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Thanks so much for continuing to provide help and advice. You have really helped me to start realising why I have had so much trouble tracking her down with any certainty. I could not understand why my mother’s grandmother (who my late mother remembered well!) has given me more problems than any...

Thank you so much for your comments which have really helped me realise why I may have had so much trouble finding Hannah. I have met with false census information before, but for some reason couldn’t accept that Kenilworth would be wrong as it was repeated so often. It could be that she just...

Thank you again for helping out! This would seem to be right except for the place of birth of Hannah….I suppose mistakes were often made when answering the enumerator on the doorstep?

I must admit, seeing that he was a widower for this marriage to Ann as well makes him a very likely candidate.

That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking, and I’m pretty sure that is ‘my’ Hannah in Union Street. It’s a lovely thought….thanks so much for contributing that!

Ann Bradburn did in fact marry a William Smith….but not until 1849, which discounts her, I think, from being the mother of Hannah….

Thank you so much for all your trouble! I had noticed that this William Smith had become a Chemical Labourer by 1871, living with Esther in Floodgate Street, but I had missed the possible connection between the cousin, Caroline Taylor and the Mary Ann Taylor witness on the marriage certificate...

I have not seen that yet.

Thank you for all your research…..this gets more interesting. I have not seen the 1921 census as yet. In every census I have seen from 1871, except 1881 where ditto marks have been written below her husband’s place of birth, Foleshill, she names Kenilworth as her place of birth….so that is in...

I can’t believe how super helpful everyone is on this forum! Thank you so much for that extra information. This really is looking more and more like an interesting avenue to explore. If only I can find that this William Smith, sawyer, lived in Kenilworth in his former life around 1845 when my...

Thanks very much for sending that….I do actually have a copy of it, but it’s so thoughtful of you to look that up and to send it!

This is very interesting to me….thanks so much for going to all that bother to help me. This really could be a breakthrough….the fact that his mother was an Hannah…the name later given to his daughter…could be significant. Perhaps I should try to find if he was in Kenilworth around 1845.

Thanks so much for your efforts….this is the first time I’ve seen evidence of a sawyer named William Smith anywhere! I could look into this to see if it’s a possibility of him having remarried. Thanks again!

Another thing that started me looking towards Birmingham as being very likely was that I had discovered that her husband to be, Alfred Wells Cantrill, born in Foleshill near Coventry, was actually working in Birmingham in a drapery shop according to the 1861 census. Their meeting at some point...

On Hannah’s marriage certificate of 2nd. October 1865 in Holy Trinity, Coventry it states profession of father: Sawyer. The Leamington William Smith never deviates from bricklayer on every census return. I find it difficult to believe that she could be mistaken. Thank you for going to so much...

Thank you for showing this….I was quite interested in this family for a long time and followed it through the years of census returns because the child Hannah’s age seemed to fit with that of my great grandmother…..but the father was a bricklayer in every census, and never a sawyer….so I could...

I had searched for this family for decades….and had discounted the Birmingham baptism because I knew the family had lived in Kenilworth in 1845 when Hannah, the daughter, was born. All of my searches had been in the Kenilworth/Leamington area. Thanks for commenting!

I started by asking why a child born in Kenilworth might be baptised in Birmingham instead of Kenilworth. It explained that almost certainly the family would have moved for employment possibilities. It then offered to search for the family, so I offered the information of the sawyer’s name. This...

Thank you so much. I was very sceptical about the information provided by AI….it seems I was right to check this….this is what it gave me….all sounded very plausible!

He has a wife called Sarah and a child aged 6 named Hannah. All born Kenilworth. These I know for certain. Although born in Kenilworth, Hannah was baptised in Birmingham in April 1845