Birmingham Archives

Call Me Al

Part of the Stonewall Johnson series of posts – Who was the mother of Mary Ann Johnson?

The marriage entries for St Stephen’s Church, Birmingham show that Florence Ann Yeomans (eldest daughter of James Yeomans and Mary Ann Johnson) married Alfred Hickman in 1898. But did she?

Marriage entry in parish register — Marriage of Florence Ann Yeomans and Alfred Hickman in 1898

Alfred was recorded as a bicycle maker, as was his father, Joseph Hickman. One of the witnesses was Joseph Hickman – but this can not be his father, who was noted as ‘deceased’. Presumably it is a brother or other relation. The other witness was Sarah Smith.

Alfred or Albert?

Florence signs her name but her husband makes only his mark – nothing unusual for the time. However, careful examination shows that in place of Alfred’s signature is “The mark of Albert Hickman” – not Alfred. So which name is correct? You would imagine the official name, right? The one recorded in all the indexes as being Florence’s husband. But I’m not so sure. You see, I’m having a very hard time finding ‘Alfred’ after 1898 – maybe it’s because he was actually named Albert.

Shortly after their marriage, Florence died. She appears to have died either during or soon after the birth of her first child, who was also given the name Florence Ann. So using his wife’s name as a reference when searching the 1901 census for Albert/Alfred is not an option. Neither is using their daughter’s name since she also died soon after birth.

screen shot of GRO death search results — Deaths of mother and daughter Florence Ann Hickman in the Birmingham registration district 1898

However, I did come across a baptismal record for Florence Ann Hickman that seemed to definitely be a match. This child was born 28 April 1898 and baptised at St James’, Ashted in the ‘County of Birmingham’ on 1 June 1898.

Baptism entry in parish register — Baptism of Florence Ann Hickman in 1898

Brother Joseph?

The parents of little Florence were recorded here as Joseph and Sarah Hickman (shoemaker). Could this be the Joseph and Sarah Smith who signed Florence’s marriage record? My imagination conjured up possible scenarios… ‘Joseph is clearly a brother. He and Sarah Smith must have married soon after Florence and ‘Alfred’, and took on her tiny infant as their own when Florence died since the grieving father would be ‘unable’ to do so himself. Or perhaps they had simply taken the ‘sickly’ child to be baptised as quickly as possible and their names were mistakenly recorded as the parents..?’

But there was a snag:

There was another death of an infant Florence Ann Hickman! This hadn’t come up earlier as I had restricted the search for Florence Ann Hickman deaths to only in Birmingham. Opening up the search for births showed that Joseph and Sarah WERE the true parents of the Florence Ann baptised in Ashted (part of Aston registration district).

screen shot of GRO birth search results — Two baby Florence Ann Hickmans in the Birmingham area

Using the maiden name of the ‘other mother’, I was able to find the marriage record of Joseph and Sarah – her maiden name was Holt.

So what I had imagined was proved incorrect. Joseph did not marry the other witness ‘Sarah Smith’ soon after Florence and ‘Alfred’ married (he had actually married a different Sarah 7 years previous). Nor did he nobly take on his brother’s child and baptise her as his own.

But were they at least brothers? It still seems very likely. Joseph’s father’s name was also Joseph Hickman (deceased) but no profession was given. Tracking Joseph and Sarah Hickman down in the 1901 and 1911 censuses using Joseph’s occupation of ‘shoemaker’ supported the age given on his marriage record (an estimated birth year of c1868) and gave his birthplace as Birmingham. A search for a birth with those details gave me:

Joseph Hickman – mother’s maiden name Preston

And a search for other children with the mother’s maiden name of Preston gave me:

Not Alfred BUT an Albert. And the birth year matches the age given when ‘Alfred’ married.

At this point, I believe it’s very likely that Alfred was in fact Albert, and he and Joseph were brothers, but the search continues…

Evidence supporting:

the name Albert mentioned on the Alfred marriage record;
both fathers named Joseph and deceased;
matching ages on marriage records;
Joseph as witness on Alfred/Albert marriage (matching signature to his own marriage record);
Joseph also had a child named Florence Ann (seemingly in honour of Alfred/Albert’s wife)

clip from census — Possibly related 1871 census entry – father joseph (brother of Alfred)

Side note: The father Joseph Hickman appears to have been ‘boarding’ with a Theodosia Johnson on the 1881 census (daughter Emily H Johnson appears to be his – they married later that year in November)

Contradictory evidence:

The brothers from the above GRO search image, Albert and Henry, appear as the ‘children’ of Joseph Taylor and Mary Ann Hickman in the 1881 census (boarding with Robert Taylor in 1891)

clip of census image — Possible 1881 census entry for the brothers Albert and Henry Hickman

Stonewall Johnson

I’ve recently designed my own colourful family trees (see more about that here). The information held is minimal but besides looking pretty on the wall, it’s a useful way to see what gaps still need filling (particularly for those like me who absorb information best visually). For various reasons, there are a few question marks on the Richards family tree, mainly to do with death dates. I can live with that (for now) – I’d rather be as accurate as possible. But what really bothers me is the missing name on the Johnson branch. This is a ‘brick wall’ I’m determined to break down and will start by consolidating all I know about Mary Ann.

