This
is a story about finding a family that seemed to move around southwest Devon
quite a bit. The following will take readers through the process used to find
answers about a Pinkham family.
I
had a request through my Online
Parish Clerk website to check the 1851 census in one of my parishes for a
family by the name of Pinkham or Pinkem, parents William and Elizabeth. The
researcher had a marriage entry from St. Andrew, Plymouth from 1832 between
William Pinkham and Elizabeth Glanville. She also thought they had a daughter,
Mary or Maria but was not sure of the birth date. The father might at one time have
been a land steward. And that was it!
Without
much to go on the task was a bit complicated. The family did not appear in the 1851
census taken in any of my parishes but I did find similar names in nearby
areas. Those, however, turned out to be the wrong people – either because of information
that did not fit for ages, birthplaces, children’s names, etc.
The
person looking for information had done some preliminary searches, and had
certainly found my OPC website, but needed some extra guidance on using the
sources of Ancestry, FamilySearch, FindMyPast and FreeBMD.
I
asked a few more questions about how the search had ended up with this family.
Was there any information about other family members that might give us a clue
where to look? Did she know where any of the people were born or married,
besides this one 1832 record? The marriage entry for William and Elizabeth did
not give their ages or occupations but one of the witnesses was Ann Glanville
who I thought might have been a relative of Elizabeth’s. That might be useful
in any search for her family.
More
helpful information came back from the researcher. She had a “scrap of paper
that said a possible daughter Emma was born in Plympton St. Maurice” on March
10, 1833. There was no explanation of from where that scrap of paper had come
but at least now I had a place to start.
Using
this bit of information, I checked the baptism register for Plympton St.
Maurice parish and found Emma Anne Pinkham, and two other daughters, Ann Maria
(that fit with the original request) and Fanny Elizabeth: Emma Anne baptized in
1833; Ann Maria in 1835; and Fanny Elizabeth in 1837. For the first two, the
parents were indicated as living in Plympton St. Maurice parish; on the entry
for the third girl they were living in Underwood, Plympton St. Mary parish. William’s
occupation was shown as servant in 1833 and 1837 and publican in 1835. Those
dates fit with the 1832 marriage in nearby Plymouth so it looked now like we
had the right people.
With
these dates and place of baptism (birth) I could now search other census
records. I have found that it is sometimes useful to
look for children on censuses, especially those with less common names, like
Fanny or Emma, if the parents are hard to find and have names like William and
Elizabeth. I did find one other Pinkham family where the parents were William
and Elizabeth so that confused the issue. There was no Emma in that group, though.
As I said, the family was not in the Plympton area on any census;
so I had to look elsewhere for any of the five people. Looking for just William
and Elizabeth was difficult since I did not know at the time where they were
born or when and there were other Pinkham families with parents of those names.
Now that we were focused a bit more I did another search of the 1851
census on Ancestry and found Mary Pinkham, born in Plympton in 1835. She was
living with an aunt and uncle, John and Mary Cutts, in Kelly parish, Devon,
which is in the Tavistock Registration District, about 28 miles northwest of
Plympton St. Mary. An Emma Pinkham was recorded in Poplar parish, Middlesex, in
1851, also living with an aunt and uncle, Joseph and Sarah Medland, if we can
believe the place of birth shown on this record. It was transcribed as Plumpton
on Ancestry, which gave me a clue but was actually Plympton when I looked at
the image.
I did not find Fanny Pinkham on the 1851 census but when I looked
further at other census summaries, she was shown, in 1841, living with Elizth.
Pinkem (in this case), and her presumed sisters, Emma and Mary, in Milton Abbot
in 1841. The 1841 census does not record relationships but one can surmise
familial connections by the ages of the people in a household.
 |
Portion of 1841 England census for Milton Abbot civil parish, Devon (series
HO107, piece 249, book 2, Enumeration District 2, forlie 11, page 17) showing
Elizabeth Pinkem (Pinkham) and her three daughters; copyright The National Archives;
downloaded August 28, 2013 from Ancestry.com
There was no sign of William with the family but I did find a William
Pinkham on the 1841 census, working as a male servant at Kelly House, in Kelly
parish, Devon. Milton Abbot is just four miles from Kelly by road (about a 10 minute
drive today) so we seemed to have a geographic fit now. It is certainly
possible that this is not the right William Pinkham (he is shown as 10 years
older than Elizabeth in 1841) but it was curious that a man of that name lived
so close to Elizabeth and her daughters. William may have died before 1841 and
the widow and her family moved back to be closer to other relatives for support.
 |
Portion of 1896, one inch to the mile, Ordnance Survey map showing Milton
Abbot, Kelly and Bradstone parishes, Devon, England; downloaded November 24,
2014 from National Library of
Scotland
Having seen the girls were living with relatives, I thought perhaps
looking for one of the aunts or uncles might prove useful in finding their
ancestors. I found the marriage of Joseph Medland and Sarah Glanville in 1831,
in St. Andrew parish (the same place as William and Elizabeth Pinkham were
married) so we seemed to have a connection between Elizabeth and Sarah.
Having convinced myself that Elisabeth and Sarah were sisters I went
looking for their births. On FindMyPast I found Sarah Glanville baptized in 1807
in Kelly parish and Elizabeth baptized in Bradstone parish, both with parents
named John and Mary. Bradstone is less than a mile from Kelly – an easy, 16
minute walk. Looking further I also found an Ann Glanville, baptized in 1808,
in Bradstone, also to John and Mary. Perhaps she was the witness to William and
Elizabeth’s marriage.
I have not yet found a relationship to John and Mary Cutts, though. Mary
was John’s second wife and, according to an 1844 marriage entry in the Kelly
parish register, her maiden name was Jackman. They were both from Milton Abbot,
as probably was John’s first wife, Susannah, so it is possible that any one of
them is related to either of William Pinkham or Elizabeth Glanville.
The fact that at least two of the children were living with relatives
suggests that one or both parents were taken ill or had died. FreeBMD showed
the death of a William Pinkham in 1851 and an Elizabeth Pinkham in 1867, age
63, both in Plymouth which might have been the parents. Death certificates were
ordered for these two people by our family researcher that proved they were
husband and wife, but not the right parents for the three girls. So it was back
to the drawing board!
Not having William or Elizabeth Pinkham clearly identified on the 1851
census meant we could not confirm their ages, birth places or occupations.
There was a William Pinkham baptized in Plympton St. Mary in 1796 but that
seems a little early to be the individual we want, though not impossible if the
40-year old(age rounded) man living in Kelly parish in 1841 was the husband of
Elizabeth.
Not all genealogical projects have complete endings. In this case I
believe we have narrowed down at least the origin of Elizabeth’s family in the
Milton Abbot/Kelly/Bradstone area of west Devon. William’s roots are still a
mystery. Perhaps one of the listed marriage or death records after 1851 for people
with the Pinkham name, or another family researcher looking at this or other
branches of the family will help us focus in on where they went after 1841.
