hi jason just wondering if all those certs you ordered proved useful with your brick wall
lyn
Hi Lyn,
I ordered every available certificate. They were of course informative, but they have not solved my riddle. It remains as follows.
It all starts with a 151-year-old family heirloom, the
original 1871 marriage certificate of William Burton and Mary Ann Lees which I possess. It names William’s father as John Burton, Bill Poster and Mary Ann’s father as Frank Lees, Spike Maker. One witness is Elizabeth Burton, who I assume to be Elizabeth, nee Beaman and the other is Arthur Lees who remains a mystery. I will return to these later, but what is important is that it links William to his father John the bill poster. This certificate was given to me by my late grandmother in about 1977 with many other certificates, photographs, medals, postcards etc when I began to discuss our family history with her.
In summary, I am absolutely certain that this William Burton and Mary Ann Lees are my ancestors. It is confirmed by my grandmother and why on earth would this original marriage certificate be in the family collection if it was not “our” family?
I will now summarise two generations of the Burton family to put my doubts into context, although all of this is documented in far greater detail in
www.familysearch.org
John Burton (1817-1891) was a bill poster for all his adult life and married Elizabeth Beaman (1821-1887) in 1842. They had the following children:
- Harriet Burton (1843–1898)
- Emma Burton (1844–1929)
- Jemima Sarah Burton (1846–1927)
- Joseph Thomas Burton (1848–1849)
- William Burton (1849–1918) of whom more below
- Elizabeth Burton (1851–1931)
- John Burton (1853–1854)
- Alice Burton (1855–????)
- Alexander Arthur Burton (1858–1858)
- Female (never named) Burton 1860–1860)
William Burton (1849–1918) was also a bill poster, but not all of his life, he was also a porter and a packer – and on his wedding certificate he was an upholsterer. He married Mary Ann Lees in 1871 and they had the following children:
- Jemima Kate Burton (1870–????) (although she was born out of wedlock as Jemima, daughter of Mary Ann Lees, but I have always assumed her to be the natural child of William)
- Emily Burton (1873–????)
- Martha Burton (1874–1907)
- William Arthur Burton (1877–????)
- Joseph Alexander Burton (1879–1928)
We can be certain they had no more children because Mary Ann died giving birth to Joseph Alexander Burton in 1879. Her date and place of death are the same as his date and place of birth. It is confirmed by the death certificate.
All the available censuses either confirm this family grouping of at least there is nothing that contradicts it. It is frustrating that I cannot find an 1891 census record for any other than Joseph Alexander Burton who was living with his grandfather John Burton. Where were William, Jemima Kate, Emily, Martha and William Arthur in 1891?
The mystery
All of the above makes sense. Family recollections and
most of the evidence links all of the above together. One of the most crucial records is the 1881 census which puts Joseph Alexander and his sister Emily in the house of his grandfather John Burton, bill poster. So this pretty much proves that Joseph Alexander Burton is the grandson of John Beaman and by inference the son of William Burton and Mary Ann Lees.
The problem starts when you examine the GRO birth records and obtain the birth certificates which I have done. We now find three of the children have MMN Lees, but two of them have MMN Price!
- Jemima Kate Burton (1870–????) (MMN Lees).
- Emily Burton (1873–????) (MMN Price)
- Martha Burton (1874–1907) (MMN Lees)
- William Arthur Burton (1877–????) (MMN Lees)
- Joseph Alexander Burton (1879–1928) (MMN Price)
We can rule out two marriages for William, first to Mary Ann Lees who died, then second to Mary Ann Price because if that were the case we would have some Lees children born first followed chronologically by some Price children.
I have considered many times if I may have accidentally conflated two family groups as follows:
William Burton and Mary Ann Lees with children:
- Jemima Kate Burton (1870–????)
- Martha Burton (1874–1907)
- William Arthur Burton (1877–????)
Conflated with William Burton and Mary Ann Price with children:
- Emily Burton (1873–????)
- Joseph Alexander Burton (1879–1928)
There is one thing which lends credence to this hypothesis of conflation, which is that on the 1881 census Emily and Joseph (both MMN Price) are with grandparents, whereas Jemima Kate, Martha and William Arthur are with their widowed father William. However, my thoughts on this are that when William’s wife Mary Ann died giving birth to Joseph Alexander he could not possibly look after a new born baby on his own so Joseph Alexander was taken home by grandmother Elizabeth, nee Beaman (who was present at the birth/death) and she took Emily as well to be his nursemaid/ companion (although she was only six years old). Was the choice to take just Emily because she is his only sibling? What about Jemima Kate who was 9 and Martha who was even younger at 5). Or does this suggest they are separate families?
The arguments against conflation of two families are huge.
- It would mean two William Burtons, both of whom were bill posters, one who married Mary Ann Lees and the other who married Mary Ann Price. That seems most improbable!
- There cannot possibly be two William Burtons both of whom were sons of John Burton and Ann Beaman!
- I cannot find any marriage of a William Burton to a Mary Ann Price, although there are about five Mary Ann Prices born in Birmingham in the appropriate timeframe to make this even more complex by ruling out each one individually.
- If the mother of Joseph Alexander Burton is Mary Ann Price and not Mary Ann Lees why have I got Mary Ann Lees original marriage certificate?
Another hypothesis
Was Mary Ann born Mary Ann Price and then adopted by Frank Lees such that she was confused about which was really her maiden name and used the two interchangeably? We should not overlook that because Mary Ann died giving birth to Joseph Alexander the informant was not Mary Ann herself but Elizabeth, nee Beaman. Was it perhaps Elizabeth who was confused about Mary Ann’s maiden name? However, this falls over with the birth certificate for Emily Burton which names the mother as “Mary Ann Burton formerly Price”. Mary Ann is the informant herself on this certificate.
The 1851 census of Edmund Street Birmingham shows Mary Ann Price, b1845, Birmingham, an adopted child of Thomas Lee (born 1875, Leeds) and his wife Jane (born 1808, Ireland). Is this relevant or just an unrelated co-incidence?
Other mysteries which if explained may shed some light.
As already mentioned, can we find the missing 1891 census for William, Jemima Kate, Martha and William Arthur?
Who is Frank Lees and who was his wife? I can find nothing conclusive on Frank Lees, the Spike Maker. I have a convoluted reason for suspecting that it might be Martha, but I can’t prove it. I suggest this because on the birth certificate of Jemima Burton 21 Dec 1870 it names the mother as Mary Ann Lees, brush maker, no father and the informant as “Martha Lees, Occupier, 6 Court, Lower Windsor Street, Aston”.
Who is Arthur Lees, the witness to the marriage of William Burton and Mary Ann Lees?
Who is Martha, the second wife of William Burton, bill poster as shown on the 1901 census?
Who is Anne, the third wife of William Burton, bill poster as shown on the 1911 census?
Who is Rob Price, bill poster, living with William Burton, bill poster and his wife Martha on the aforementioned 1901 census?
Who is Mary Ann Lees, born out of wedlock (no Father’s name) 20 Dec 1851 Birmingham to Emma Lees? Is she relevant or completely unrelated?
If anybody can shed any light on this and solve my 40-year-old mystery I would be extremely grateful.
