Have I found the correct marriage record?
QI’m trying to find a marriage record for my great great grandmother Anne. Her husband, William Braithwaite (born in Kilkenny, Ireland, c1815), came to Britain in around 1837. The 1851 census shows the family living in Bangor with Anne’s mother, Elizabeth Hughes. I can find no marriages for an Anne Hughes to a Braithwaite. However, there is one for a William Braithwaite and Anne Rowland in Ossory, Kilkenny, in 1837. In the GRO birth records, the couple’s nine children are listed with the mother’s maiden name sometimes as Hughes but also as Rowlands. Bill Williams
AI’ve looked at the Braithwaite children’s baptisms in the Welsh parish registers on find mypast.co.uk, and I think this is one family, despite the two mothers’ maiden surnames (MMSs). “Drum Street” in Bangor is the address in the baptism records for Henry and Elizabeth (MMS Hughes) and also for Jane Anne in 1841 (MMS Rowlands).
The marriage in 1837 in Ossory you found looks like the right one for William and Anne. William’s birthplace is given as “Ireland, C. Kilkenny” in the 1881 census, and Co. Kilkenny lies within the diocese of Ossory.
It seems that Rowland(s) was Anne’s maiden surname, and in the Anglesey baptisms I found an Ann Rowland baptised on 27 October 1811, the daughter of Richard Rowland and Elizabeth, his wife. As the 1851 census states that your great great grandmother was born on Anglesey, this may be her.
Anne’s mother may be the Elizabeth Rowlands who married William Hughes on 24 May 1831 on Anglesey. There are several Richard Rowland(s) burials on Anglesey. Unfortunately, not much information is provided in the parish register entries, so it’s difficult to establish which one may refer to Elizabeth’s first husband.
I suspect the informants at the registrations of the Braithwaite births were confused about which name was required as the mother’s maiden surname. Alan Stewart