Tony,
Moira and I have pooled our resources on this (non-Sheffield) challenge to see if we can gain some degree of certainty about the identity of Harriet.
In the period 1837 to 1840 there are only 4 registered births of Harriet Worton/Wharton in the country, and all are in a small part of the West Midlands. They are, from GRO

Harriet Worton Q4 1837 no mmn
Harriet Worton Q3 1838, no mmn
Harriet Wharton q1 1840 mmn Greenaway

Also there are baptisms:
June 1837 Parents James and Mary of Bilston (ie before reg so this is a 4th birth)
April 1838, parents Benjamin and Matilda
April 1840 parents Joseph and Mary.

So now we have 4 definite births and possibly 5, depending on whether the q4 1837 reg is that of Benjamin and Matilda. GRO seems to indicate illegitimate (the cert would confirm the truth there). Of course there may be others born late 1836 or early 1837 before registration, or even more who were not registered in those early days of registration.

Turning now to Harriet Galvani.
She died Q4 1879 age 41 and that is consistent with her age in 1871 census. The first implies she was born in the year between q4 1837 and q4 1838 and the second that she was born between q1 1837 and q1 1838, so combining the two that implies between q4 1837 and q1 1838. That fits with the baptism of the one born to Benjamin and Matilda. It also points to the q4 1837 registration, but that one has no mmn, so presumably not her. The birth cert would confirm.
And of course, Harriet Galvani named one of her children Matilda.

Trees on Ancestry show 3 Harriets with parents Joseph and Mary (Greenaway), Benjamin and Matilda (Miller) and James and Mary (Haywood).

In the censuses we find
Harriet Worton (3 in 1841, 13 in 1842) with parents Benjamin and Matilda,
Harriet Worton (1 in 1841) with parents Joseph and Mary and
Harriet Worton (4 in 1841) with parents James and Mary. (in Bilston)


There is no obvious death for Harriet Worton/ Wharton anywhere in the country.

Before 1870 there are only 3 marriages for Harriet Worton in the country, all in the West Midlands area.

1862 Q1 Birmingham to Job Lloyd
1862 q2 Oswestry to Edward Williams
1865 q4 Stourbridge to John Marsh

Job Lloyd died in 1861 and his wife remarried to Enoch Jones. They can be found in the censuses in Bilston. Moira found only a transcription of the first and nothing for the second
So that would seem to be daughter of James and Mary. The cert would confirm father’s name and age of Harriet.

Moira found The Worton Marsh marriage. Harriet was 26 and has not named a father. Therefore she was illegitimate and born late 1838 to mid 1839. It would seem she was one of the illegitimate births.
She also found a transcription of the Worton Williams marriage; it gives bride father as Richard. The cert would give her age. From GRO there are clearly at least two Williams/Worton families having children just after that marriage, both in Dudley. Cannot find a Richard Worton anywhere in the right time period.
Was she the other illegitimate who invented a father? Anyway she is definitely not the daughter of Benjamin and Matilda, nor of Joseph and Mary.

So we have 2 missing Harriets, one born in 1840 daughter of Joseph and Mary and one born in 1837/8 daughter of Benjamin and Matilda. Your Harriet was born late 1837/8, so everything points to Benjamin and Matilda, and they probably did not register the birth of Harriet.
Wendy has already given you plenty of details about Benjamin and Matilda, your probable ancestors.

Finally, on the Worton side,
Both Moira and Elaine have scoured their many sources and cannot find, on line, any of the burials for Theodore senior (Oxford), Harriet (Barton Regis), the two Theodore (jnrs) (Manchester and York), Menotti (Bath) or Emily (Barton Regis). Any of those burials would give the religion being practised. Presumably you might find one or all of them through the local history societies, or perhaps through LDS.
Good luck with that
Dave and Moira

Many thanks Dave and Moira - there's a terrific amount there...

