Month: September 2023

I had a fun mystery today. I’m researching a man named John Henry Morton (or Moreton) Hall. He married Clara Basquill, daughter of James Basquill and Annie Dale.

John was born in 1899 in Stockport. His father was John Henry Hall, but I didn’t know his mother’s name. Looking him up in the GRO index, I found his mother’s maiden name was Benfold.

Then I looked up the family in the 1901 census and found him with his parents, John and Emma Hall, and a younger sister, Ethel.

Totally straightforward, right? But wait. Here’s the marriage register for John and Emma, dated 30 Jan 1902. Over two years after son John Henry Morton was born, and a year after the 1901 census.

Both of them had been previously married. I found Emma’s first husband, James Spedding. His death was registered in December quarter 1901. The 1901 census was taken on 31 March. James was still alive then, and in fact living with his and Emma’s surviving male children, while Emma was living with John Hall, their son, and her daughter with James Spedding, Ethel.

It looks like James Spedding and Emma Benfold separated sometime after the birth of their last child, Ruby, in 1896. In 1899 Emma had a son with John Henry Hall, and by 1901 was living with him as his wife despite them not being married. Yet. Emma seems to have remarried as soon possible after James Spedding’s death.

None of this is shocking in 2023, and I would guess it wasn’t actually too shocking to the Victorians of 1900 England. I think there was likely a lot more of this going on than we may realize. We just aren’t good at putting these sorts of things together, if the numerous incomplete and just plain incorrect Ancestry trees for this family are anything to go by.

Source: The Atlanta Constitution 22 Apr 1886 page 5 column 5

Lula Cox, daughter of William Boulding Cox and Katherine Attaway. As far as I can tell she was their only child to survive to adulthood. Lula married Matthew Hale McWhorter in 1872, and they had one child, daughter Katherine Cox McWhorter. Lula is mentioned by her married name in her father’s obituary. She died in 1886 and is buried with her parents. Don’t ask me why, because I am not actually researching her.

All of that should be pretty straightforward. Except it isn’t. There is another Lula Cox who married a man named Henry Lewis Hoover in 1868. They had two children, Adolph and Estelle. This Lula Cox died in 1909. I haven’t identified her parents yet. It would have been very nice and tidy if she were the daughter of William Boulding Cox and Katherine Attaway, but she isn’t. Obviously, right?

Source: The Atlanta Constitution 6 Jun 1909 page 2 column 7

But this is what’s going on in Ancestry member trees. How was she supposed to have married Matthew McWhorter in 1872 when she was living with Henry Lewis Hoover at the time of the 1870, 1880, and 1900 censuses? This person gets extra points for having her in the 1880 census with Henry Hoover and with her parents and for including links to both Findagrave memorials. They’ve also added the obituary for William Boulding Cox, so they have all the pieces of both puzzles available to them. But for some reason they can’t see that it’s two puzzles, not one.

I’ve contacted a few of the tree owners, and most of them aren’t budging. They’re too attached to the idea that they’re descended from William Boulding Cox to consider that they may be wrong. And I think they largely misunderstand DNA matching. Of course you’re going to be a DNA match with the parents of your ancestors. But that doesn’t mean you have them identified correctly.