Can you help me identify my 4x great grandmother?
QI am trying to discover the identity of my 4x great grandmother, who my late grandmother said was Spanish. My great great grandmother was Ann Sophia Buyer (the younger), born in the workhouse, with no father recorded on her birth certificate. Her marriage certificate records him as William Buyer, a cabinet-maker. Her mother, Ann Sophia Buyer (the elder, born 1822 in Greenwich) – daughter of my mysterious Spanish ancestress – married twice, recording her father’s name as John Buyer, cabinet-maker. Tony Pook
AUsing the available records, it is difficult to confirm that your 4x great grandmother was Spanish. Although you do not necessarily inherit autosomal DNA from each 4x great grandparent, it is possible that a DNA test could identify Iberian ethnicity.
To trace the ancestry of Ann Sophia Buyer
(born 1822, Greenwich), it is important to focus on the evidence gathered so far – including that her father is believed to have been John Buyer. A search in the ‘London, Docklands and East End Baptisms’ dataset on findmypast.co.uk revealed an Ann Sophia Beyer; baptised on 3 November 1822 at All Saints, East India Dock Road, Poplar; parents John (a clerk) and Susannah.
Although the surname is ‘Beyer’ rather than ‘Buyer’, the baptism is at Poplar rather than Greenwich, and the father is a clerk rather than a cabinet-maker, Poplar is a London riverside location, like Greenwich.
I checked to see if there was further information about the parents of this Ann Sophia, by searching for a possible marriage entry. In the ‘Kent Marriages and Banns’ dataset on Findmypast, I found a marriage for a John Gottlieb Beyer and Susannah Showell at Greenwich St Alphege on 1 September 1821.
Notably, this did take place in Greenwich, but in the marriage register (on ancestry. co.uk) John is described as being of the parish of All Saints Poplar, where Ann Sophia was born. The mother’s name Susannah Showell is definitely not Spanish. The father’s name of John Gottlieb Beyer, in contrast, appears to be Germanic. Could it be that Ann Sophia in fact had German heritage, rather than Spanish?
The marriage entry is clear that Susannah was a minor (under 21 years of age) at the time of marriage, and that she was from the parish of St Alphege, Greenwich. It is possible, therefore, that Ann Sophia either was born in Greenwich or that she was brought up there and only believed herself to be born there.
More investigation is required into John Gottlieb Beyer. Since the marriage was by licence, it would be worth obtaining copies of the surviving licence records.
Emma Jolly