Saturday, February 21, 2009

Initial Research

So my cousin gave me the research that she had done. Wow! Charles Taylor was from a fairly wealthy family! She found a will for John Taylor, Esq. died in 1834. It listed #10 Cleveland Square, Liverpool, and a whole bunch of children. He had a wife, Sophia and children: James, John, George, Josiah, Samuel, Charles & Sophia. Samuel received the #10 Cleveland Square building at his father's death. My cousin also had a will for Sophia Taylor, John's wife, who died in 1837, leaving everything to her daughter, Sophia.

She had searched the England Censuses that were available at that time (more than twenty years ago). She found all the uncles and Mary Taylor, but not Charles & Marian and their children. What was up? Charles appeared at the Cleveland Square address, but without a wife or children when he should have had both! Mary had a middle initial in the Censuses..."C" so she searched for a Mary "C" Taylor born to Charles Taylor that matched the birthdate in the censuses and found a Mary Collis Taylor christened in St Peter's Church, Liverpool. Her mother was Ann Clarke.

When I took up the research, I added a few more pieces of information. I found death certificates for William, Annie and of course Charles, in the United States. Hmmm....Annie & Charles showed their mother's name as Marian DeBarcy but Charles showed Mary Ann Moore. Whatever. His wife gave the name, what did she know? She probably never met her mother-in-law. Charles Taylor, Sr. died in 1895. I found reference to his Letters of Administration (that means he died without leaving a will and the court had to decide who received all of his possessions and money). 539 pounds to Mary Collis Dickens-wife of Edward Francis Dickens. Sounded like our Mary. Couldn't find Charles, Annie or Jennie emigrating, even though Charles gave the name of the ship and the date they arrived in order to obtain citizenship in the USA.

My time was up so I turned the research over to my sister. She found their emigration record! Charles had been given a little book of poems by "mother's dearest friend" Mrs. Adelaide Shaw. My sister took the date from the inscription and looked for the next sailing of the ship The City of Chester (May 1885) and found Charles, Annie and Jennie and another mystery!