Hannah Morris

 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 recorded with simple initials. What if Hannah was just her preferred name? There are lots of reasons why I might not be finding her. 

I have turned up one tantalising record. Tantalising because this might be my Hannah. Frustrating because it gives me no further clues about her identity. In an earlier post, I highlight a Hannah Genders living in New Inkleys in the 1851 census. This was an incredibly poor area, and in the census Hannah is lodging with Joseph and Ann Morris and another young lodger called Ann Jones. Hannah’s profession is stay sticker (stitcher?), she is 33, unmarried and from Birmingham. A very strong contender for my ancestor, but sadly nothing here reveals anything about her family. 

New Inkleys wasn’t especially close to Weaman Street, where John Wheelock-Genders was living with his grandparents. This may have been intentional to put some distance between Hannah and William. Assuming William was unable or unwilling to support Hannah, she needed to find work. Being able to leave John with his grandparents would have given her the freedom to work. As to the whereabouts of his Genders grandparents, I do not know. If this Hannah is John’s mum, it is odd to see her living distantly from her three-year-old boy, but who knows, William may have told her to keep away. Who would argue with him?

The Hannah Genders in the 1851 census is living at 17 Court, 2 House, New Inkleys, which is why the death record at the top of this post is so interesting. Note the place of death? On 26th January 1853, a 34-year-old lady named Hannah Morris died in the same court. It lists no occupation. Instead it states she was the widow of Samuel Morris and that she died of consumption. A lady named Elizabeth Smith, also resident in New Inkleys, was with her when she died.

I’ll save you the suspense, I’ve combed the net for a link between a Samuel Morris and a Hannah Genders. I”ve found nothing. I can’t even find any other contenders. I can’t find an appropriate death record for a labour named Samuel Morris, and I can’t find a marriage record between such a man and a lady named Hannah with viable dates. This lady is yet another mystery. Her age is correct. Her address is correct. The fact that she dies in 1853 makes sense in terms of her absence from John’s life. But is she Hannah Genders? Is the information in the death record just fiction? 

Let’s assume for the sake of argument the Hannah in the 1851 census and the 1853 death record are the same. That tells me she was born in Birmingham in roughly 1819. That at least lets me hone my search for a birth record. But, of course, this is conjecture. It may be a fantastic coincidence that another Hannah of the same age moved into Hannah’s former home. Or, there is no house number given on the death record. Maybe this woman lived in the same court but a different house. It is not lost on me that Morris is the name of the couple Hannah Genders was lodging with. I have tried to tie Joseph Morris to a Samuel Morris, but have been unsuccessful. 

The mystery persists.