Peter, this is absolutely fascinating! I'm actually rather thrilled to have "met" you here
I am researching the Victorian James Baldwin (1801-1871), in which I have been helped by a very nice man who seems to be his last direct male descendant, who has some family papers and portraits. (There is nothing of great significance in the Birmingham Library.) Interestingly, your Ann Baldwin did not appear on a family tree drawn up around WW1, and she has not yet made it into my list of Joseph and Ann's children. The Baldwin siblings we have collectively traced are Sophia (1785-1854), Samuel (1786-1829), Charlotte (1787-1827), Thomas (1789-1870), John (1790-1791), Mary (1791-1866), Joseph (b.1793), Elizabeth (1796-1842), Robert (1797-1819), Sarah (1799-1882), James (1801-1871 - my man), and Benjamin (1803-1853). It sounds like the missing Ann should appear between Joseph and Elizabeth.
I was also wondering why Seymour cropped up in your family so much (I've been working on TBS's tree to try to figure out the Baldwin connection), and I'm sorry you don't know why. The Baldwins certainly passed on maiden names as middle names throughout the generations, which is really very helpful! I would guess that Seymour would be a maiden name in your family at some point. (The Baldwins also have a lot of cousin marriages.) Thank you so much for explaining about Ann's first marriage to Mr Bird and then subsequent marriage to Mr Smith. I had been assuming that Bird was a maiden name too. I shall investigate Ann and I suspect everything may just fall into place
It has been family lore in this Baldwin family that they are related to Stanley Baldwin the PM (ironmaster family) but, as you say, there actually seems to be no connection between the two (or at least, if there is, it must be way, way back).
Baldwin's Kings Norton mill became an independent entity in 1926. Interestingly, by 1935, Oscar Stone (Sir Benjamin Stone's son) was managing it, while the Baldwin family still had some fingers in that pie. So there seems to have been some ongoing relationship between the two firms, perhaps resting on long-ago family relationships.
- Michelle