Hello guys,

I have been searching tirelessly for the family of an Irish ancestor, Mary Jennings, who got married to my 4th great grandfather, George Grafton, from and in Sheffield at St. Marie's Church on 2nd January 1853. I have found their marriage record on Sheffield Indexers (http://sheffieldindexers.com/MarriageRecordsSearch.php?church_id=&area=&forename=mary&surname=jennings&address=¤t_page=1, fifth one from top) and I have an original copy. I found out her father was Thomas Jennings, a (black?)smith, who was deceased by 1853 from the marriage documents, but I noticed Sheffield Marriage Indexers names her mother as ‘Hanna’, who was also deceased by then.

I know England marriage records generally didn’t name the mother, and the one I obtained from the General Register Office doesn’t either, so I assume this information comes from elsewhere. It would be very helpful to know where this detail about Mary’s mother comes from, or if it perhaps is a mistake (then it would be unsurprising that I have had no luck searching with this parentage).

I know Mary was born circa 1824-1829 in Ireland (according to the 1861 England Census, where no county is named). At the time of her marriage to George, her residence is listed as Broomspring Lane, Ecclesall Bierlow. I contacted the Sheffield City Archives to request some help, but the respondent, like me, could find no residential or electoral records (for her dad) for a Mary or Thomas with the surname Jennings at this address. However, they suggested that Mary, considering her age and Irish background, may have just been working there as a domestic because some of the occupants of the street were in well-to-do professions.

Unfortunately, since I don't know the exact year Thomas and Hanna died before 1853 or if they were living in Sheffield at the time, I am not sure if they will appear on the 1841 or 1851 England Census.

Interestingly, one of the witnesses of the Jennings-Grafton union was an unknown man named Jeffrey Flanagan (which is apparently a surname of Irish origin). I did an Ancestry search for him and found this record: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/8767/records/11564073?tid=203612578&pid=182752437209&ssrc=pt. I am quite confident it is him because some of my other ancestors were living in a nearby district, I believe the street he was residing on, Shemeld Croft, is pretty close to Broomspring Lane, and he was born in Ireland, which makes me think he could have come over from Ireland with the Jennings family. I have been looking at nearby districts because I assumed that Jeffrey and the Jennings family lived close to each other if he went to Mary's wedding (and was thus probably a close friend of the family), but I haven't found anything particularly promising.

According to her GRO death record, Mary died in 1864 during childbirth at the age of 40 - strange since she was apparently 24 in 1853 when she married - in Sheffield.

I have searched both Newspapers.com and British Newspaper Archive for any references to George, Mary, Thomas, Hanna, and Jeffrey and tried other family history websites for both English and Irish records, but I have found nothing frustratingly.

I would really appreciate any information about the Sheffield Indexers record because it might be an important clue in my search for them and any advice for breaking through this brick wall. My nan who passed away recently was really interested in this ancestor (and family history in general) because she was told when she was younger that she had Irish ancestry, but unfortunately I have been unable to go any further up this line.

Thank you in advance. :smile:

Hi Emily,

Wow thanks for all the info and we will certainly try and help.......

These are just replies from the top of my head which I and others will try and improve on.

The reason for the large numbers of Irish people in England at the time you are looking at could be because of the "Famine". BUT there has always been much crossing of the Irish Sea for work.

On the marriage entry it lists Thomas & Hanna Jennings as deceased parents of Mary.
If you look closely at out transcription you will notice a letter (i) in the notes box.
So there could indeed be more information re this couple.

I do have the originals and over the next few days will try and find the material we worked from.

It could be in Latin and thats why the information was left off the transcription.

One way or the other I will return.


Elaine.

PS. St Marie Parish Church, Sheffield - Oct 25, 1844 to Feb 14, 1942 - complete. (Note:some entries may show both parents names)

I am not having much luck finding the originals...booo hoooo:sob:
The marriage was on page 41 of Book One (Register).

Hi Emily

Our transcription comes from the original church parish registers. Which is why there is different information than on the standard official GRO Marriage Certificate.

As far as I can remember, the only information we weren't able to transcribe (hence the (i)) was the address of any witnesses, as we don't have facility to capture that information in our database.

Denise
Webmaster

Hi Emily, There is a tree on Family search shows, Mary Ann Jennings baptism on 24 February 1825 in Co Down. Father Thomas Mother Deborah Ritchey. Could be Hanna?

Hi Emily,

If you look at the Grafton baptisms on this site you’ll see that two of the godparents were Thomas and Margaret Jennings. The 1871 census has this couple at 18 Ball St North in Brightside. Thomas Jennings was born ca. 1827 and was from county Roscommon. I presume he was Mary’s brother. (The marriage for Thomas and Margaret is also on this site and it says his father was called Thomas.) If you look for the baptisms of their children you’ll find that the godfather for one of them was John Jennings, possibly another brother.

Heths

Thank you, Heather! This information was incredibly helpful. I wasn't aware that so much crucial information is available on Sheffield Indexers. Do you have a link to that marriage record between Thomas and Margaret? I can't find it for some reason. :sweat_smile: I also noticed an Anna Gordon as a godparent on two of the Grafton baptism records, so I am now curious as to who that is. Might be a clue. :smile:

Hi Barry. Thank you so much for looking into this for me. :smile: It did look very promising at first because of the matching siblings and I thought that might be them, but I found a gravestone for one of Mary Ann's sisters and it said she died in 1913, while my Mary died in 1864. I appreciate the suggestion.

No worries, Elaine. Do you know whether the original contained mother's maiden names? Thank you for the help!

Hi Denise. Thank you for the information. That is helpful to know.