surname Archives - Geneageek

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!

1894 marriage entry of Edward Williams and Annie Evans (EBBANS)

Isn’t it funny what you can come across by accident?

You may have noticed that I don’t just research my direct line of ancestry. I like to get into the nitty gritty of their siblings as well. Partly because I’m nosy, but also to help locate other ancestors you may not come across otherwise, which can help you break down brick walls. Sometimes, an incorrectly transcribed name will finally appear on a page with correctly transcribed relatives (I have found elderly parents living with their adult child’s family) and sometimes, the relation to household column can uncover a sister’s marriage (I have uncovered married names via nieces and nephews).

This is why when I received an email from a distant relative connected to William GLAISTER’s brother, George, I dived into collecting every detail I could about George and his wife, Isabella SHORT. Although, I have so far refrained from collecting HER siblings marriages (more on that later), I have located census records for her parents.

I decided to revise my info on George GLAISTER (b. 1826) – son of Robert GLAISTER (b.1786) and saw that I was yet to find an 1841 census record for him. I had all others up to his death but despite searching with a number of surname variants had always come up empty handed. I tried again today and found a 10 year old George GLAISTER in Wooler where a lot of my GLAISTERS had resided. His age was too young, but since that can often be mistranscribed too, I took a look – definitely not the George I’m looking for…

…but underneath in the next ‘household’ (probably just a different room) were Stephen and George GLAISTER – they had been transcribed as Elander.

Now to find out if the John Glaister above is an uncle, brother or cousin.

Next Steps:

Determine whether this John Glaister is Robert Glaister’s brother

Annie, are you okay?

Not the George You’re Looking For