Toon died, his grandmother Mary Kennah, married a man named Robert Fellows. (Note: Since Daniel died before William was born, he may have even looked upon Robert as his grandfather.)
When expanding William Hirst’s tree, I found that his mother’s maiden name was also ‘Fellows’. Coincidences like this need to be explored, and in this case, it turned out that William Hirst’s mother, Ann Fellows, was the sister of Robert Fellows.
William Hirst’s parents even appear to be witnesses at Mary’s marriage to Robert.
When Mary Kennah married Robert Fellows in 1849, her eldest daughter Sarah Toon was about 15 years old. Seven years later, in 1856, Sarah married William Hirst, the son of Robert’s sister.
So, Sarah Toon’s husband was her stepfather’s nephew.
This also means that when Hannah Bates was fighting with ‘William’s cousin’s husband’, she was also fighting with his step-grandfather’s nephew!
