I am hoping that someone can clarify this with their superior knowledge!
I have an Abraham King I am researching, who marries Diana Veal. They baptise 5 children between 1824 and 1831. The first child, Hannah, is baptised: DEVON: Plymouth, Batter Street (Presbyterian) The subsequent 4 children all have father's occupation in their baptism records which is Royal Mariner and are baptised in Charles the Martyr and East Stonehouse. My definite direct ancestor Ann(a) / Hannah King is I think Abraham and Diana's first child. On her first marriage certificate in 1852 she states her father Abraham is a labourer. Following him through the census, Abraham appears in 1841 and 1851 as a labourer but in 1861 he is a Greenwich Pensioner. Of course there is more than one Abraham King in Plymouth at this time and it is easy to get confused, so my question is - is it feasible that a Royal Mariner would become a labourer after service and then become a Greenwich Pensioner? As if's not I'm obviously going down the wrong route!
Yes it is possible, he would have left the royal marines after his "time", and then become a labourer, which in 1852 could have covered various jobs. Then would have qualified by his service for a pension. That would have been payable when he was older perhaps? or he could have been getting it when he left and not disclosed it until he was older and not working? Have you found his service record? Hope that helps
Thank you Judith. I'm right out of my comfort zone here as the majority of my ancestors are ag labs from Cambridgeshire - they didn't move about and they were ag labs all their lives!
I had looked on the national archives to see if I could find any information about Abraham King's service but didn't turn up anything. Is there a better place to look?
Have looked on Ancestry and there are 2 Abraham Kings, one is a greenwich pensioner born Silverton,aged 63 and another is an ag lab aged 53, also born Silverton with a wife Frances. So there could be confusion there. Also found a Hannah King born Plymouth living in London in 1861, is she yours? Did you find the marriage of Abraham and Diana? Where?
Yes, I've looked at so many census returns and there are 2 Abraham Kings and it is confusing The marriage of Abraham and Diana was on Find My Past. In 1861 Hannah King is living with her then husband, John Connor and their two daughters, Diana / Dinah and Susan in Plymouth. Hannah married John Connor in 1852 and her marriage cert stated her father was Abraham a labourer. In 1866, Hannah has my 2nd great grandmother Fanny Ansley in Bridport, Dorset. She styles herself as Ann Ansley, late Connor, formerly King on the birth certificate. I can find no marriage for Ann and Fanny's father, John Ansley. I cannot find Fanny or Ann in the 1871 census. In 1881 Fanny and Ann turn up in Norfolk, living with Ellen Cronheimer, nee Ansley, the daughter of John Ansley and Susan Smith, born 1854, Crediton, making her Fanny's half sister. By 1891 Fanny is in Cambridge, married and living near her other half sister, Susan Kelly nee Connor. I think Fanny's other half sister Dinah married James Brazier in Colchester and had one daughter but have only managed to find her on the 1871 census. In 1909 Ann dies in Cambridge, Fanny is the informant of her death and says she is 78 years old. She dies in the house next door to Fanny's house. So they travelled a lot, which is confusing things! Re Abraham, I think the Greenwich pensioner is the correct one as the baptisms of 4 of his children state he was a Royal Marine. A Diana Veal marries James Crocker in 1834 nad in 1841 is living in Plymouth with husband James and a number of children the oldest of whom, Mary, appears to have been born 3 years prior to the marriage. They emigrate to Australia the same year. There does seem to have been a lot of mixing up of families and I would not be surprised if there was some living as married or even bigamously getting married going on. I've seen it with my CAmbs lot, but they tended to go off to London to do it - not get married in the same city they first got married in!
Further investigation leads me to think that after Diana did a bunk with James Crocker, having married him in 1834 in Stoke Damerel, Abraham re married a Frances Peckham a widow, both of full age, gave his fathers name as Thomas, which gives his baptism in Silverton on 8.11.1798 parents Thomas and Sarah. (he had a daughter he named Sarah). Diana calls herself a spinster on her remarriage and he calls himself a widower!! occupation labourer. by 1861 he is lodging with Richard and Sarah Isaac, so guess Frances deceased by then and he is describing himself as a greenwich pensioner.
Times were certainly different... It gets no better on the other branch with the Ansleys!
Hannah King *married* John Ansley (no record) and had Fanny (my 2x g grandmother) in 1866.
In 1850 he'd had a son Henry with his *wife* Susan and then in 1854 he has Ellen also with Susan. In 1855 he's in prison in Bodmin and there is a note regarding letters to/from his wife Susan. His entry says he is from Lambeth, lately Launceston. Henry dies in 1854, Ellen survives to adulthood and moves all over the country it seems! She marries in 1872 in Leicestershire but I can't find her in the 1871 census - I can't find any of them in 1871, not Ellen, Fanny, Hannah or John. I can't find Henry in the 1851 census. Anne, Fanny and Ellen are together in 1881 in Norfolk. In 1891 Ellen is in Yorkshire having stopped off in Cambridge in 1886 long enough to be baptised. She does at least stay in Yorkshire for the rest of her life.
In 1841 there is a John Ansley living with a wife Mary in Brixton (he's a cabinet maker which is how John is described in every one of the scant records I have found pertaining to him). So possily he married only Mary and then just shacked up with his subsequent women - or maybe he didn't marry any of them!
This part of the tree is quite frustrating to say the least... DNA is not helping much either!
What a family!! You need to write all this down in chronological order! perhaps a page or heading for each person. Then when you go over it you can see what information is missing and put in whether you have found it or not. Mine is just as complicated! but quite interesting as not all ag labs, one very posh aunt was reputed to have her family as undertakers, but further investigation found her father was a marine engineer on a fishing boat I think, and was found dead at the bottom of a ladder, having died from suffocation. (drunk I suspect given his nickname "whisky X"). He died when she was about 6 and her mother when she was 11, so think the undertaker family were the ones who brought her up. It is quite unusual that your ancestors were moving about such a lot in the mid 19th c. But it gives you some variety to work on!!! Good luck.