I'm inclined to favour the Harriett Worton b Q4 1837, baptised 3 April 1838, parents Benjamin and Matilda: partly because the dates line up best, and partly for the Matilda connection. Another Ancestry user (Deprez tree ) has a marriage citation for Benjamin Worton and Matilda Miller on 20 Nov 1836, in St Peter's Wolverhampton (which is consistent with Harriet's birth date and place, and the same church as Harriet's baptism). I've got this Harriet's birth certificate on order, so I'll let you know what that tells me. I've also got all the children's birth certs on order, and some of their marriage certs, to see if any light can be thrown by them.

The oldest of the died-in-infancy Theodores is listed with a surname of Galvany (b&d Q1 1856): this one seems to have a burial record in Manchester General Cemetery, PLOT UnknownSection 90 MEMORIAL ID 134811996. Without going there, not sure if I can deduce the religion from this... As a general theme though, the baptisms I'm aware of (Theodora Leondina and Carlo Theodore) were CofE (and I do know some of the family later down the line were CofE)...

I've asked the archivists at Sheffield City Council to check the registers of St Marie's (and any other operating Catholic churches), in case there's anything slipped through the net. I'm focusing on the Catholic churches, as I think there's less of a chance of the CofE churches 'mislaying' a marriage record. :thinking_face:

We've also had a look at the doc Elaine sent, and it seems to be a fairly verbatim report on the marriage ceremony including the regular forms of words, a list of who was there, the documents produced, etc... We'll have a more detailed look. I doubt this has a very close connection with Carlo Snr, though: the date is at least 50 years after the last time he would have been in Italy... A search for Galvanis in Italy throws up many and many hits, of course! :slightly_smiling_face:

Cheers, Tony

Tony, please let me know the details of the Q41837 Harriet Worton birth cert. GRO indicates Illegit. If that is not true I want to know why. Always looking to learn.
Dave

Tony,
Why did Your Galvani leave Italy? We know he was in England before mid 1855
Are you aware of the political uproar in Italy in 1848/9? (Galvani would have been 24/5)
There were uprisings against Austrian rule, led by Giuseppe Garbaldi, There were battles, losses and EXILES,( including Garibaldi himself.)
Sounds like a good reason for your ancestor to go to England particularly if he was a supporter of Garibaldi.
Another detail. 20 years earlier, In 1830, an uprising in Italy led to the execution and presumably martyrdom of its leader, Ciro MENOTTI.
Garibaldi named one of his sons MENOTTI (born 1840)
Does the fact that your Galvani named one of his sons MENOTTI indicate he was a Garibaldi supporter, maybe even activist?
Was that the reason he moved around so much?
Dave

Tony, just realised I have inside knowledge on Manchester General Cemetery. I did not realise before. My grandparents lived alongside it and I lived the first 20 odd years of my life around there. I visit relatives in that area several times a year . I did not recognise it before because we knew, and know it as Queens Park Cemetery.
Anyway, it is less than a mile away from what was at the time the only RCChurch in Manchester (St Patrick), and that church had its own graveyard. Therefore you can be reasonably certain that It was not an RC burial. Does your record say there is a memorial stone?.
Dave

Hi Dave

Well. The Q4 1837 Harriet, she does turn out to be illegitimate, mother's name Ann, father's profession down as 'Nail Maker', mother made her mark rather than signing. So Ann doesn't align with Matilda & Benjamin: this leaves Matilda & Benjamin's daughter without a known birth certificate (with a 1841 census age of 3 she could have been born as early as April 1837 - ie before the main GRO record period). I can't find any Ann Wortons in the 1841 census which realistically align, and certainly no Ann and Harriet combinations (unlike the Matilda and Benjamin trail).

One other snippet is that the Theodore Galvani who died in infancy in 1857 had his birth recorded by Harriet, whose maiden name on that birth cert is set out as Worton. (Most of the other births were recorded by Carlo, and the mmn is all over the place.) So I'm inclined to think that Worton is the 'real' surname (not conclusive of course). But I don't think I'm much closer to clarifying which (if any) of the candidate Harriet Wortons' birth/baptism records relates to Harriet G. Probably the 'least bad' option is Benjamin and Matilda's daughter, assuming a pre-Sep'37 birth; not crashingly convincing though.

