Who Was Hannah Genders?

Pall Mall Gazette, 22nd May 1874 In this post I am returning to the account of William Wheelock's threatening behaviour towards Mr Lummins of the Leopard Inn in May 1874. I have found another account of William's appearance at the Birmingham Public Office, and interestingly it seems to use William as a case study in the tricky business of pronouncing who is and who is not accountable for his actions. Insanity is an attractive plea when the outcome is immunity for the offenses commited. This column was published in the Pall Mall Gazette on 22nd May 1874 and the author provides us with some interesting further details about William's behaviour.  Firstly, it states that William was of 'eccentric and violent habits'. We knew about the violent habits, but this is the first to state outright he was a known eccentric. It adds that William played pranks in court (besides imitating a cuckoo). More interestingly, it states Mr Lummins believed William wasn't mad at all, b...

Source: Ancestry.com: Birmingham, England, All Saints Hospital Records 1845-1931; Workhouse Casebook of Thomas Green (Male and Female Patients, 1845-1850) While the threat of the workhouse constantly loomed over the poor, it was also, for many, the only place where medical help might be sought. After William Wheelock completed his sentence in Warwick Gaol in 1849 for assaulting James Williams for the third time, he was admitted to the lunatic branch of the workhouse infirmary. The admission date was 24th August 1849, and he was seen by the visiting surgeon, Thomas Green. The casebook records that William was 32, married, had no religious persuasion, and was a gun furniture filer. He was admitted with ‘acute dementia’ due to ‘intemperance’. His disease lasted 3 months, and he was deemed ‘cured’ and discharged on 24th September. Throughout his long absence in prison and then the workhouse, it should be remembered that Hannah Genders had William’s infant son to care and provide for. He wo...

  Photo by  Paul Marlow  on  Unsplash When you don’t know where to look  —  you look everywhere.  My Hannah could be from anywhere. While there’s a good chance she was from Warwickshire or its neighbour counties, it’s not certain. With no concrete evidence which branch of the Genders tree she belongs to, I have decided to explore them all. I have registered the name ‘Genders’ and its variants as a study with the Guild of One Name Studies . What this means is I am documenting all instances of the name Genders in all possible records: vital records, censuses, immigration records, occupation, military, criminal etc etc. Basically a surname study that tracks and reconstructs all families that ever used the name Genders. This may seem like overkill, after all, my ancestors are only a tiny percentage of everyone in the Genders tree. Well yes, but… Searching for Hannah can feel highly unproductive at times. It’s like picking a river at random and casting a ro...

  Photo by  AbsolutVision  on  Unsplash So far my research headaches have mostly stemmed from my inability to find records for Hannah based on searches for her surname and its variants. There is another possibility of course. What if she used the name Hannah, but was baptised something else? There are all sorts of instances where people use names other than the one they were registered with. I know several people who always go by their middle name. Others simply do not like the name their parents chose and go by something different. Or maybe a nickname just sticks, and everyone is surprised to learn years down the line that Ethel was really Martha. Some names just have really common nicknames associated with them. In Scotland, many Margarets are known as Peggy. One of my ancestors from Wolverhampton, whose name was Mary, preferred to be known as Pollie, and that’s the name on her marriage certificate.  Now, if someone is using a name other than the one they were...

 Lately this blog has been focusing on William Wheelock and his world. In a total absence of clues to the identity of Hannah Genders, William seems a natural focus given he is the only person besides her son that knew Hannah personally (though I have no confirmation that John had any contact with her beyond infancy). As long as my searches for Hannah turn up nothing, I can at least explore the streets she walked on and learn about the man she had two children with.  Until I find confirmation of when Hannah died, I will assume she was alive for roughly the same timespan as William. I will also assume that for some reason or other–marriage or simply hiding from William–she was using a different name. I haven’t stopped searching for the name Genders and its variants, but I’ve turned up nothing so far. There are other possibilities of course. What if she was in the workhouse? What if she was a patient, like William, in some institution or another? Her presence may have been record...

 In my recent searches for William I happened upon the following newspaper article: Birmingham Daily Post, 21st May 1874 In 1874 William was hawking newspapers with his wife Ann, with whom he was living in the Gullet, Stafford Street. Nevertheless he is clearly still haunting his old home turf on Weaman Street as we learn he still frequents the Leopard Inn . Clearly he was aggressive towards the landlord, Mr Lummis, and, for whatever reason, wanted to break his mirror. We learn that Mr Lummis was frightened of William, and that William had made some serious threats to the man while wielding a carving knife. The word “madman” is used to describe William repeatedly in this article, even by William himself. He even demonstrates this by imitating a cuckoo. This piqued my interest as it reminded me of another of William’s arrests, way back in 1849, when funnily enough, he assaulted the landlord of the Old Still  on Weaman Street, threatening to kill him and also damaging his proper...