When and where was Emma Hodgkinson born?
Q I cannot find a record of the birth of my ancestor Emma Hodgkinson.
Emma and George Lazenby were married in Sheffield on 14 February 1859. Emma was 18, so was born c1841. On her marriage certificate, her father is Thomas Hodgkinson, a cutler, and she was living on River Street. Witnesses were James Hodgkinson and Priscilla ( née Lunn), who were also living on River Street.
I can’t trace Emma on the 1841 census and can find only one Emma Hodgkinson in Sheffield on the 1851 census. This Emma is living with her father John Hodgkinson, a pen knife cutler, and brother Thomas (aged 17), also a cutler.
Why would she give the wrong name for her father – or is this not my Emma? Sue Hammond, by email A It is sometimes tempting to explain away awkward evidence as being due to the registrar’s incompetence or deceitfulness or a mistake on the part of an ancestor. While these things did no doubt occur sometimes, we shouldn’t dismiss what the records say without having compelling reasons.
The family that you found in the 1851 census of John Hodgkinson and his wife Sarah (Eagle) at first seem to fit, other than the father’s name. They do indeed have a daughter in 1842 called Emma. There is, however, a death in 1858 of a 16-year-old Emma Hodgkinson registered in Eccleshall Bierlow Registration District, which covers part of Sheffield. A copy of that may reveal whether the girl who died was the child of John and Sarah. It is possible that their daughter did survive, for when John’s daughter Catherine married John Benjamin Jackson in November 1859, one of the witnesses is an Emma Hodgkinson, who signs her name (the marriages collection of Sheffield records are well covered by Findmypast). This is nine months after your Emma Hodgkinson married George Lazenby on 14 February of that year and made her mark. It isn’t conclusive, but makes it unlikely that this is the same woman.
I would concentrate on the witnesses at your Emma’s wedding. James Hodgkinson married Priscilla Lunn in 1845. James, aged 20, also names his father as Thomas, a cutler, suggesting that he is possibly Emma’s brother. There is a baptism recorded for a James Hodgkinson in Sheffield in 1826 – son of Thomas Hodgkinson, a cutler, and Harriet.
Another record that might be worth investigation is the marriage of 38-year-old Thomas Hodgkinson, cutler, to Mary Ann Johnston in Sheffield in 1842 . Both Thomas and Mary Ann have been widowed previously. Could this be the same Thomas who is the father of James, and the father (or possibly the step-father) of your Emma? Antony Marr