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Do I have the correct Smith?

Q I have read with great interest David Annal’s excellent article entitled ‘Getting to Grips with Family Reconstruction’ (FT March 2021).

Following on from his very detailed and helpful article I am now writing to ask for help with my brick wall which concerns tracing my 2x great-grandfather William Smith’s birth location together with learning the names of his parents and siblings.

Places identified

My research so far has taken place mostly in two locations, briefly in Hartlepool, Co. Durham and Bridlington, East Yorkshire. My father was born in Hartlepool but it was my great-grandfather who, as a married man, started the small family ‘bubble’ that began in that location. No current family member had any knowledge of relatives or ancestors connected with Bridlington, East Yorkshire which is where my story so far has taken me.

Facts identified

Starting in Hartlepool with my great-grandfather (who lived in that town but whose baptism took place on 13 February 1819, in St. Mary’s Bridlington), he remained an ordinary sailor for a large part of his working life. I hold a few copies of the records of the ships upon which he served plus three of his seamen’s tickets. He also left a will dated 1897: very brief, he was a man of small means.

The three seamen’s tickets

Here are the details of the three seaman’s tickets:

The first ticket issued at Bridlington 13 January 1845, no. 355,82, states:

• he was born in Bridlington;

• that he first went to sea as an apprentice in 1830;

• he undertook foreign service – spent 4 months in America;

• when unemployed he resides at Gransmoor, East Yorkshire.

The second ticket issued at Hartlepool on 11 September 1845, no. 255,095, states:

• he was born at Bridlington;

• first went to sea as an apprentice in 1833;

• foreign service – none;

• when unemployed resides in Hartlepool.

The third ticket issued at Seaham on 25 May 1850, no. 4480637, states:

• he was born at Bridlington;

• first went to sea as an apprentice but no date given;

• foreign service – none;

• when unemployed no location given.

Back in 1857, at the age of 44, as a widower, he married a lady named Elizabeth Andrew aged 31 in St. Laurence’s Church, Scalby, now a suburb of Scarborough (I hold a copy of their wedding certificate). The Hartlepool family were aware that Elizabeth Andrew was born in Whitby. A current family member has in her possession a Victorian blue glass rolling pin emblazoned with the names of the couple and a sketch of a Whitby ship called the Smales. Presumably William was a member of that ship’s crew when he and Elizabeth first met.

The 1861 Census (RG9 Piece 3704 Folio 98 Page 10) provided my earliest census sighting of William Smith, the sailor (b.1819). Maybe he was at sea, when the earlier two censuses were recorded.

Now to Sewerby where great-grandfather William Smith spent his childhood and in turn, this brings me to the subject of my brick wall, namely the introduction of his father – my 2x great-grandfather – also named William Smith b. circa 1774, occupation labourer. He married Rachel Lowson on 9 April 1818 and their marriage took place in St. Mary’s Bridlington.

I will now digress to provide what ‘I believe’ unfolded for the first ten years or so in the life of William Smith, sailor, baptised 13

February 1819 in Bridlington. Prior to marriage, his mother, Rachel née Lowson, baptised 18 August 1787, Bridlington, had probably lived all her life with her parents in Sewerby but just a few months before her marriage her mother, Catherine Lowson, died leaving father John Lowson as a widower. So Rachel together with new husband, William Smith, then lived with her father in Sewerby. The following year, 1819, William, their first child, was born and thereafter followed four other children, two of whom died young.

Then ten years later Rachel’s husband William died (burial 9 July 1828 aged 54, recorded in St. Mary’s Bridlington parish register). After two more years her father John Lowson also died in 1830. John Lowson left a very detailed will – he owned his own home in Sewerby and the small parcel of land that surrounded it. I hold a copy of the extensive set of relevant papers.

A further nine years on (4 March 1837) Rachel remarried in the village of Burton Agnes. Her new husband was named William Whatt (or Watt, Wot etc.) and by the 1841 Census they were living in Gransmoor. Both villages are located just south of Bridlington. (William’s first seaman’s ticket records his next of kin as living in that village.)

Referring again to William Smith the seaman’s father, I found a potential record in St. Mary’s Bridlington for his baptism dated 11 June 1774. After further research this record appears to be connected with the nearby chapel of St. Leonard’s located in a hamlet called Speeton (coastal location just north of Bridlington). It claims to have the smallest church in Yorkshire. Many of its records, but not all, were also logged in the Bridlington Parish Registers. The only exception being death records that, so far as I can determine, were almost entirely recorded in St. Mary’s Bridlington because this Chapel does not have a cemetery.

So I viewed the records that Familysearch.org provided for this chapelry. They went up to 1768 and gave no Smith result. I then contacted the East Riding Archive Service at Beverley and asked them for any Speeton records for the name Smith that they might hold over the period 1768 to 1788. The Archive supplied me with just three records, all baptisms, and each had a father named William Smith. Not only that but the record for 2x great-grandfather William’s baptism matched exactly the same date as that listed in St. Mary’s Bridlington, i.e. 11 June 1774. The archive also gave me names for the other two baptisms – potential sisters – Mary, 30 July 1769, and Ann, 27 September 1770. I have not managed to find either of these records logged elsewhere nor have I been able to trace these girls. So that completed the Smith findings provided over my requested date period.

I do hold parish register photocopies of the original baptisms of these three events that took place in Speeton although currently I have no knowledge as to whether these ancestors are mine or not!

I should also add that in the Bridlington death records I found a Mary Smith, presumably a woman, i.e. not described as an infant or child, who was listed as having died in 1771 with her place of residence given as Speeton.

If you are able to supply any advice as to how to approach such a problem as tracing my 2x great-grandfather William Smith’s parents and siblings, I should be very grateful.

Pamela Stevens

A It seems to me that you’re doing all the right things here. Working with the surname Smith is tough at the best of times and once we get back into the period before civil registration and before the census it can be particularly challenging.

Right time, right place

In this case you’ve found a baptism of a William Smith at exactly the right time in exactly the right area.

Is there anything proving the evidence wrong?

All you can do, in the first place, is assume that it’s the right one unless you find evidence that it can’t be. That evidence would be in the shape of an infant burial for the William who was baptised at Speeton in 1774 or another marriage which discounts the 1817 marriage to Rachel Lowson.

Considering the timeline

The timeline that you’ve drawn up looks entirely convincing; the one slight reservation I have is that the 1774 William Smith would have been 42 or 43 at the time of the marriage to Rachel which is considerably older than the average age for a man at first marriage in this period, which would have been somewhere around 26.

Continue reconstructing the family

Even with a surname as common as Smith it should be possible to reconstruct the family using the method that I demonstrated with the Oliver family of Yetminster, Dorset (see FT Academy March 2021). I would recommend that you continue with the task that you’ve begun by extracting all references to the name Smith from the Bridlington and Speeton parish registers and attempting to arrange them into family groups. You might find that there are other local sources, such as poor law and taxation records, which will add to the picture. And don’t forget to continue to investigate the possibility of wills.

Using this process, it should quickly become obvious whether there are other families in the area into which your William is more likely to fit. My suspicion is that you’ve already found the right person. DA