What about Birmingham?

 If you’ve been following this blog you won’t have failed to notice that all of my contenders for my ancestor so far have been from Staffordshire. We’ve had five possible Hannahs and we’ve discounted four of them. Farewell Hannah remains a contender. But what about some contenders from Birmingham? You’ll remember from an earlier post that I found a Hannah Genders living in Birmingham in the 1841 and 1851 census and that in both cases the place of both was “in county” and “Birmingham” respectively. 

I have found zero baptismal records for anyone called Hannah Genders/Ginders in Birmingham for the correct timeframe, but that doesn’t mean such a person was never born there. This period predates civil registration and a baptism may not have taken place, or the records may not be available online (I am working exclusively online for the time being), or transcription errors may be confounding my efforts. If a Hannah Genders was born in Birmingham roundabout the same time WIlliam Wheelock was born, so c.1817, but she wasn’t baptised, unless she married quite young, there’d be slim chance of finding her in the records before the 1841 census, by which time she may well have left home for employment. 

This seems to be precisely the scenario I am faced with  regarding the Hannah Genders in the 1841 census:

Hannah Genders, living on Hall Street, Birmingham in 1841

This Hannah is a female servant in the Maybury household, and there are no clues about her earlier life.

So, the next step is to try and get a picture of the prevalence of the name Genders in Birmingham between c.1817, which is very roughly when I expect Hannah to be born, and December 1848, which is when John Wheelock-Genders was born, and is the last glimpse I have of my ancestor. 

The only potential clues Hannah has left are the names of her children, Mary Hannah, and John. If I am lucky, Mary and/or John may turn out to be the names of her parents. If I am very lucky, such new contenders will be living close to Weaman Street, thus making it likely their paths will cross with that of William Wheelock.