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| Bridge Cottage, Mordiford, Herefordshire. (1901 census location) |
One of the reasons for taking up the "52 ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge in the way that I am doing it - effectively "auditing" the information I have on each person - is to finally make some headway with the "Do-over" that I started in 2015. I have a lot of documents and files relating to my family history, but many of them were produced, or obtained, by my parents, rather than by me. So the Do-Over is a good opportunity for me to "start again" from myself, to ensure my research is on a proper footing, and that everything is recorded properly. It is also a way for me to get to 'know' my ancestors, as well for me to add any additional information now available since my parents did their research.
This process of going through everything is bringing to my attention information that I had missed when just looking at Dad's family tree file.
Rosina Louisa PREECE, my Dad's paternal grandmother, was born 18 January 1882, in Park Street, Hereford. Her parents were Charles PREECE, a draper, and Jane, formerly TAYLOR.
I had not realised that Rosina's birth was actually registered with the names "Rosa Louisa", although later documentation, (two census records, her marriage certificate, her two children's birth certificates, and her death certificate) all refer to her as Rosina.
Something else I had not noticed - the birth was registered on the 4th March 1882, over six weeks after the event.
The informant for the birth registration was a Susan NICHOLAS, who lived in Conningsby Street, and who is described as having been present at the birth. When I first saw who registered the birth, I just wondered, was Susan a friend or a relative? To be trusted to register the event, I suspected she was more than just a casual acquaintance - but then again, it did seem odd that she might have made a mistake about the name.
Once I noticed how long it had taken for the birth to be registered, I wondered if I had got this wrong. Perhaps it is more likely that Susan was a local woman who regularly attended women during childbirth - effectively an untrained midwife. It was the responsibility of someone present to register the birth and, if Susan was acting as a midwife and she then passed on to the Registrar a list of babies she'd attended in this "semi official" capacity, that might make more sense regarding the late registration and the name discrepancy.
A Susan Nicholas does appear in Hereford in the 1871 - 1891 censuses, although not living in Coningsby Street. She's the wife of a Joseph Nicholas, who was a sawyer. There's no occupation shown for Susan, but that's probably not unsurprising, since midwifery wasn't legally recognised until 1902.
I wonder if it's possible to check whether there are many other children whose births were registered by Susan?
But back to Rosina....
Rosina was the second known child of Charles and Jane, the first being William Charles PREECE, who was born in Hereford in 1870. Since there are almost twelve years between the births of the two children, one wonders at the family circumstances - the father, Charles, is present with Jane in the 1871 census but, in the 1881 census, Jane is the head of the household in Park St., working as a laundress but still shown as being married.
In the 1891 census, Rosina and her mother, Jane, now widowed, appear in Norton, Radnorshire. The address is "The Laundry", but the enumeration schedule number is 26A, with number 26 being described as "Gardener's Cottage". Based on the enumerator's marks, as well as this numbering, I suspect the cottage and laundry were the same property. The building appears to have been part of the Boultibrooke estate of the Jones-Brydges family and, since Jane's occupation is given as a domestic laundress, it seems likely she was working for that family.
By 1901, the family are living in Bridge Cottage, Mordiford, Herefordshire. In the census for that year, as well as Rosina Louisa, aged 19, and her mother Jane Elizabeth, there is a child, Ethel Kate PREECE, aged four, who is described as a daughter to Jane. However, since Ethel Kate was born in Abertillery, Monmouthshire, she is more likely to be one of the daughters of Jane and Charles' son, William Charles PREECE and would be the grandchild of Jane.
Rosina married John PARRY, at the parish church in Mordiford, on the 16th April 1903. John was 37, Rosina was 21. Her father, Charles PREECE, is not shown as deceased on the certificate but, from the 1891 and 1901 census entries, where her mother is shown as widowed, it appears he was (or certainly was nowhere to be seen!) The witnesses were her brother, William Charles PREECE, and John's brother-in-law, Thomas Daniel SMALLMAN.
John and Rosina had two children, one of which was my grandfather, Donald. Sadly, Rosina died after giving birth to her second child, a daughter, her death caused by "flooding collapse" two hours after the delivery, followed by cardiac failure 16 days later. She was just 23 years old.
John PARRY was with her when she died. One can only imagine the impact the death of his young wife would have had on him.
I'm sure many of you have similar tragedies in your family history. How lucky we are these days, to have our modern medical care, which reduces the numbers of such incidents.
Sources
1871 census: (Rosina's parents, Charles & Jane, with brother, William Charles, staying with Jane's parents, William and Mary TAYLOR) Class: RG10; Piece: 2699; Folio: 60; Page: 39;
1881 census : (Rosina's mother, Jane, and brother, plus visitor/boarders) RG11; Piece: 2594; Folio: 83; Page: 41;
1891 census: Class: RG12; Piece: 4581; Folio: 18; Page: 5;
1901 census: Class: RG13; Piece: 2478; Folio: 60; Page: 4;
Census entries for a possible Susan NICHOLAS:
1871 (Green St, St Owen, Hereford) Class: RG10; Piece: 2698; Folio: 66; Page: 39;
1881 (Gaol St, St Owen, Hereford) Class: RG11; Piece: 2595; Folio: 85; Page: 6; G
1891 (Hunts Cottage, All Saints, Hereford) Class: RG12; Piece: 2061; Folio: 94; Page: 7;
First Midwives Act 1902 - https://memoriesofnursing.uk/articles/midwifery-in-britain-in-the-twentieth-century
Enumerators marks: A single diagonal line is used between households, or families, within the same building, and double diagonal lines are used between buildings.
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