Who was the mother of Mary Ann Johnson?

Mary Ann Johnson married James Yeomans at St Jude’s Church, Birmingham on 9 March 1874. They were both single and residing on Hill Street at the time of their marriage – the same street on which St Jude’s was situated. The area was one of the poorest parts of Birmingham at the time so they were likely not well off. Unfortunately, the church building of St Jude’s was demolished in 1971.

Marriage register entry — Mary Ann Johnson and James Yeomans were married in 1874

(Note that the year in the heading is 1875 but the full date gives 1874. All four entries on this page had the same issue. The preceding and following pages of the St Jude’s parish register were checked to confirm the year was in fact 1874.)

The marriage record tells us that Mary Ann’s father was a shoemaker named John Johnson. The witnesses at their marriage were George Yeomans and Eliza Millard.

The couple were to have 9 children between 1877 and 1900: Florence Ann, John Joseph, Julia, Catherine Ellen, Sarah Emily, Alfred Thomas, James Arthur, Leah and William Edward.

1881 census entry — Yeomans family in the 1881 census

Mary Ann appears with her husband and children living at the back of 20 Barn Street (house 1) in the 1881 census. Boarding with them is 20-year-old iron plate worker, Thomas Johnson. She gives her age as 26 which gives us an approximate birth year of 1855 and birth place of Birmingham.

1891 census entry — Yeomans family in the 1891 census

The 1891 census reiterates the same birth information. This time they are living in Court 40 (house 7) Hospital Street.

The birth place of their daughter Florence (in both censuses) indicates that Mary Ann spent some time at Bilston, Staffordshire – long enough to give birth there at least.

When her daughter Leah was born in 1897, the family were residing at 41 New John Street.

Mary Ann died in 1900 at the age of 41. Her death was registered at Birmingham in the September quarter of 1900 (Jul-Aug-Sep). The 1939 register gives her youngest son’s birth date as 5 March 1900 so she seems to have died within months of William Edward being born.

So the bare facts we have of Mary Ann as we begin our ‘brick wall’ demolition are:

born c1855 in Birmingham
father John Johnson (a shoemaker)
married James Yeomans in 1874 at St Jude’s in Birmingham
gave birth to first daughter in Bilston, Staffordshire (1875)
died in 1900 soon after youngest son was born

I’ll get my sledgehammer…

Woman of my Convictions

I found out last year that I have convict blood coursing through these law-abiding veins.

birminghamqtrsessionrecords — Birmingham Quarter Session Records book

Alice Ann WHITE was born in Victoria, Australia in 1860. Her parents names on the birth certificate left no clues that both her parents were actually freed convicts. The only reference to their previous life was that both of their birthplaces were recorded as Birmingham. Now, Birmingham’s a big place – George Allen WHITE and Elizabeth ALLEN are not unusual names, so I was unable to confidently identify my George and Elizabeth from the many others in the IGI.

After a bit of digging about and requests for information online, a helpful person contacted me to say they had located George and Elizabeth’s marriage in 1845 but it was actually in Tasmania! That’s pretty much where my research into this family stayed for some time.
To cut a very, long story short, I discovered that both had been transported to Australia for various thefts – George was convicted in Bedford 1834 and Elizabeth in Birmingham 1842.

I went to the Birmingham Central Library archives last week to do a bit more research into this.

I looked in the Quarter Session Records and found the record of Elizabeth’s sentence of transportation. I was surprised to see it also mentioned that she had been previously convicted of felony.

‘Oh, well’, I thought, ‘yet another mystery I may never know the answer to’.

However, when I photographed the index page, I noticed Elizabeth Allen listed again.
The entry stated that Elizabeth had been sentenced to three months hard labour for stealing a brooch and some earrings from Ann Rock.

She obviously didn’t learn her lesson – it was less than three months after her release when she stole a shawl from Michael Kelly and was transported to the colonies for 10 years.

‘Twas a hard life in them days…

Edit: I’ve discovered that if the record image you want is not online, the Archives Office of Tasmania has a free record service – I’ve now requested a copy of the original page with George and Elizabeth’s Convict Application to Marry.