Re Carlo's reasons for leaving Italy: well, that's one of the things I'd like to discover! My hope (probably to be dashed) was that the elusive Marriage certificate would give more details about his origin. And yes, Menotti was a patriot/martyr to the cause of the Risorgimento, and generally popular with Italians; he was on the republican/anticlerical end of the spectrum, so that could suggest that Carlo was indifferent to his Catholic roots.

Feels like I'm stuck, unless the archivists find something in St Marie's...

Cheers, Tony

Tony, I am sure all the experts will confirm this. In the period around 1837 when registration started there was no compulsion to register a birth. Many parents believed that they could still just go through baptism and not do the registration. Punishment for not registering did not come in till much later. The baptism in April 1838 is indisputable, and birth in the few months before that without a registration is very possible.
Dave

Tony, I wonder if in 1862 Harriet turned up to her mother's marriage in Wolverhampton (Mathilda Worton to James Lane, see what Wendy said in an earlier message). Being her only relative you would expect her to be a witness if she was there. It must be a certificate worth buying. If she was there it will confirm or deny her identity as Harriet Galvani.
To tie up the loose end on Harriet Worton illegitimate daughter of Ann Worton: in1838 Ann Worton married Joseph Cox and (thank you Moira) in 1841 census are Joseph, a NAILOR, his wife Ann and two children, one of whom is 3 year old Harriet Cox.
Dave

Hi Dave et al,
Matilda Worton married James Lane in 1862 Sept qtr. From the threads that have gone before, Harriet and Theodore were in Scotland in 1861, their next child C.M.Theodore jnr. was born abt 1864 in Oxford District. It is possible Harriet may have attended her mother's second marriage and maybe worth eliminating, they may also have been back in England in 1862. The question is whether or not she would have made the trip from Scotland..?

I have additional info to add to my previous diatribe on the Worton family, specifically to Matilda's in-laws(Harriet's grandparents) Benjamin (snr, most likely died 1853) and his wife, Mary Worton. On the 1851 census, they were both living with their now married daughter, Hannah (nee Worton), hubby John Southhall and 1 year old son, William. All still living at Gospel End, Sedgley, Staffs.

More info on Harriet's (Matilda/Benjamin) baptism: Benjamin is recorded as a blacksmith but later he is recorded as a bricklayer. St.Peter's, Wolverhampton was C of E.
Also of interest, 19 Grape Lane, York where Leondina Galvani (Calcutta) was supposedly born, has, since 1954, been designated a heritage building, Grape Lane (previously named Grope Lane and worse in the 13th century) has a very colourful history similar to that which Soho once had.
Cheers, Wendy

Hi Dave and Wendy - continued thanks!

Thanks for the intel on the patchy registration uptake in the early days... makes sense.

Harriet's putative mother and (paternal) grandmother (Matilda and Mary respectively), seem to be on the 1861 census, still in Sedgley, together but with no-one else in the property. Matilda's occupation is 'worker in the fields'. Matilda is marked as 'Marr', whereas Mary is 'W' - Married and Widowed respectively, I guess. The ages match up with the 1851 and 1841 censuses (more or less). The Benjamin Worton who died Q3 1861 was aged 50 (roughly in line with Matilda's husband from the 1851 census), which would match up with Matilda's 'Marr' in the 1861 census. (Wonder where he was, though.)

On the other line of enquiry, Harriet's mother possibly being Ann Worton (later married Joseph Cox, a NAILOR), that's the Harriet whose birth certificate I've got, and although the father's name is 'Illegitimate' on the certificate, his occupation is 'Nail Maker'. This Cox family shows up in 1851, still Nailors or HorseNail Makers in Cradley Worcs, and again (minus Harriet) in 1861, same occupations.

The Harriets in both these families drop off the census records between 1851 & 1861, as you'd expect if she married Carlo in 1854. I'd guess the Harriet Worton/Cox is less likely to be my gggm, as she always gave her name as Worton, not Cox. (However, it could be argued that she made a conscious decision to stand by her birth name... shrug...)

Still hoping the archivists will throw something up. Expectations set low, though...
Tony