Where did my great grandmother come from?
Q I would love to know where my great grandmother Agnes Mabel Lawrence, born about 1868, came from and what happened to her, because I have been unable to find a birth or death record for her. She was the common-law wife of my great grandfather George Creasey.
Although her name is given on the birth certificates for both their children, Florence and James, as Agnes Mabel Creasey née Lawrence, she and George were never married. Family rumours said she came from the Isle of Man.
By 1904 George was living with Maria Whittaker, who would later be charged with his manslaughter. What happened to Agnes – had she died, or had George just left her?
Olwyn Sharples
A Unfortunately, civil registration of births wasn’t introduced on the Isle of Man until 1878, and there’s no Agnes (or Mabel) Lawrence (or Laurence) among the island’s baptism records (1607–1910) on FamilySearch ( familysearch.org). Nor does Agnes/Mabel appear in the 1871 or 1881 censuses for the Isle of Man.
It’s possible that Agnes was taken to Ireland by her parents around 1870, and that she was there when the 1871 and 1881 censuses were taken. Sadly the census returns for Ireland for those years no longer exist.
You could look at the Agnes/Mabel Lawrences of the right age in the 1871 and 1881 censuses for the rest of Britain. On Ancestry ( ancestry.co.uk) there were two ‘Agnes M Lawrences’ in 1871, nine plain ‘Agnes Lawrences’ in England, three in Scotland and one in Wales. There were also four ‘Mabel Lawrences’ in England. In 1881, there was one ‘Agnes M Lawrence’ in England, 10 ‘Agnes Lawrences’ in England, one each in Scotland and Wales, and two ‘Mabel Lawrences’ in England.
According to the Haslingden Gazette for 4 February 1905, which is available through Findmypast ( findmypast.co.uk), Maria Whittaker moved in with George Creasey in Accrington around November 1903. Between 1901 and 1911, Agnes should be in either the British or Irish 1911 censuses, death records, marriage records, or passenger lists if she went abroad. I searched all of those, but there was no ‘Agnes Lawrence’ or ‘Agnes Creasey’.
However, by 1911 Agnes may have been again living with a man she wasn’t married to and using his surname, as she was doing 10 years earlier. There were five women with the first name of ‘Agnes’ of the right age with any surname in Haslingden, 2,068 in Lancashire and 12,638 in England as a whole!
Alan Stewart